Brussels, 30/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - After many hours of negotiations, the Transport Ministers of the EU finally reached an agreement on the Galileo project, on Friday 30 November. The day before, the Council had adopted by qualified majority- without Spain- the draft conclusions on Galileo, which had been presented by the vice-president of the Commission in charge of transport issues, Jacques Barrot, at the recent Ecofin Council. Madrid wanted to host one of the European satellite radio navigation control centres under conditions equivalent to those applied to the two control centres which already exist in Italy and Germany. In its desire to reach an agreement at all costs, the Portuguese Presidency had to make do with the adoption of the conclusions by qualified majority, as there was a risk that Spain's opposition could resurface when the regulation on Galileo is adopted for good. The ministers had to continue their work on Friday, therefore, reaching an agreement which provides that the sea rescue centre in Spain can develop into a system control centre, without affecting the operational capacities of the German and Italian centres; under this stipulation, and as the Spanish centre will satisfy equivalent requirements to those required of the other centres, it will be able to join the Galileo control centre network before the end of 2003 (the date scheduled for the operational phase). Jacques Barrot immediately paid tribute to the unanimous support of all Member States for the details of the construction of Galileo, once Spain had “obtained a rescue centre and a guarantee that by 2003, this centre can be recognised as a control centre like the two others”.
“Thanks to the joint efforts of the Commission and the Presidency”, Mr Barrot continued, “all of the member states have now agreed to work on the basis of these details. During this session of 29-30 November 2007, the Transport Ministers have reached an agreement which will allow Europe to have its own satellite navigation system by 2013. The Transport Council has taken position on the principles of public governments and the supply policy”. “As regards governance”, he added, “the Council has clearly divided the duties and responsibilities between the Commission, the European Space Agency and the GNSS supervisory authority. The Commission will be responsible for the management of the European GNSS programmes. It will steer the industrial supply work, which will be headed up by the European Space Agency as principal”. The vice president of the European Commission also stressed that: “the construction of the system, to be based on the principles of competition, non-cumulation and subcontracting, is based on the supply plan adopted. This plan allows us to make the most of the innovation skills of all of the industries of Europe, whilst guaranteeing the competition necessary to ensure that we keep on top of costs and lead times”.
As we anticipated on Thursday (EUROPE 9554), governance and the awarding of Galileo work contracts remain unchanged. The system remains divided into six main segments (work packages) which are open to competition, each of them under the principle of non-cumulation of contracts (no more than two main contracts per group and per section) and the principle of sub contracting (at least 40% and with the participation of entities involved or linked to the main contractor excluded). With the exception of the satellite section (26 in total), the Commission will launch a single call for tenders in each section. The satellite section will be subject to a single call for tender, divided into three sub-sections (10 or 12 satellites; then 6 to 8 and 6 to 8). The launch of a second call for tenders in this section has not been ruled out, if the main contractor does not deliver or does an unsatisfactory job. The conclusion of the contracts will be the responsibility of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The compromise on the allocation of public contracts has also been agreed upon. However, certain parties stated on Thursday, during the negotiations, that there was a similarity between the market decoupling in the phase of the deployment of the system and the decoupling in segments of the validation phase (designed to test the system before it is deployed). They suggested that this similarity may work in the favour of the largest companies which have been involved with the creation of Galileo up to now (for the phase of the validation of the system, the contracts have been allocated as follows, according to Commission sources: Astrium of Germany, EADS of Italy and HOB of Germany in the satellite section; the consortium of the Italian TAS- an entity born of the merger between Alenia and Thales- for software; TAS France for ground relay; EADS of the UK for checks on ground infrastructures; CNES Italy and CNES Germany for operations; Arianespace for the launchers). (A.By.)