EU AGREES ON GALILEO GOVERNANCE

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 000502 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR OES DEPT FOR ERA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EIND EUN TSPA TSPL SUBJECT: EU AGREES ON GALILEO GOVERNANCE ¶1. (U) An agreement on the amendments to the Commission,s proposals on Galileo governance was reached on April 3 during an informal trilogue meeting between the European Commission, Council, and Parliament, according to the press with details confirmed to USEU Econ Officer during a conversation with a Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA) representative. The agreement is expected to be approved during the Transport Council on April 7 and the Parliament,s Industry Committee (ITRE) vote on April 8. The new agreement, if confirmed by the transport ministers during the Council, will allow ESA to begin preparing calls for tender. ¶2. (SBU) A new institutional structure, named the Galileo Inter-Institutional Panel (GIP),will be created and consist of three Council representatives, three Parliament representatives, and one Commission representative. The GIP, meeting four times per year, will decide Galileo,s annual program, international relations, governance, and attribution of contracts, as well as follow implementation of the project. The Parliament will not be involved, however, on multi-annual programming and security issues. This panel is expected to be very high-ranking, with the Commission representative rumored to be Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot - a Secretary-level official; Member State Ministers of Transport representing the Council; and high-ranking Parliamentarians, possibly including Galileo Rapporteur Etelka Barsi-Pataky. ¶3. (SBU) Under the new agreement, GSA will be retained, which several Members of Parliament had asked to be dissolved as the original purpose, oversight of the Public-Private Partnership, no longer exists. Among other duties which will be announced later, GSA,s primary role will be to prepare the market for the deployment phase of the satellite system. (Note: The GSA representative stated that GSA was held for political reasons, several Member States are said to have been in favor of keeping the GSA, and the Commission previously has indicated to USEU Econ Officer that it would have been too difficult to dissolve an agency of GSA,s size. End note.) .