EU/USA Agreement: promotion, provision and use of GALILEO and GPS satellite-based navigation systems and related applications

PURPOSE: to conclude the Agreement on the promotion, provision and use of GALILEO and GPS satellite-based navigation systems between the United States of America (US) and the European Community (EC) and its Member States.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Decision 2011/901/EU on the conclusion of the Agreement on the promotion, provision and use of Galileo and GPS satellite-based navigation systems and related applications between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the United States of America, of the other part.

CONTENT: the Council authorised the conclusion of this agreement with the US providing a framework for cooperation in the promotion, provision and use of civil GPS and GALILEO satellite-based navigation systems and related applications. This decision follows the completion of Member States' internal procedures and the consent given by the European Parliament.

The agreement, signed in June 2004 in Dromoland Castle in Ireland, and provisionally applied since November 2008, aims at ensuring interoperability and radio frequency compatibility, access to signals, consultation before the establishment of standards and certification, licensing or technical requirements, and non-discrimination as regards trade in the goods and services concerned.

The main provisions are as follows:

Objectives: the objective is to provide a framework for cooperation between the Parties in the promotion, provision and use of civil GPS and GALILEO navigation and timing signals and services, value-added services, augmentations, and global navigation and timing goods. The Parties intend to work together, both bilaterally and in multilateral fora, as provided in the text, to promote and facilitate the use of these signals, services, and equipment for peaceful civil, commercial, and scientific uses, consistent with and in furtherance of mutual security interests. The Agreement is intended to complement and facilitate agreements in force, or which may be negotiated in the future, between the Parties related to the design and implementation of civil satellite-based navigation and timing signals and services, augmentations, or value-added services.

Nothing in the Agreement shall supersede, modify or derogate from standards, procedures, rules, regulations and recommended practices adopted in ICAO, or IMO, or under the Marrakech Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation.

Interoperability and Radio Frequency Compatibility: the Parties agree that GPS and GALILEO shall be radio frequency compatible and, to the greatest extent possible, interoperable at the non-military user level. In order to achieve this interoperability and facilitate the joint use of the two systems, the Parties agree to realise their geodetic coordinate reference frames as closely as possible to the International Terrestrial Reference System. The Parties also agree to transmit the time offsets between GALILEO and GPS system times in the navigation messages of their respective services.

The radio frequency compatibility and interoperability working group shall continue work already underway with a view toward achieving, inter alia:

·        radio frequency compatibility in the modernisation or evolution of either system (the Parties need to assess further the radiofrequency compatibility of GALILEO and GPS III);

·        enhanced signal availability and reliability through complementary system architectures for the benefit of users worldwide;

·        interoperability at the non-military user level.

ENTRY INTO FORCE : 12/12/2011.