European GNSS Agency: tasks, bodies and powers

The Council agreed on a general approach on this proposal which is aimed at ensuring that security accreditation of the European satellite navigation systems is carried out independently and without any conflict of interest once the agency becomes the operational

manager of the European navigation programmes EGNOS and Galileo.

The text agreed by the ministers includes the following elements:

·        a clear structural separation has been established between security accreditation and other activities;

·        the tasks of the Agency's Security Accreditation Board have been further detailed and clarified;

·        the security rules applying to the various parties involved in the EU GNSS have been specified;

·        provisions related to conflicts of interest have been reinforced;

·        provisions stating that the participation of third countries and international organisations in the Agency and the Security Accreditation Board will be established in international agreements, in accordance with Article 218 of the Treaty.

This new governance framework will enter into force on 1 January 2014.

The new regulation will also bring the current text into line with the principles contained in the common approach on the decentralised agencies agreed between the European Parliament, Council and Commission in June 2012.