GALILEO, satellite radionavigation programme: development phase, joint undertaking

The committee adopted the report by Norbert GLANTE (PES, D) amending the proposal under the consultation procedure. It was unhappy with the Commission's proposal that private companies could become actual members of the Galileo Joint Undertaking, believing that a conflict of interest would arise if private companies were directly involved. It therefore wanted to restrict membership to the founding members, the European Communities and the European Space Agency (ESA), and possibly in future the European Investment Bank. In order to involve the private sector with the Joint Undertaking the committee suggested that a development company be set up, whose purpose would be to guarantee regular and institutionalised exchanges between the private sector and the Joint Undertaking, to generate publicity for the Galileo programme among users and general public and possibly to carry out tasks specified by the Joint Undertaking. Another amendment stipulated that a monitoring committee should be set up in which each Member State was represented. The committee argued that it was right that the Member States participating in the Joint Undertaking should exercise controls on the content and funding. Moreover, the candidate countries should be entitled to take part in the activities of the Joint Undertaking. Lastly, the committee called for an annual progress report on Galileo and a programme development plan to be submitted to Council and Parliament. �