Res Communis

Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing of the Cooperation Agreement on a Satellite Navigation between the European Community and its Member States and the Kingdom of Norway

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

A Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing of the Cooperation Agreement on a Satellite Navigation between the European Community and its Member States and the Kingdom of Norway has been made available by the COuncil of the European Union. The grounds and objectives of the proposal are:

Technological, geographical and financial reasons have ensured Norway an important role in the European GNSS. Norway provides critical technology to Galileo and is the host for two important ground installations on Svalbard and Antarctica that contribute to the proper functioning of the system. This Agreement aims to settle the principles of cooperation in general and the rights and obligations of Norway mainly in relevant areas, such as security, that are not covered by existing Galileo acquis. The Agreement has been negotiated on the basis of negotiation directives adopted by the Council on 8 July 2005. The Agreement was initialled on 17 July 2009.

The Agreement will be complemented by a proposed EEA Joint Committee Decision (Doc No 25100, Case No. 25099) amending Protocols 31 and 37 to the EEA Agreement by which Norway subscribes to Council Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 of 12 July 2004 on the establishment of structures for the management of the European satellite radio-navigation programmes, Regulation (EC) No 1942/2006 of 12 December 2006 amending Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 on the establishment of structures for the management of the European satellite radio-navigation programmes and Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on the further implementation of the European satellite navigation programmes (EGNOS and Galileo). Articles 4 §5 and 6§4 of this Regulation open up the possibility for third countries to provide additional funding to the European GNSS programmes in accordance with conditions to be laid down in Agreements pursuant to Article 300 of the Treaty.

The Agreement is limited to topics that are necessary to allow close cooperation with Norway. The construction and management of Galileo and EGNOS as EC-wide programs highlight the need for common approaches and working methods between all the EU member states and some non-EU states (Norway and Switzerland). The rules for these topics need to be set by the governments and coherently enforced Europewide. The Commission as program manager acting on behalf of the Community, the owner of the system, needs to take all reasonable measures to induce this coherence. Failing to do this would increase security risks and the expos ure of the EC and its Member States for liability claims in case of serious incidents.