WRITTEN QUESTION E-0211/03 by Christine De Veyrac (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Galileo programme.
Date: 2003-02-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, administrative structures, company structure, satellite navigation, service concession

10.7.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 161 E/195

(2003/C 161 E/203)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0211/03

by Christine De Veyrac (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 February 2003)

Subject: Galileo programme

The European satellite navigation programme Galileo will offer a number of different services: an open
service (OS), a safety of life service (SoL), a commercial service (CS), a public regulated service (PRS) and a
search and rescue service (SAR). Does the Commission intend to put these services into operation through
a number of different agencies? The possibility of setting up a multimodal navigation agency has been
mooted. What other agencies are under consideration?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(14 February 2003)

Until 2005, responsibility for the development programme lies with the Joint Undertaking created by
Council Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 of 21 May 2002 setting up the Galileo Joint Undertaking (1). The
Joint Undertaking will not only ensure the technical success of this initial phase, but will also handle the
granting of the infrastructure concession (deployment, maintenance and operating phases).

Galileo will then be run by the consortium which wins the concession contract. The concession holder,
fields, will be a
which will probably be a consortium of undertakings from different professional
commercial company. It will be chosen through a procedure starting in 2003 and ending in summer
2004.

Galileo services will thus be made available not by agencies, but by the concession holder itself.

However, the granting body, which will be responsible for enforcing the terms of the concession contract,
will still have to be established. This body may take various forms. No decision has yet been made
regarding the nature of this future structure. The Commission will present a proposal on this matter to
Parliament and the Council in 2004.

(1) OJ L 138, 28.5.2002.

(2003/C 161 E/204)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0213/03

by Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) to the Commission

(27 January 2003)

Subject: Protection of the Darwin Mounds

Discovered in 1998, the Darwin Mounds are a unique collection of cold-water coral mounds located
approximately 185 km north-west of Cape Wrath in Scotland. These coral reefs are under ongoing threat
of destruction with deep-water trawling having been identified as the principal threat to the integrity of the
mounds. These reefs have take thousands of years to grow and any damage caused by deep-sea trawling
could prove virtually irreparable. There is an immediate need for action to protect them.

The UK Government is in the process of formally designating this site as a Special Area of Conservation
and has notified the Commission to this effect. This has taken and could still take, however, a considerable
period of time to accomplish due to technical and legal issues. At the current rate of progress, with the
main threat ongoing, there may be no reef left by the time it is designated.