Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 on the establishment of structures for the management of the European satellite radio-navigation programmes COM(2006) 261 final — 2006/0090 (CNS)
Date: 2006-10-26
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU office or agency, EU programme, administrative structures, company structure, corporate finance, joint venture, legal status, operation of the Institutions, satellite navigation

30.12.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/41

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Council Regulation
amending Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 on the establishment of structures for the management of
the European satellite radio-navigation programmes

COM(2006) 261 final — 2006/0090 (CNS)

(2006/C 324/18)

On 29 September 2006 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 171 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

On 25 October 2006 the Committee Bureau instructed the Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and
the Information Society to prepare the Committee's work on the subject.

In view of the urgent nature of the work, the European Economic and Social Committee appointed
Mr Buffetaut as rapporteur-general at its 430th plenary session, held on 26 October 2006, and adopted the
following opinion by 111 votes to one with two abstentions.

1. Conclusions and recommendations

between the organisations during the transitional period must
be ensured.

1.1
As it has stated on a number of occasions, the European
Economic and Social Committee attaches the utmost impor-
tance to the success of the GALILEO programme.

1.7
Finally the EESC welcomes the fact that the proposed
text includes the recommendations that it made in its own-
initiative opinion (TEN/246).

In its own-initiative opinion The Galileo programme: the
1.2
successful establishment of the European Supervisory Authority, the
Committee also emphasised that
from the
GALILEO Joint Undertaking
to the Galileo Supervisory
Authority must be effected smoothly and with legal certainty.

the hand-over

The Committee thus approves of

1.3
the Council's legal
approach, which aims to amend Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004
on the establishment of structures for the management of the European
satellite radio-navigation programmes in order to ensure the conti-
nuity of the GALILEO programme and the successful transfer of
activities from the GALILEO Joint Undertaking to the Supervi-
sory Authority.

1.4
The Committee considers that the proposed amendment
to Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004, which sets
out the tasks of the Supervisory Authority, effectively meets the
need to enable the Supervisory Authority (a) to ensure the
completion of
the development phase and (b) to carry out
research activities that are useful and necessary to the European
GNSS programmes.

The Committee also considers that

1.5
the new wording
proposed for Article 3(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No
1321/2004 adequately meets the need to ensure the necessary
legal certainty as regards the ownership of the system — before
the end of the development phase — and of tangible and intan-
gible assets created or developed before the Joint Undertaking is
wound up and during the ensuing development phase.

2. Council proposal

The proposed Council Regulation aims to regulate the
2.1
legal and ownership-related problems that might arise, on the
basis of the wording of current texts, as a consequence of the
winding-up of
the
development phase and before its activities are taken over by
the European Supervisory Authority.

the Joint Undertaking before the end of

2.2
In order to prevent these difficulties arising, the draft
Regulation proposes to add text to the current wording of
Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 and to replace
Article 3(1) of that Regulation with a new text.

3. General comments

3.1 When the GALILEO programme started up, the tasks
allocated to the Joint Undertaking and to the European Supervi-
sory Authority were different, both in their nature and in their
timetable for implementation. Today, due to the approximately
two-year delay in starting the development phase and in actually
it has been
establishing the European Supervisory Authority,
necessary for economic,
legal and technical reasons to enable
the Supervisory Authority to intervene in the development
phase and to wind up the Joint Undertaking. This, of course,
has required changes to existing law, specifically to Regulation
(EC) No 1321/2004.

1.6
Like the Council, the Committee also stresses that it
would be advisable to avoid pointless and costly organisational
overlap as far as possible and that constructive cooperation

During this inevitable transitional period,

3.2
these two
bodies must work in close cooperation in order to ensure a
smooth transfer of activities.

C 324/42

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.12.2006

The transfer of activity and of know-how can only be
if the legal framework is clearly defined and legal

3.3
successful
certainty is ensured.

— to find a legal solution to the issue of the ownership of the
system and of the intangible and tangible assets, which must
be transferred to the European Supervisory Authority.

3.4
The aim of the proposal is precisely to establish this legal
framework and to ensure this legal security on the essential
issues, which are:

— the taking-over of the Joint Undertaking's activities for the
development phase, which does not currently fall within the
European Supervisory Authority's remit;

— the possibility that

the European Supervisory Authority

might be able to carry out research activities;

3.5
The proposed Regulation meets these requirements and
the Council's clear willingness to avoid any organisational
overlap, which would be both pointless and costly, must be
welcomed.

3.6 With regard to another legal aspect, which is not directly
the Council should
related to the Regulation in question,
consider the issue of the launching States' international liability
for the satellites in the GALILEO constellation.

Brussels, 26 October 2006.

The President of the

European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council on roaming on public mobile networks within the Com-
munity and amending Directive 220/21/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic
communications networks and services

COM(2006) 382 final — 2006/0133 (COD)

(2006/C 324/19)

On 4 September 2006 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal.

On 12 September 2006 the Committee Bureau instructed the Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure
and the Information Society to prepare the Committee's work on the subject.

Given the urgent nature of
the European Economic and Social Committee appointed
Mr Hernández Bataller as rapporteur-general at its 430th plenary session, held on 25 and 26 October 2006
(meeting of 26 October), and adopted the following opinion by 131 votes to seven with 12 abstentions.

the work,

to access

to information through its

right
transparency
measures, and defending their economic interests by introducing
a mechanism applying maximum price limits for the provision
of roaming services for voice calls between Member States at
retail and wholesale level.

1. Conclusion and recommendations

The Committee shares the views of

1.1
the Commission
which, in the light of the high prices that mobile users pay for
the ‘international roaming’ service on their mobile handsets, has
presented a proposal for a regulation to provide a harmonised
legal basis for action to facilitate the completion of the internal
market for electronic communications and, at the same time,
put citizens at the centre of Community policy.

The proposal is necessary and proportionate, and raises
1.2
the level of consumer protection by effectively extending their

1.3
in its
The Committee would prefer the Commission,
review of the functioning of the regulation, to base its ensuing
proposals on the ‘calling party pays’ principle. and the ‘home
pricing’ principle under which the prices paid by roaming custo-
mers are similar to those applied by their home network.