Council Regulation (EC) No 1943/2006 of 12 December 2006 amending Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 setting up the Galileo Joint Undertaking
Date: 2006-12-12
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: corporate finance, joint venture, legal status, satellite navigation

22.12.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 367/21

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1943/2006

of 12 December 2006

amending Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 setting up the Galileo Joint Undertaking

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community, and in particular Article 171 thereof,

establishing the European

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament (1),

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Economic and
Social Committee (2),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

The Galileo Joint Undertaking was set up by Regulation
(EC) No 876/2002 (3) of 21 May 2002, for the imple-
mentation of
the
preparation of
the Galileo
programme.

the development phase and for
the successive phases of

Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 provides that the Galileo
four
Joint Undertaking is established for a period of
years, corresponding to the development phase;
this
period was initially intended to cover the years 2002
to 2005 inclusive.

However, as the Galileo programme currently stands, the
development phase will not be completed before the end
of 2008. And it seems as well pointless and costly to
extend the Galileo Joint Undertaking beyond 2006, since
the European GNSS (*) Supervisory Authority, set up by
Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 (4) of 12 July 2004, will
be able to gradually take over during the course of 2006
and then complete all
the activities currently being
carried out by the Galileo Joint Undertaking.

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

In order
to enable the European GNSS Supervisory
Authority to take over the activities of the Galileo Joint
Undertaking in an optimum manner, it would, however,
be desirable for the two structures to co-exist for a few
months
the European GNSS Supervisory
Authority to be closely associated with the activities of
the Galileo Joint Undertaking during this period.

and for

Therefore,
it should be provided for the Galileo Joint
Undertaking to cease operating on 31 December 2006.

In addition, in order to correct the Statutes of the Galileo
Joint Undertaking adopted by Regulation (EC) No
or
876/2002, which
ambiguous provisions, those Statutes should be amended.

erroneous

contain

several

The relevant amendment procedures have been followed
in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 876/2002.

Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 should be amended
accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

In the first paragraph of Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No
876/2002 the words ‘for a period of four years’ are replaced
by the words ‘until 31 December 2006’.

Article 2

The Statutes of the Galileo Joint Undertaking annexed to Regu-
lation (EC) No 876/2002 are amended as follows:

1. Article 1(4) is replaced by the following text:

(*) GNSS: Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
(1) Opinion delivered on 24 October 2006 (not yet published in the

Official Journal).

(2) Opinion delivered on 12 October 2006 (not yet published in the

Official Journal).

(3) OJ L 138, 28.5.2002, p. 1.
(4) OJ L 246, 20.7.2004, p. 1.

‘4.
The funds of the Joint Undertaking shall be made up
of contributions of
its members. Assets in kind may be
brought in. They shall be subject to an evaluation of their
value and their utility to the carrying-out of the activities of
the Joint Undertaking.

L 367/22

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

22.12.2006

contributions

The founding members shall subscribe their shares of the
financial
amounts
to the
extent of
indicated in their
respective commitments of EUR 520
million for the European Community and EUR 50 million
for the European Space Agency. They may, as necessary,
make additional contributions to finance the development
phase.

the

Once the Commission has informed the Council of
the
the Administrative
the tendering procedure,
outcome of
Board shall immediately invite the undertakings mentioned
in the second indent of paragraph 3(b) to subscribe. Under-
takings need to subscribe EUR 5 million within a period of
one year. That amount shall be reduced to EUR 250 000 for
undertakings, subscribing individually or collectively, which
may be regarded as small or medium-sized enterprises within
the meaning of the Commission Recommendation of 3 April
1996 concerning the definition of small and medium-sized
enterprises (*).

The Administrative Board shall decide on the amounts of
these contributions which should be released in proportion
to the share of the financial contributions subscribed by each
member. Any member of the Joint Undertaking which fails
to meet
its commitments concerning the bringing-in of
assets in kind or which does not release the amount due
within the prescribed time-limits shall be, as a first step,
disqualified from voting in the Administrative Board and,

after six months, membership shall be repealed until such
time as its obligations have been met.

The financial commitments of the Joint Undertaking shall
not exceed the amount of the contributions at its disposal.
___________
(*) OJ L 107, 30.4.1996, p. 4.’.

2. In Article 8(1)(b), the second sentence is replaced by the

following sentence:

‘Each member of the Joint Undertaking shall have a number
of votes in proportion to the share of the contributions
subscribed by them.’;

3. Article 20 is replaced by the following text:

‘Article 20

The Joint Undertaking shall be established for a period
starting on 28 May 2002 and ending on 31 December
2006.’.

Article 3

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publi-
cation in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 12 December 2006.

For the Council
The President

S. HUOVINEN