Though almost a formality, on 23 April the European Parliament’s plenary session voted overwhelmingly in favour of the agreement concluded with the Council of EU Ministers on the implementation of the deployment and operation phases of Galileo, the European satellite navigation system (see Europolitics3505), by 607 vote for, 36 against and eight abstentions. The EU therefore now has a legal basis to move forward with operations. Very quickly, the European Commission should present a proposal which modifies the regulation on the programme’s management structures, in order to adapt the Galileo surveillance authority in compliance with what was agreed by the Parliament and the Council.

Above all, during the debate which preceded the plenary vote, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot specified that before the summer, the Commission would hope to be able to sign the convention which will define the prerogatives of the European Space Agency (ESA), the system’s main supervisor. From there, the first calls for tenders for the construction of satellites can be launched. And though the schedule set out by the ESA for the launch of calls for tender seems to have slipped, the commissioner said that he hoped to see the first contracts signed by the end of the year, as planned.

An action plan on Galileo’s applications will also have to be presented by the Commission in the coming months. “We now have to contact small and medium-sized businesses in all member states so that all the work is done to prepare Galileo’s applications,” said Jacques Barrot.

Read our interview with the Slovenian Transport Minister, Radovan Zerjav, on page 24.