Following a recent compromise agreement with the European Parliament, yesterday, the General Affairs Council adopted a regulation amending Council Regulation 1321/2004 which established a Community agency, called the European GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Supervisory Authority. The purpose of the regulation is to bring certain provisions of Regulation 1321/2004 into line with those of Regulation 683/2008 which introduced substantive changes as regards the financial, governance and procurement procedures of the Galileo programme, adapting, in this way, the agency’s functions and mission to the new management framework. The regulation increases the Commission influence in this area as well as its powers within the Authority’s internal organisation.
The Commission is, therefore, in charge of the programme management of Galileo. It is important to recall that the European Court of Auditors has said that the role as programme manager is “a challenging role for which [the Commission] has little experience.”
The regulation makes reference to the creation of a Community agency. Since this agency would see reduced its sphere of activity, it would no longer be called the “European GNSS Supervisory Authority”, but rather the “GNSS Agency.” The Agency will be a body of the Community with legal personality. The bodies of the Agency will be the Administrative Board, the Security Accreditation Board for European GNSS systems and the Executive Director and they would be required to accomplish their tasks in accordance with the guidelines given by the Commission. The Agency would be managed by its Executive Director under the supervision of the Administrative Board.
The MEPs and the Council agreed that the Administrative Board would be composed of five representatives appointed by the Commission whereas each member state would have one representative. Each representative of the Member States and of the Commission would have one vote however decisions regarding the work programme of the Agency and the exercise of disciplinary authority over the Executive Director cannot be adopted without the assent of the representatives of the Commission.
The Commission also proposed that the European Parliament should be represented on the Agency’s Administrative Board as an observer. However, all Member States were reluctant to accept such proposal. Member States pointed out that the European Parliament already has supervision of the Galileo programmes as it participates in the Galileo Interinstitutional Monitoring Panel. Moreover, Regulation 683/08 provides that the European Parliament will get regular reports from the Commission. In the other hand, the European Parliament has argued that the information that it receives from the Galileo Inter-institutional Monitoring Panel is not substantial. It was, therefore, agreed that the European Parliament will appoint a representative but with non-voting rights.
The agency would assume the responsibility for providing security accreditations. The Administrative Board, as regards security accreditation tasks, will be responsible only for resources and budgetary matters. It will also oversee the operation of the Galileo security center.
The accreditation tasks will be, therefore, entrusted to the Security Accreditation Board. It would initiate and monitor the implementation of security procedures and perform security audits on European GNSS systems. It would have ultimate responsibility for deciding whether the risks related to the Galileo system are acceptable.
The board would, therefore, take "security accreditation decisions" such as the approval of the security accreditation strategy and of satellite launches, the authorisation to operate the systems, the authorisation to operate the ground stations and the authorisation to manufacture the receivers containing PRS technology and their components.
The Commission has proposed for the security accreditation committee for European GNSS systems to be chaired by a non-voting Commission’s representative. In this way, the Commission would also be in charge of supervising the security accreditation. The majority of the Member States could not support such proposal suggesting that the chairman should be appointed by the committee. The Council and the European Parliament agreed that the Board will be composed of one representative per Member State, one representative from the Commission and one from the HR, and it will appoint its chairperson.
The original text has been clarified in order to ensure that the accreditation activities would be carried out independently of the authorities responsible for managing the programmes, particularly the Commission, the other bodies of the Agency and ESA. The Member states agreed that the Security Accreditation Committee for European GNSS systems should be, within the Agency, an autonomous body, taking its decisions independently.
Member States would be required to provide the Board with any useful documentation for the purposes of security accreditation. The Member States shall also authorise staff appointed by the Board to have access to classified information and to any areas affecting the security of systems situated in their territory.
