Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas:

Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 on the further implementation of the European satellite navigation programmes (EGNOS and Galileo)^f1 has significantly changed the system of governance and financing of these two programmes.

Article 13(1) of Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 lays down that the Commission shall manage all questions relating to the security of the systems, duly taking into account the need for oversight and integration of security requirements in the overall programmes. Under paragraph 2 of that Article, the Commission shall adopt implementing measures laying down the main technical requirements for controlling the access to, and handling of, technologies that provide security to the systems. Meanwhile, paragraph 3 lays down that the Commission shall ensure that the necessary steps are taken to comply with the measures referred to in paragraph 2 and that any further requirements related to the security of the systems are met, taking full account of expert advice.

Moreover, Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 repeals, with effect from 25 July 2009, Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 of 21 May 2002 setting up the Galileo Joint Undertaking^f2. The said Article 7 establishes a Security Board to deal with security matters regarding the Galileo system.

In order to fulfil the mission assigned to it by the aforementioned provisions of Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 and, with effect from 25 July 2009, to carry out the tasks entrusted until then to the Security Board established by Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 876/2002, the Commission needs the assistance of experts from the Member States.

Moreover, when Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 was adopted, the Commission made a statement in which it expressed its intention to create an expert group composed of representatives from the Member States, in order to implement the aforementioned provisions of Article 13(1) of the Regulation and to examine matters related to the security of the systems.

This statement specifies that the Commission will ensure that the expert group shall be composed of one representative of each Member State and one representative from the Commission, be chaired by the representative of the Commission and adopt its rules of procedures that foresee, inter alia, the adoption of opinions by consensus and a provision for the experts to raise any relevant issue related to the security of the systems.

In the statement, the Commission also undertook, in exercising its responsibilities, to take full account of the opinions of this expert group and to consult it, inter alia, before defining the main requirements for the security of the systems as set out in Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 683/2008.

Also in the statement, the Commission considered, on the one hand, that representatives of the European GNSS Supervisory Authority, the European Space Agency as well as the SG/HR should be involved as observers in the work of the expert group under the conditions laid down in its rules of procedure and, on the other hand, that agreements concluded by the European Community may provide for the participation of representatives of third countries in the work of the expert group under conditions laid down in its rules of procedure.

It is thus appropriate to establish an expert group, called the ‘Security Board for the European GNSS Systems’, the establishment, mission, composition and operation of which are in line with the content of the aforementioned Commission statement and also comply with the horizontal rules set out in the framework for Commission expert groups established in Commission Decision C(2005) 2817.

Moreover, provision must be made for the possible participation of third countries in the work of the expert group. In particular, given that Norway and Switzerland, which are members of the European Space Agency, participate in the European GNSS programmes and are closely involved in the security issues linked thereto, it is important to allow them to be involved in the work of the expert group for a temporary period of three years, which may be extended in the context of an agreement to be reached between the European Community and both of these third countries,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: