Annex STATUTES OF Euro-Argo ERIC

The Federal Republic of Germany

The Hellenic Republic

The French Republic

The Italian Republic

The Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Republic of Finland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Hereinafter referred to individually as ‘Founding Member’ and collectively as ‘Founding Members’

and

The Kingdom of Norway

The Republic of Poland

Hereinafter referred to individually as ‘Founding Observer’ and collectively as ‘Founding Observers’

CONSIDERING THAT climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our century, understanding and predicting changes in both the atmosphere and the ocean are needed to guide international actions and to optimise governments' policies on climate change, this understanding requires global data sets of the highest quality;

CONSIDERING THAT the required in situ ocean observations, which must be sustained over long time periods, are beyond the reach of single research teams and countries, the International Argo global ocean observing system has been designed to meet that challenge and is the first-ever global, in situ ocean-observing network in the history of oceanography, providing an essential complement to satellite systems;

CONSIDERING THAT success in such a major undertaking could be achieved only through a very high degree of international cooperation, Euro-Argo will develop and consolidate the European component of the global network. Specific European interests also require increased sampling in some regional seas. Overall, the Euro-Argo infrastructure should comprise around 800 floats in operation at any given time. The maintenance of such an array requires Europe to deploy about 250 floats per year;

CONSIDERING THAT the Euro-Argo research infrastructure will strengthen European excellence and expertise in climate research and will establish a high level of cooperation between European partners in all implementation aspects: operation at sea, array monitoring and evolution, technological and scientific developments, improving data access for research and the GMES/Copernicus Marine Service, coordination of the European contribution to the international management of the Argo Programme;

DESIRING THAT the existing cooperative arrangements are transferred into a body with legal personality separate from its Members to enhance cooperation and collaboration, to enable Euro-Argo to enter into contracts on its own behalf including the purchase of floats and other property, goods or services and to complement and strengthen the governance established by the International Argo Programme;

REQUESTING the European Commission to establish the infrastructure Euro-Argo as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (Euro-Argo ERIC),

HAVE THEREFORE AGREED ON THE FOLLOWING PROVISIONS: