The Galileo Joint Undertaking was established by the European Commission and the European Space Agency and started on the 1st September 2003 with a specific mandate to manage the Development Phase of the Galileo Program.
This includes the selection of the future Galileo concessionaire – this period covers the deployment phase and the operational phase-, the integration of EGNOS and the management of Galileo related activities within the 6th Framework Programme.
Under the leadership of the Executive Director, Mr Rainer Grohe, the GJU has successfully accomplished the main tasks and will be disband on the December, 31st, 2006. Then, GJU will hand over the responsibility for the system to the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA). GSA is a public body and will be the owner of the system.
The sixth Framework Programme, soon to be followed by the Seventh Framework Programme was a tangible link to the reality of the Galileo Programme in that about 70 projects are demonstrating the real potential of the system, in the area of applications. By the beginning of 2011, the system will be fully operational. In parallel, the EGNOS system looks very promising, exhibiting very good precision and reliability in a number of trials and demonstrations. The full operation of EGNOS will commence as of March 2007.
The most intricate task is the selection of the concessionaire and the negotiation of the concession contract. The negotiations with the Merged Consortium are progressing well. The Head of Terms are scheduled to be signed before Christmas 2006. This constitutes the core elements of the Concession contract, which will be signed in 2007.
More Information also available on: www.galileoic.org