In what is a major step forward for the Galileo European satellite radio navigation project, the future Galileo Concessionaire has agreed upon the locations of the various facilities under its responsibility that are required for the successful deployment of the programme.
Under the agreement the Headquarters of the Galileo Concessionaire will be located in Toulouse, France, with the Operations Company to be located in London, UK. The two Control Centres (Constellation and Mission) will be located in Germany and Italy as well as the two Performance Evaluation Centres supporting the concessionaire headquarters. Spain will host facilities that include redundancy for the Control Centres, and are related to Galileo safety critical applications. Furthermore, a new consortium of German companies will join the team, adding core competencies to the Concessionaire.
Following on, as it does, from the recent budgetary consensus, this landmark agreement clears the way for the efficient implementation of the programme supporting a commercial and best value for money approach to the Galileo Public Private Partnership.