Answer given by Ms Bieńkowska on behalf of the Commission

11.5.2017

The European Space Agency (ESA), created by the Convention of 30 May 1975, is an international organisation which is fully independent from the European Union. It is therefore not for the Commission to comment on the activities which ESA undertakes for its own purposes on its site in Redu, Belgium. This applies both to the activities governed by ESA itself and those which it entrusts to private companies.

Nevertheless, ESA uses its installations in Redu also for the needs of the European radio navigation satellite programmes Galileo and EGNOS, in the framework of the delegation agreements concluded between the Commission and ESA.

Furthermore, the European Union has set up an in-orbit testing station and a Galileo Sensor Station (GSS) in Redu, as provided for by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) No 2016/413 of 18 March 2016[1]. These stations are managed, for the exclusive benefit of the European Union, by a private operator, which has been selected by means of a procurement procedure launched by the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Agency.

Furthermore, under the same Decision, the Union has decided to establish an integrated logistical support (ILS-) centre in Transinne, close to Redu. The operation of this centre, which falls outside the remit of ESA, exclusively serves the Galileo programme and will be assigned, from 1 July 2017, to a private company which is selected on the basis of a procurement procedure.

• [1] OJEU L 74, 19.3.2016, p. 45.