The agreement was initialled in Kiev by Francois Lamoureux, Director-General for Energy and Transport at the European Commission, and by Oleh Shamshul, deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

A first agreement between the EU and Ukraine in the field of civil aviation was also initialled.

The agreement will give any European airline access to the Ukrainian market from any Member State of the EU and is a first step towards the creation of a Common Aviation Area with Ukraine.

The Galileo agreement initialled today with Ukraine provides for co-operative activities on satellite navigation in a wide range of sectors, particularly in science and technology, industrial manufacturing, service and market development, as well as standardisation, frequency and certification.

It also represents the first step towards the extension of EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) to Ukraine and the participation of the country in the programme through a stake in the Galileo Joint Undertaking.

Ukraine is one of the eight countries within the world space community with significant technological knowledge on space programmes and important achievements on GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) applications, equipment, user segment and regional technology.

The Ukrainian space industry is among the world's leader in the design and production of launchers and GNSS components.

The Galileo agreement with Ukraine confirms the European Union's ambition to further stimulate international cooperation.

Ukraine is the third country formally joining the Galileo programme after China and Israel. Discussions are under way with India, Morocco, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, South Korea, Canada, Argentina and Australia.

The ever growing interest of third countries to participate in the Galileo programme represents a big boost for the GNSS market, which is potentially considerable: 3 billion receivers and revenues of some �275 billion per year by 2020 worldwide, and the creation of more than 150.000 highly qualified jobs in Europe alone.

The aviation agreement is the first agreement in the field of civil aviation between the European Union and Ukraine. The agreement brings existing bilateral air services agreements between the Member States and Ukraine in line with EU legislation.

It ends the national provisions that do not authorise European carriers to fly to Ukraine unless they leave from their countries of origin.

All 25 bilateral agreements between EU Member States and Ukraine will remain in force with the exception of those provisions changed by today's agreement. The Commission has initialled similar agreements with 15 countries worldwide including Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Romania, Morocco as well as Georgia and Azerbaijan.

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