While relevant provisions of Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 also apply to the services, including the PRS, listed in the Annex thereto, considering the inter-linkage between the system established under the Galileo programme and the PRS from a legal, technical, operational, financial and ownership perspective, it is appropriate to reproduce the relevant rules on the application of security regulations for the purpose of this Decision.

The European Parliament and the Council have recalled on several occasions that the system established under the Galileo programme is a civilian system under civilian control, that is, it was created in accordance with civilian standards based on civilian requirements and under the control of the Union institutions.

The Galileo programme is of strategic importance for the independence of the Union in terms of satellite navigation, positioning and timing services and offers an important contribution to the implementation of the 'Europe 2020' strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Of the various services offered by European satellite navigation systems, the PRS is both the most secure and the most sensitive and is therefore suitable for services where robustness and complete reliability must be ensured. It must ensure service continuity for its participants, even in the most serious crisis situations. The consequences of infringing the security rules when using this service are not restricted to the user concerned, but could potentially extend to other users. Use and management of the PRS is therefore the joint responsibility of Member States in order to protect the security of the Union and their own security. Consequently, access to the PRS must be strictly limited to certain categories of user which are subject to continuous monitoring.

It is therefore necessary to define the rules for access to the PRS and the rules for managing it, in particular by specifying the general principles relating to access, the functions of the various management and supervisory bodies, the conditions relating to receiver manufacturing and security, and the export monitoring system.

With regard to the general principles of access to the PRS, given the actual purpose of the service and its characteristics, its use must be strictly limited, with Member States, the Council, the Commission and the European External Action Service ('EEAS') being granted discretionary, unlimited and uninterrupted access worldwide. Furthermore, each Member State must be in a position to take its own sovereign decision on which PRS users to authorise and which uses may be made of the PRS, including uses relating to security, in accordance with the common minimum standards.

In order to promote the use of European technology worldwide, it should be possible for certain third countries and international organisations to become PRS participants through separate agreements concluded with them. For secure government satellite radio-navigation applications, the terms and conditions under which third countries and international organisations may use the PRS should be laid down in international agreements, it being understood that compliance with security requirements should always be compulsory. In the context of such agreements, it should be possible to allow the manufacturing of PRS receivers under specific conditions and requirements, provided that these are of a level that is at least equivalent to the conditions and requirements applying to Member States. However, such agreements should not include particularly security-sensitive matters such as the manufacturing of security modules.

Agreements with third countries or international organisations should be negotiated taking full account of the importance of ensuring respect for democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as freedom of expression and information, human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity, and respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.

The Union and the Member States must do their utmost to ensure that both the system established under the Galileo programme and PRS technology and equipment are safe and secure, to prevent signals emitted for the PRS from being used by non-authorised natural or legal persons, and to prevent any hostile use of the PRS against them.

It is important in this connection that Member States determine the system of penalties applicable in the event of non-compliance with the obligations stemming from this Decision, and that they ensure that those penalties are applied. The penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

In the case of management and supervisory bodies, the arrangement whereby PRS participants designate a 'competent PRS authority' responsible for managing and supervising users would appear to be the best way of effectively managing PRS use, by facilitating relations between the various stakeholders responsible for security and ensuring permanent supervision of users, in particular national users, in compliance with the common minimum standards. However, there should be flexibility in order to allow Member States to organise the responsibilities efficiently.

Furthermore, one of the tasks of the Galileo Security Centre (the 'Galileo Security Monitoring Centre' or the 'GSMC') referred to in Article 16(a)(ii) of Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 should be to provide an operational interface between the various stakeholders responsible for the security of the PRS.

A Member State which has not designated a competent PRS authority should in any event designate a point of contact for the management of any detected harmful electromagnetic interference affecting the PRS. That point of contact should be a natural or legal person that has the role of reporting point, or an address, which the Commission can contact in the event of potentially harmful electromagnetic interference in order to remedy such interference.

The power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of the common minimum standards in the areas set out in the Annex and, if necessary, to update and amend it in order to take into account the developments in the Galileo programme. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level. The Commission, when preparing and drawing-up delegated acts, should ensure a simultaneous, timely and appropriate transmission of relevant documents to the European Parliament and to the Council.

The audits and inspections to be carried out by the Commission with the assistance of the Member States should, as appropriate, be carried out in a manner similar to that provided for in Part VII of Annex III to Decision 2011/292/EU.

Rules for access to the PRS offered by the system established under the Galileo programme are a prerequisite for the implementation of the PRS. The Commission should analyse whether a charging policy for the PRS should be put in place, including with regard to third countries and international organisations, and report to the European Parliament and the Council on the outcome of that analysis.

Since the objective of this Decision — namely, to lay down the rules under which the Member States, the Council, the Commission, the EEAS, Union agencies, third countries and international organisations may access the PRS — cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale of the proposed action, be better achieved at the level of the Union, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Decision does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

As soon as the PRS is declared operational, a reporting and review mechanism should be set in place,