The Czech Republic today signed the accession agreement to become a full Member State of EUMETSAT.
The agreement was signed by Dr. Ladislav Miko, Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic, and Dr. Lars Prahm, Director-General of EUMETSAT.
The Czech Republic will become a full Member State of EUMETSAT by 2010 after having been a Cooperating State since March 2005. Dr. Prahm welcomed the accession of the Czech Republic: “EUMETSAT is striving to mirror the membership of the EU. The Czech Republic is supporting this aim by becoming a EUMETSAT Member State during its presidency of the EU.”
As a Member State, the Czech Republic will participate fully in EUMETSAT’s decision-making process and its industry will be able to bid for contracts, in addition to maintaining the unlimited access to all EUMETSAT data and products for official duty use it has enjoyed since becoming a Cooperating State. The Czech Republic will participate in all EUMETSAT mandatory programs.
Dr. Miko stated, “The Czech Republic is becoming a EUMETSAT Member State after completing a five-year transition as a Cooperating State, as set forth in the Cooperating State Agreement of 2004. This is a very important step because our full membership in EUMETSAT allows us to share all data and information needed to further improve our hydrometeorological services as well as our anti-flood protection and prevention.”
Dr. Prahm recalled that the Czech Republic was the first non-Member State to establish an agreement with EUMETSAT on data exploitation in 1992: “Its achievement of full membership is the final milestone in this long-standing partnership.”
