A scientist works on the Galileo satellite system

A part of the infrastructure for the Galileo satellite system will be relocated from the Britain to Spain because of the UK’s departure from the EU, the European Commission has announced.

The back-up Galileo security monitoring centre for Galileo was originally awarded to London in 2010 after a competitive process.

The centre, which was due to become fully operational later this year, controls access to the satellite system and provides around-the-clock monitoring of it when the main security centre, near Paris, is offline.

“Today the Committee of the member states’ representatives met and we can confirm that the committee voted in favour, by a large majority of our commission proposal to relocate the centre to Spain,” a spokesperson for the European Commission told reporters in Brussels.

“This is what we can say today. As is the case with all committee procedures the college [of commissioners] will now formally adopt this decision in its meeting next Wednesday.”

He confirmed that the system was being moved “as consequence of the UK withdrawal from the EU”.

The relocated back-up security centre is expected to employ as many as 30 people when it becomes fully operational in Madrid – with additional benefits for prestige and local expertise.