European Satellite Navigation System (GNSS): Galileo and EGNOS new steps

A legislation on the new framework for the financing and governance of the two European satellite navigation programmes Galileo (European GNSS) and EGNOS (GPS signal augmentation) for the period 2014-2020 has been adopted by the Industry, Research and Energy Committee of the European Parliament.

The objective of the Galileo Programme is to create the first European global satellite navigation system built under civilian control. The fully deployed system will consist of 30 satellites and the associated ground infrastructure. EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) has been providing improved GPS signals in Europe since 1 October 2009.

"This framework for the period 2014-2020 is of key importance since first Galileo services will be offered in 2014 and the full operational capability will be reached by 2020", said Rapporteur Marian-Jean Marinescu, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group.

The Commission proposes to earmark €7.9 billion to guarantee the completion of the EU satellite navigation infrastructure. The Rapporteur proposed breaking down the budget along the different segments of the programmes for better spending of money and transparency.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technologies are fundamental to improving efficiency in many sectors of the economy and in many areas of citizens' daily lives, through their ability to provide highly reliable accurate measurements of position, velocity and time.

"A very important signal has been sent by the European Parliament. We need to develop applications of the European GNSS. Important areas such as road safety, fee collection, traffic and parking management, fleet management, emergency calls, goods tracking and tracing, online booking, safety of shipping, digital tachographs, animal transport, sustainable land use, planning in agriculture, resource management and environmental protection will be able to use the services offered by Galileo and EGNOS and will create jobs in numerous industries. The indirect revenue that the systems will generate is estimated to be up to €70m a year", said Marian-Jean Marinescu MEP.

He added: "Absolute priority should be given to ensuring that all the territories of the Member States are covered by the EGNOS signal. It would also be appropriate to extend coverage to territories of candidate countries and third countries covered by the Single European Sky and the European Neighborhood Policy."