News Release
Loyola de Palacio
No. 104/04
June 26, 2004
"GALILEO AND GPS WILL NAVIGATE SIDE BY SIDE"
FINAL AGREEMENT SIGNED AT EU-US SUMMIT IN DROMOLAND
The European Union and the United States finally concluded an
agreement on GALILEO
and GPS
at the end of today’s EU-US Summit
held in Ireland. Signed by EU Commisison Vice-President Loyola
de Palacio and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the agreement on the promotion,
provision and use of the two satellite-based navigation systems and related applications
will allow each system to work alongside the other without interfering with its
counterpart's signals and thus give a huge boost to users worldwide.
Vice-President Loyola de Palacio expressed her satisfaction: "This agreement
will allow the European project GALILEO to become the world standard for civil
and commercial use of satellite navigation; it will offer the best possible level
of services to all users."
After more than four years of intensive talks, the results for GALILEO, and, more
importantly, users of GALILEO and GPS worldwide, are highly satisfactory. The
agreement confirms that GPS and GALILEO services will be fully compatible and
interoperable and therefore makes the joint use of GPS and GALILEO and the manufacturing
of equipment much easier and cheaper.
GALILEO has now become the de facto world standard of open signals in the GNSS
mass market. GALILEO will not need to rely on a "GALILEO-only" user
community; instead it will be instantly accessible and used by millions of people
who today use GPS. This means that all users of satellite radio-navigation will
be able to simultaneously, with only one receiver, use one or the other of the
two systems, or both at the same time.
In addition to being the first system specifically dedicated to civilian users,
the additional feature of GALILEO is its commercial nature.
The agreement with the United States confirms the quick introduction of GALILEO
in all user segments (mass market and professional) throughout the world. The
market potential is indeed considerable: 3 billion receivers and revenues of some
€ 250 billion per year by 2010 worldwide and the creation of more than 150,000
high qualified jobs in Europe alone.
The agreement represents a major asset for the business case of the future GALILEO
operator expected to finance at least two-thirds of the deployment of the system
(€ 1.4 billion), one-third being financed by the public sector (€ 700 million).
Such promising prospects will intensify the current competition between the three
pre-selected consortia of companies which are running to get the concession
to operate the system. Results of this competition, run by Galileo
Joint Undertaking (the program's management-arm), will be disclosed by the
Commission in October, ahead of the Council decision in December to move to the
successive phases of the program and open the way for the conclusion of the concession
contract in 2005.
Finally, this agreement allows the last system specifications to be set, a crucial
aspect for the swift operation of GALILEO. After the current development phase
(two satellites under construction will be launched by the end of 2005 and two
shortly after), the deployment of the remaining twenty-four satellites (and related
ground stations) is expected by 2008, date at which the system should start operation.
For more information about GALILEO, please visit:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm
http://www.esa.int/export/esaNA/index.html
http://www.galileoju.com/page.cfm?voce=m&idvoce=0
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Press Contacts:
|
Anthony Gooch
202-862-9523
|
Maeve O'Beirne
202-862-9549
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