News Release
Loyola de Palacio
No.
7/04
January 16, 2004
THE COMMISSION WELCOMES THE LATEST US STATEMENTS ON GALILEO
Loyola de
Palacio, European Commission Vice-President, has welcomed the latest statements
by the USA that the European Union and the USA are on the verge of agreement on
the
Galileo and GPS [Global Positioning System] satellite radionavigation systems.
"These statements reinforce the EU's goal of defining, together with our
USA partners, the standard for the best possible civil system for the benefit
of users worldwide," she emphasised, before adding, "I hope the
remaining obstacles to the signing of an agreement covering all the subjects under
discussion will be removed during the forthcoming negotiating session which will
be held in Washington on 29 and 30 January."
Concluding the negotiations
with the USA has been a priority for the European Union since the discussions
on arrangements for cohabitation between Galileo and the American GPS system began
4 years ago. Initially, the USA disputed the merits of the Galileo programme itself.
Considerable progress has been made during the last 18 months and the main obstacles
to an agreement between the 2 parties have now been removed.
The USA now recognises the
importance of the Galileo system for all satellite radionavigation users and have
taken on board the EU's objective of achieving full interoperability between Galileo
and the GPS system for the maximum benefit of users.
Furthermore, the USA was
opposed, for military security reasons, to Galileo having a signal modulation
which partly covers that of the GPS's future military signal, the code M. The
European experts were able to show their American colleagues that there is no
harmful interference between Galileo's signals and those of the GPS system and
that the 2 systems are technically perfectly compatible, including in terms of
time references and geodesy. A major advance towards an overall agreement came
in the autumn 2003 with the identification of a solution for the governmental
service signal.
Only 2 questions remain
to be solved: the coexistence of Galileo's open signal and the GPS's military
signal in the event of a crisis and the prospects for further improving Galileo's
signals.
On the first, the Commission
has already made several concessions called for by the USA during recent discussions.
The European Union, however, intends to have the best possible civil system in
the form of Galileo. Some of the civilian service applications offered by the
system require great precision, such as applications in an urban environment,
emergency calls using the European number 112, the guidance of aircraft and guidance
assistance for the blind. They require the choice of a very high-performance signal,
which will guarantee Galileo's commercial success.
On the second question,
the overall agreement under discussion must provide for an effective and transparent
way for agreeing on how to optimise the performance of Galileo and the GPS system
in line with technological developments and users' demands. This will take account
of US national security concerns.
Background
Galileo, the European satellite
radionavigation programme, is a global infrastructure. It brings together public
and private money as the prospects for growth in the markets related to satellite
radionavigation products and services are tremendous. These justify the choice
of managing the system by way of a concession in the framework of a public-private
partnership.
The concession period for
the system covers the deployment phase, planned for 2006 to 2007, and the operational
phase as from 2008. The concession holder, from the private sector, will manage
these phases in compliance with a specific set of specifications. It will be placed
under the control of a public body, the Surveillance Authority, as proposed by
the Commission on
31 July 2003.
For further information
about Galileo, visit:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/navigation.html
Details about the concession
notice can be found on
http://www.galileoju.com/
