European Commission Aims to Adapt Galileo Roadmap

May 25, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

The commission noted that the Galileo roadmap needs adapting if it is to meet the 2012 deadline set for Galileo to be fully operable.

The public-private partnership set up to implement Galileo needs to be reprofiled to enable Galileo to be brought into service in 2012, the EC said.

"Europe needs a satellite radio navigation system as part of its essential infrastructure for crucial applications such as border control, transport logistics, financial operations and the surveillance of critical energy and communications infrastructures," said Jacques Barrot, commission vice-president responsible for transport. "

Satellite radio navigation is a technology that enables users to pinpoint their location anywhere in the world at any moment in time.

The European Galileo satellite radio navigation system was designed with a constellation of 30 satellites in orbit at an altitude of 24,000 km, offering five different services.

According to the commission, work on the European satellite radio navigation programs, Galileo and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), has reached a crossroads, and a political choice now must be made on how to implement them.

The lack of progress in the negotiations on the concession contract, which provided for the deployment and management of the infrastructure by the private sector, is said to be hindering the completion of the project.

The Council (Transport Ministers) requested that the commission let it have, before its next meeting in June, a detailed report setting out the progress made in the negotiations with the consortium applying for the concession and alternative scenarios for the rapid deployment of the space infrastructure.

The commission's conclusion is that the present roadmap, which provides for the involvement of the private sector at an early stage, will not enable the project to be completed within the desired timeframe and that this is likely to lead to considerable extra costs for the private sector.

The commission proposed adapting the roadmap to enable the timetable and costs to be monitored more closely and to give the satellite radio navigation applications and services industries a greater sense of security as to when Galileo signals will actually become available.

Research showed that the most beneficial, the most realistic and, in the long term, the most economic option will be for all the initial infrastructure to be put in place while being piloted and financed by the public sector. In contrast, the operation of the system will be entrusted to a private concession holder.

The commission is calling on EU member states to make the necessary decisions in terms of policy, finance and program management to enable the project to be completed as soon as possible and to meet the needs of satellite navigation market users.

Satellite radio navigation applications are expected to provide many applications for everyday life, from vehicle guidance to the safety of transport, including commercial applications (banking, geology, public works, energy, etc).

Source: European Union (EU).