Action plan to get commercial returns from Galileo

This comes amid concerns that the uptake of products and services based on satellite navigation has been slow in Europe, despite the investments the EU has made not only in Galileo but also in the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS). EGNOS, which paves the way for Galileo, has been in service since October 2009. The Commission claims EGNOS provides satellite navigation signals that are up to ten times more precise that those from global positioning systems.

Antonio Tajani, European Vice President in charge of Industry and entrepreneurship, said that satellite applications will play the same part in daily life as the Internet does now. “Europe simply cannot afford to ignore the economic benefits of taking full advantage of the market,” he said as he launched the action plan.

Although Galileo is not yet operating, the Commission says there are already significant commercial and research opportunities for universities, developers and manufacturers to base applications on EGNOS satellite data.

Tajani said, “Action must be taken to ensure Europe’s SMEs become aware of the extensive business opportunities and the European citizens about the vast variety of possible applications.”

There is slightly more to this action plan than the Commission being anxious to increase Europe’s share of geography-related satellite data. It is also concerned about being dependent on applications that draw on data from satellite systems run from outside Europe. The Commission says, “The limited usage of applications based on EGNOS and Galileo leads to critical dependencies from military-inspired GNSS that are beyond European control.”

According to the Commission, many existing applications would be improved if they used EGNOS data, which it says provides “sharply improved accuracy”. This for example includes all transport applications and a range of other uses such as the management of infrastructure and the provision of local geographic information, logistics, precision agriculture, civil protection and emergency management, mapping and land registry, fisheries, energy, management of natural resources, mining, earth sciences, meteorology, the modelling of climate change, environment, justice and law enforcement, and border control.

In all the Application Plan lists 24 actions to take advantage of the improved accuracy of EGNOS in applications for individual handsets and mobile phones; road transport; aviation; maritime transport and fisheries; precision agriculture and environment protection; civil protection and surveillance.

The European Commission will:

• Allocate €38 million worth of Framework Programme 7 funding to research on satellite navigation and positioning data application in 2011;

• Seek certification of EGNOS for use aviation, in conjunction with the Eurocontrol air traffic network, aircraft manufacturers, general aviation and small airports;

• Investigate possibilities for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, and seek certification of Galileo for intelligent transport systems while also targeting the road transport community;

• Promote Galileo and EGNOS-enabled chips and handsets;

• Establish an International EGNOS & Galileo Application Forum where users, developers, infrastructure managers and systems providers can exchange views on feeding into the evolution of the GNSS project.

The GNSS Applications Action Plan will run from 2010-2013, though the objectives extend beyond 2020. It underpins priorities laid out in the EU 2020 Strategy and the EU initiative on ‘An industrial policy for the globalisation era’.

The Commission also emphasised the need for further R&D funding for GNSS applications, to foster the development of applications based on EGNOS and Galileo, and ensure Europe is independent from foreign systems that are controlled by the military.