Brussels, 20/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The parliamentary committee in charge of industry (ITRE) has given its green light to the funding and continued operations of EGNOS and Galileo after 2014. For next programming period 2014-2020, the MEPs from the ITRE committee subscribe to the Commission's proposal to earmark €7.9 billion for these systems of satellite radio navigation. The rapporteur on the issue, Marian-Jan Marinescu (EPP, Romania) says that “this framework for the period 2014-2020 is of key importance since the first Galileo services will be offered in 2014 and the full operational capability will be reached by 2020”. However, the MEPs say that more services should be offered freely, in addition to the Open Service of Galileo and the Search and Rescue Service. This concerns, for example, the Public Regulated Service reserved for authorised users, at their charge. The rapporteur also said that “all the territories of the member states should be covered by the EGNOS signal (Ed: whose satellites already correct and specify data from the American GPS). It would also be appropriate to extend coverage to territories of the candidate countries and third countries covered by the Single European Sky and the European Neighbourhood Policy”. (MD/transl.fl)