Strasbourg, 21/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 November, MEPs approved funding of €1 billion a year for two European satellite radio navigation programmes, Galileo and EGNOS, for seven years over the next 2014-2020 planning period. This €7 billion will fund the necessary infrastructure for these programmes and their operation.
The European Parliament adopted (603votes to 29, with 59 abstentions) the report by Marian-Jean Marinescu, amending the proposal for setting up and running the European satellite radio navigation systems. The text calls for further applications to be developed to improve security, efficiency and reliability in the aeronautical, maritime and agricultural sectors. The European GNSS Agency will gradually assume greater responsibility for the operational management of the programmes while the European Space Agency will remain responsible for the deployment of Galileo.
The European Commission welcomed this vote and Commissioner Antonio Tajani commented that “the overall economic impact of Galileo and EGNOS is estimated to be around €90 billion over the next 20 years”. He added: “In addition to the opening up of new business opportunities, also every day users will be able to enjoy increasingly accurate satellite navigation services with every new satellite launch”. (MD/transl.fl)