On Wednesday 14 December, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Elżbieta Bieńkowska welcomed the first services to be provided by the European Union’s satellite positioning service, Galileo, for public authorities, companies and citizens, which will start on Thursday 15 December.
Bienkowski said these first services were the initial results of the EU’s recent space strategy that aims to build the most precise navigation system in the world. She said this demonstrated Europe’s technological excellence and know-how in this domain since no member state would have been able to do this on their own.
This means that the Galileo satellites and ground infrastructure are now operational and together with the Global Positioning System (GPS), can provide the following services: support for emergency operations, more accurate navigation for citizens, better time synchronisation of critical infrastructure and a raft of secure services for public authorities.
In years to come, further satellites will be launched to expand the Galileo constellation and gradually improve its availability around the world. The constellation is due to be completed by 2020, by which time Galileo should be fully operational. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)