03/07/2017 (Agence Europe) – Following a six-month transition phase, the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Agency officially assumed responsibility for supervising the Galileo navigation programme services and operations on Saturday 1 July. The agency will supervise the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC) jointly shared by France and the United Kingdom, as well as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based in Spain and the Galileo Reference Centre (GRC), in the Netherlands. Initial services were launched in December 2016 (see EUROPE 11672). The Agency says that its aims is to make Galileo the second most used navigation service after the US GPS system. (PH)