In cooperation with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Eurocontrol, the Member States and air service providers, the European Commission is working on a specific action plan to combat interference with the Global Positioning System (GPS) signal (see EUROPE 13663/18), said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the EU institution’s transport spokeswoman, on Monday 1 September.
On the weekend, the plane carrying the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to Bulgaria had its GPS signal jammed, an incident attributed by the Bulgarian authorities to hostile behaviour on the part of Russia.
The European Commissioner for Defence, Andrius Kubilius, pointed out on X that the Galileo satellite navigation project “already provides an authentication service to detect spoofing”. “We will increase satellites in low Earth orbit for robustness and we will enhance interference detection”, he promised.
In June, thirteen Member States requested that the Commission take measures to combat the jamming of GPS signals for hostile purposes in the EU. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)