Brussels, 24/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - In its communication on the state of progress of the Galileo programme, approved on Tuesday, the European Commission draws the attention of the Member States to four major challenges: - the resolution of conflicts internal to the European Space Agency (ESA), the rapid definition of services, the negotiation of an interoperability agreement with the United States, and the endorsement of the World Radiocommunications Conference of the signal spectrum characteristics. The Galileo project aims to give Europe a global satellite radio-navigation system by 2008.
The Commission finally maintained in the text of the communication direct criticism against the ESA's delay in settling its part of the project (EUROPE of 21 September, p.11), even if it abstains from specifying that it considers the problem is due to the intergovernmental nature of this agency. The communication states that there has been delay in launching the Galileo joint venture because of the time lost through difficulties encountered within the European Space Agency for finalising the respective contributions of participant States contained in its declaration of the programme relating to Galileo. It explains that for mainly political reasons, some Member States are demanding the status of main financial contributor to this programme, a situation that is difficult to deal with in the context of the European Space Agency Convention. If no solution is found, stresses the Commission, the European Union will have to deal with the issue. It insisted on the economic consequences that any further delay would entail.
The Commission stresses it is essential that the list of services and technical characteristics should be finalised by the autumn in order to launch calls for bids relating to the definition of satellites and the architecture on the ground, but also for international negotiations and the work of equipment manufacturers. Galileo should provide several services: basic services for the general public; commercial services guaranteed for professionals ("vital" for air or maritime navigation); rescue assistance; "government" encoding resistant to decoding methods for civil protection and the police force. It is for the last signal, known as "PRS", that the main problems occur with the United States, which is still determined to put a spanner in the works of this project which is rival to its GPS. The Commission considers PRS must be on the same frequency as one of the GPS signals (because it offers the most robust frequency and because the United States could then not scramble it). For now, the United States is opposed to this. Negotiations are also under way with Russia (cooperation could go further than foreseen), China (the Commission is to propose negotiation for a specific agreement) and other countries (the Commission is to propose negotiating directives for a model agreement to the Council).
The results of the World Radiocommunications Conference of June and July 2003 will be crucial for the coordination of the different satellite radionavigaton systems (Galileo, GPs, Glonass and the Chinese systems) on the frequency spectrum attributed. It is therefore appropriate to prevent countries like the United States or the Federation of Russia, or organisations like the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), from imposing exaggerated constraints on the frequency spectrum already attributed to Galileo.