Brussels, 02/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - During two days of talks in Washington last Thursday and Friday, the European Union and the United States did not manage to come to an agreement on frequency modulation for the open signal for the European satellite navigation system, Galileo. The European Commission, however, remains confident in the chances of reaching an agreement rapidly. The two parties may meet again during February.
"The atmosphere was very good and very constructive", despite the failed agreement, was the view expressed by Mr Hilbrecht, Director of the European Commission DG on overland transport, who led the debate on behalf of the EU. While the EU wishes to choose its own frequency modulation (BOC 1.5-1.5), the United States wants to impose their frequency modulation (BOC 1.1-1.1) upon it. Europeans believe BOC 1.5-1.5 is more effective and therefore more interesting from a commercial point of view.
National security is used in the US to justify the BOC 1.1-1.1 frequency. Hilbrecht said a choice had to be made or possibly a compromise solution somewhere between the two could be found.
Alongside this issue, the EU and the United Stats will also have to solve other issues (less problematic) in an overall agreement. The EU wants to ensure the US abandons its attempts to get the right to veto any decisions in the future on optimising Galileo's open signal. The EU also wants a firm commitment to not discriminate against EU companies to ensure they can use the US signal (GPS) and vice versa.