EGNOS & Galileo to provide safety-of-life services
The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have reached a tentative agreement on financing and governance of the European satellite navigation systems (EGNOS andGalileo) for the period covered by the multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020.
Inorder to enter into force, the draft regulation stills needs to be formally approved by theParliament and the Council. However, as the amount to be allocated to the EU’s satellitenavigation programmes depends on the outcome of the ongoing negotiations with theEuropean Parliament on the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF), the finaladoption of the draft regulation can only take place once there is a decision on the MFF.
EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, enhances the accuracyof the existing civilian GPS services, with a geographical area centred on Europe and apossible future extension to other regions of the world. It is already operational andavailable for use with both an open service and a safety-of-life service for aviation.
Galileo will be an independent European global satellite-based navigation system,providing five services:
– an open service (OS) free for the user and providing signals for timing andpositioning;
– a commercial service (CS) for applications for professional or commercial userequiring higher performance than offered by the open service;
– a public regulated service (PRS) using strong, encrypted signals and restricted togovernment-authorised users;
– a contribution to the international search and rescue service (S&R) system bydetecting emergency signals; and
– a contribution to integrity monitoring services aimed at users of safety-of-life(SoL) applications; the SoL function, which will be provided in cooperation withother satellite navigation systems such as the American GPS, allows users forwhom safety is essential, for instance airlines or maritime companies, to be alertedwhen certain margins of accuracy are not met.
For more information visit Council of The European Union press release.
Source: Council of The European Union
