GALILEO, satellite navigation programme: state of progress, integration of the Egnos programme

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Yves PIETRASANTA (Greens/EFA, F) on the progress of the Galileo programme. (Please see the document 13/01/04.) Parliament stressed the enormous significance of Galileo for the European Union's industrial, transport, technological and environmental policy development, and hence for the achievement of the Lisbon Strategy. The Joint Undertaking should be assigned the following tasks: - supervising the management of EGNOS following completion of the Operational Readiness Review in April 2004, - concluding a contract with an economic operator to be responsible for running EGNOS from April 2004 onwards; - making recommendations on suitable arrangements for the ownership of EGNOS assets, intellectual property rights and commercial exploitation rights. Parliament highlighted the public interest of the programme and, while recognising the vital need to open it up to private capital, hoped that the principle that basic services of general interest should be available to users free - or almost free - of charge will not be called into question. Because Galileo is financed from public funds, the resulting intellectual property rights will belong to all citizens. It went on stress the importance of Galileo as a significant contribution to achieving the Community objective of an environmentally and economically sustainable transport policy and to pursuing the objective of a wider application of satellite systems in the field of telecommunications. The Commission and ESA should develop transport applications of the Galileo project in traffic control and management in the fields of road transport, water-borne transport and air transport with particular reference to speed management and safety, driver's working time, logistics, rail freight wagons' tracking and tracing, interoperability of rail transport, public transport services, safety and security in water-borne transport and pricing of transport infrastructure. Special attention should be paid to maritime safety. Finally, Parliament warned that, if third countries are involved in the joint undertaking, action must be taken to ensure that encryption technology and sensitive information concerning the future Public Regulated Service (PRS) remain exclusively under EU control.�