Select Committee on European Scrutiny Seventh Report

5 Global navigation satellite system

(28154) 16540/1/06 REV1 COM(06) 769

Green Paper on satellite navigation applications

Legal base	—
Document originated	12 December 2006
Deposited in Parliament	12 December 2006
Department	Transport
Basis of consideration	EM of 11 January 2007
Previous Committee Report	None
To be discussed in Council	Not known
Committee's assessment	Politically important
Committee's decision	Not cleared, further information requested

Background

5.1 The Community has a two-phase policy for developing a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The first phase, GNSS 1, is the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) programme. The second phase, GNSS 2, is the programme, named Galileo, to establish a new satellite navigation constellation with appropriate ground infrastructure. It is based on the presumption that Europe ought not to rely indefinitely on the GPS (the US Global Positioning System) and GLONASS (the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System) systems, augmented by EGNOS. The Galileo programme is being conducted in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA). There are a number of agreements in place or which are being negotiated with third countries about cooperation in the Galileo project.

5.2 It is intended that Galileo will allow provision of five services. These are known as the:

• Open Service (OS), free of charge at the point of use;
• Commercial Service (CS), offering added value for more demanding uses;
• Safety of Life Service (SoL), for safety-critical applications that require high integrity;
• Search and Rescue Service (SAR), to complement the current COSPAS-SARSAT system (International Satellite Search and Rescue System founded by Canada, France, the former USSR and the USA in 1988 and with 33 countries now participating); and
• Public Regulated Service (PRS), a high-performance, encrypted service for authorised civil government applications.

5.3 The Galileo programme has three phases:

• the development and validation phase — development of the satellites and the system's ground components, as well as validation in orbit. This phase was due to run from 2003 to 2005, but will now continue until 2009. The project is currently in the validation part of this phase;
• the deployment phase — building and launching the satellites and the establishment of the entire ground-based component. This phase was due 2006 and 2007 but will now be taken forward in 2009 and 2010; and
• the commercial operating phase — commencement of the full commercial operation of the system. This phase was due to begin in 2008 and will now begin from the end of 2010.

5.4 It is intended that a public private partnership (PPP) will be established for the Galileo programme and contract negotiations with a concessionaire have been underway for some time. A GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) has been established to manage the public interests relating to European satellite radio-navigation programmes — currently EGNOS and Galileo. It is to be the formal owner of these two systems and to act as the regulatory authority for the concessionaire during deployment and operation.

5.5 From early in 1999 we and previous Committees have reported to the House on many aspects of the Galileo project, most recently in December 2006.[10] (The matter has also been debated three times in European Standing Committee A, the last occasion being 2 December 2004.)[11] When we reported in December 2006 we noted that progress continued only slowly on the contract negotiations and that there were important documents to come forward over the next months, including the final Heads of Terms, a reasoned analysis of the results of the negotiations and of final costs and a Green Paper on Galileo applications. Meanwhile we encouraged the Government to continue its defence of Galileo as a civil programme and its emphasis on financial transparency and value for money.

The document

5.6 This document is the promised Green Paper on possible applications of the Community's GNSS. It seeks comment, by 6 April 2007, on possible applications of four of the proposed Galileo services (that is excluding the Public Regulated Service). The aim of the Green Paper is to "launch a discussion on what the public sector can do to create an appropriate policy and legal framework for supporting the development of satellite navigation applications, beyond the financial support for research and the creation of infrastructure".

5.7 The Commission suggests applications might fall into 12 areas:

• location-based services and emergency calls;
• road, for instance navigation devices or electronic fee collection;
• rail, for instance train control and management systems;
• maritime, fisheries and inland waterways, for instance automatic vessel location systems;
• aviation, for instance enhanced air traffic management;
• civil protection, emergency management and humanitarian aid;
• tracking and tracing of dangerous goods;
• tracking and tracing of livestock;
• agriculture, plot measurements, geodesy and cadastral survey;
• energy, oil and gas, for instance exploration;
• search and rescue; and
• others, including logistics, environment, science and law enforcement.

The Commission asks respondents to address a series of questions on various issues including GNSS itself, market use, benefits, ethical and privacy issues, research, small and medium enterprises, international cooperation, standardisation of devices and services, certification, frequency coordination, intellectual and property rights and potential legal and regulatory barriers.

5.8 The Commission expect to present an analysis of responses and an action plan of proposed measures in September 2007.

The Government's view

5.9 The Minister of State, Department of Transport (Dr Stephen Ladyman) comments that:

• one of the expected benefits of Galileo is the development of European industry around the programme. And satellite navigation applications form an important part of this;
• applications relating to GNSS cover a wide and diverse range of sectors, including transport, agriculture, tourism and research; and
• GNSS applications can also be found in portable computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices.

5.10 The Minister says that the Government:

• agrees that the role played by GNSS systems, such as GPS and Galileo, is likely to grow in the coming decade;
• notes studies that forecast that downstream applications (rather than infrastructure) will deliver the largest proportion of the economic benefits;
• considers that all Member States, including those which are not members of ESA, should be able to reap economic benefits; and
• is encouraging innovation in GNSS and related areas through the Location and Timing Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN).[12]

5.11 However, the Minister continues that the Government maintains that Galileo should be a useful tool for delivering a variety of policy aims and improved services in transport and other sectors. But Government decisions will not be driven by the development of one particular technology, as implied in some parts of the Green Paper. He says that there are other technologies that provide position and timing information, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, microwave beacons, mobile phone cell ID and the long range terrestrial navigation system Loran C.[13] These could be used to backup or augment, or as an alternative to, the GNSS signal. The Government does not, therefore, support the mandatory use of Galileo services for downstream applications.

5.12 Finally, the Minister says the Government is considering how best to respond to the Green Paper.

Conclusion

5.13 The Green Paper indicates some of the economic opportunities that could arise from GNSS applications. But we note, that despite its endorsement of the potential, the Government is approaching the matter with some caution. We commend this approach. However before considering the document further we should like to see the Government's formal response to the Green Paper. Meanwhile the document is not cleared.

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10   (27592) 10427/06 (27593) 10431/06 (27678) 11282/06: see HC 41-iii (2006-07), para 15 (6 December 2006). Back

11   See Stg Co Deb, European Standing Committee A, 2 December 2004, cols 3-30. Back

12   The Minister says KTNs "are a business support solution delivered through the National Technology Programme" - see http://www.dti.gov.uk/innovation/technologystrategy/technologyprogramme/programme/page11697.html . Back

13   see http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/loran/default.htm . Back

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Prepared 5 February 2007