19 Global navigation satellite system
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11137/10
+ADDs 1-2
COM(10) 308
| Commission Communication: Action plan on global navigation satellite system (GNSS) applications
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 14 June 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 21 June 2010
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| Department | Transport
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 19 August 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | Not known
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
19.1 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. Galileo 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. Galileo is being
carried out in conjunction with the European Space Agency[83]
and there are a number of agreements in place or being negotiated
with third countries about cooperation in the project.
19.2 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.
19.3 From early in 1999 previous Committees have
reported to the House on many aspects of the Galileo project,
most recently in October 2009.[84]
The matter has been debated four times in European Standing Committee,
most recently on 26 November 2007,[85]
and once on the Floor of the House.[86]
19.4 Amongst the many relevant documents considered
by previous Committees was a 2006 Green Paper on satellite navigation
applications. It sought comment on possible applications of four
of the proposed Galileo services (that is excluding the Public
Regulated Service). The aim of the Green Paper was 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". The Commission suggested
applications might fall into 12 different areas and asked 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.[87]
The document
19.5 In this Communication the Commission sets
out an Action Plan, based on responses to the 2006 Green Paper,
of 24 wide-ranging activities intended to increase the EU's share
of the global market in satellite navigation equipment and uses
(that is, in the language of the plan, 'applications'). The Commission
notes that the EU has a lower share of the global market in satellite
navigation applications than for other high-technology sectors,
despite its direct investment in navigation systems through the
EGNOS and Galileo programmes. It says that a failure to use these
EU systems sufficiently gives rise to over-dependence on other
satellite systems operated by third countries.
19.6 The actions proposed range from creation
of standards to permit widespread use of the navigation technology
in sectors such as aviation and shipping, information dissemination
and exchange, awareness campaigns, consideration of future legislative
proposals to make use of the new technologies, and activities
such as research and prize competitions to promote the development
of additional satellite navigation applications. They are directed
to a wide range of actors from the Commission itself to industry.
The actions proposed cover three of the Galileo services —
the use of the Commercial Service and the Public Regulated Service
are not covered by this Action Plan since the Commission will
publish specific proposals for both of these services, which are,
however, unlikely to be published until autumn 2010 at the earliest.
The 24 actions or activities are:
- seeking certification of EGNOS
for civil aviation (through the European Aviation Safety Agency
and according to International Civil Aviation Organization standards),
which involves certifying the system and its operator;
- the Commission pursuing preparatory work on providing
the Middle East and Eastern and Northern Europe with Satellite-Based
Augmentation Systems coverage on a par with the level of performance
offered by EGNOS in the EU — it will propose scenarios to
the forthcoming EU-Africa Summit for establishing this in Africa;
- the Commission promoting GALILEO and EGNOS enabled
chips and handsets through industrial cooperation with GNSS-owner
countries and with receiver manufacturers;
- investigating certification of GALILEO for Advanced
Driver Assistance Systems;
- seeking adoption of EGNOS, then GALILEO, for
maritime transport in cooperation with the International Maritime
Organization, taking into account international conventions such
as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea;
- acceptance of GALILEO search and rescue capabilities
by the COSPAS-SARSAT organisation;
- the Commission undertaking an awareness campaign,
including a series of tests to demonstrate the benefits of EGNOS,
and a marketing campaign targeting the road transport community;
- the Commission engaging, in conjunction with
EUROCONTROL,[88] in an
awareness and market development campaign focusing on aircraft
manufacturers, general aviation and small airports;
- the Commission engaging in an awareness campaign
targeting equipment manufacturers and shipbuilders, port authorities
and shipowners;
- the Commission undertaking an awareness campaign
targeting agriculture and other natural resource management activities;
- the Commission seeking to raise awareness and
coordinate Member States' activities related to civil protection;
- the Commission investigating the expediency of
some Directives — one on GNSS-based monitoring of long-range
coaches and one on GNSS-based multimodal logistics and examining,
as regards GNSS-based monitoring of transport of dangerous goods,
various options concerning the use of telematics jointly developed
at the international level (for example the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe and the Intergovernmental Organisation for
International Carriage by Rail);
- the Commission investigating the expediency of
amending the Regulation on digital tachographs, notably to take
advantage of the availability of authenticated GNSS-based positioning,
timing and speed information;
- the Commission investigating the expediency of
a Directive on equipping vehicles with a GNSS and Radio Frequency
Identification enabled on-board functional unit to provide both
the exact authenticated position and the electronic identification
of the vehicle, taking due account of privacy and data protection
rules;
- the Commission seeking to introduce the use of
EGNOS and GALILEO in the management and control systems of EU
programmes (for example the Common Agriculture Policy);
- the Commission funding research and development
activities aimed at reducing the cost of receivers, underpinning
the action to promote GALILEO and EGNOS enabled chips and handsets;
- the Commission promoting the use of EGNOS and
GALILEO in surveying in Member States and third countries —
the capabilities of EGNOS and GALILEO for improving updates of
geographical databases will be explored by such means as exchanges
of best practice and coordination among Member States;
- the Commission working towards boosting the synergy
between GALILEO, GMES,[89]
GEOSS[90] and telecommunication
programmes it manages, with a view to enhancing combined services;
- the Commission establishing an international
EGNOS and GALILEO application forum where users, developers, infrastructure
managers and systems providers can exchange views to feed into
the EU GNSS evolution project;
- the Commission establishing and maintaining a
virtual information centre and a general awareness and communication
campaign, to serve also to gather feedback to feed into the specifications
for evolutions of EGNOS and GALILEO;
- the Commission increasing awareness among small
and medium enterprises through two instruments of the Entrepreneurship
and Innovation Programme[91]
—dedicated action by the 'Enterprise Europe Network'[92]
and the GNSS-innovation voucher scheme under 'Innovation Partnership
for Satellite-enabled Services';
- the Commission seeking synergies between investment
programmes run by the European Investment Bank on behalf of the
EU (for example, under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme)[93]
and other programmes (for example the technology transfer programme
run by the European Space Agency;
- the Commission supporting, together with the
European GNSS Supervisory Authority, establishment of an international
prize mechanism involving, for instance, regional organizations
that promote applications based on EGNOS and GALILEO in a broad
range of areas, including social services to ageing or disabled
persons and persons with reduced mobility; and
- the Commission allocating €38 million (£31.34
million) from the Seventh Research and Development Financial Programme
to a broad spectrum of research proposals on GNSS applications
in 2011 and seeking additional funding through the mid-term review
of the Seventh Programme to enable calls to be launched on an
annual basis.
19.7 The Communication is accompanied by a detailed
impact assessment, which draws on the results of the 2006 Green
paper consultation, further consultations of interested parties
and various market studies.
The Government's view
19.8 The Minister of State, Department for Transport
(Mrs Theresa Villiers) says that the Government welcomes the Commission's
Action Plan and will be recommending in any Council debate that
the Commission needs to act decisively in order to maximise the
benefit to the EU. In further comments the Minister:
- draws our attention to the
accompanying impact assessment noting that the Commission explored
five broad options for ensuring that EGNOS and Galileo technologies
are applied early in the EU transport sector and that EU industry
secures a third of the global downstream applications market;
- says that one option, the third, was to regulate
for the use of EGNOS and Galileo with the aim of forcing the adoption
of the technologies in the EU and that the Commission rejected
this option on the basis that World Trade Organisation rules on
the provision of services made the mandatory use of EGNOS and
Galileo technologies extremely difficult if not impossible; and
- tells us that the Government welcomes this, as
it is strongly opposed to the public sector mandating use of a
specific technology, since this stifles innovation and may result
in a sub-optimal choice of technology which may become redundant
before the legal provisions could be revised.
19.9 In relation to the Commission proposed action
of investigating the expediency of Directives requiring the use
of satellite navigation technology for the monitoring of long-range
coaches and multi-modal logistics, the Minister says that, although
the mandatory use of Galileo or EGNOS does not appear to be envisaged,
mandating the use of generic satellite navigation technology might
lead to the use of navigation systems such as the Russian GLONASS
or American GPS rather than other European based alternatives
to satellite navigation systems that could deliver the same result.
She comments that the Government will want to understand the Commission's
justification for requiring the use of satellite navigation technology.
19.10 The Minister also tells us that:
- the Department for Transport
published a study in 2009 on the potential applications for Galileo
and the actions that would be needed by the Government and other
actors such as the Commission to maximise benefits from the system;
- several of these actions have been included within
the Commission's Action Plan (for example certification of EGNOS
and then Galileo by the International Maritime Organisation for
use in the maritime sector and acceptance of Galileo search and
rescue service by the COSPAS-SARSAT organisation); and
- the Government considers, however, that the Commission
could have included more of the actions recommended in the study
which would have improved the benefits to UK and EU industry from
Galileo and EGNOS (for example, supporting the development of
standards and technology for the future proofing of equipment,
working with chip manufacturers and developing specific technologies
to open up sectors to satellite navigation technology).
19.11 On the financial implications of the Action
Plan the Minister says that:
- it will be funded by the Commission
from the EU's finances allocated to the Galileo Programme;
- no additional contributions are being sought
to deliver this Action Plan; the Government will question the
basis on which the Action Plan is expected to demand 20 full time
staff and cost €50million (£41.24 million) annually
until 2013, as this figure seems high; and
- the impact assessment says that the Action Plan
will help stimulate "tens of billions" of euro of benefit
for the EU but does not give any more detailed figures on the
likely impact of the action plan.
Conclusion
19.12 We welcome the Government's intention
to encourage the Commission to act decisively in order to maximise
the benefit of global navigation satellite systems to the EU,
to examine critically any proposed legislation of the nature mentioned
by the Minister and to monitor the staffing and funding needs
of the Action Plan. And we hope that the Government will urge
the Commission to pursue some other of the recommended actions
in the Department for Transport's 2009 study. However, we have
no questions to ask on the Commission's Communication itself and
clear the document.
83 See http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/About_ESA/SEMW16ARR1F_0.html
and http://www.esa.int/esaNA/index.html. Back
84
(30902) 13066/09: see HC 19-xxix (2008-09), chapter 8 (28 October
2009). Back
85
See Stg Co Deb, European Standing Committee, cols. 3-40. Back
86
See HC Deb, 2 July 2007, cols. 763-87. Back
87
(28154) 16540/1/06: see HC 41-vii (2006-07), chapter 5 (2 4 January
2007) and HC 41-xxiii (2006-07), chapter 2 (6 June 2007). Back
88
EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation,
is an intergovernmental organisation made up of 38 Member States
and the EU - its main objective is development of a pan-European
air traffic management system: see http://www.eurocontrol.int/corporate/public/subsite_homepage/index.html.
Back
89
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security: see http://www.gmes.info/.
Back
90
Global Earth Observation System of Systems: see http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml.
Back
91
See http://ec.europa.eu/cip/eip/index_en.htm. Back
92
See http://www.enterprise-europe-network.ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm.
Back
93
See http://ec.europa.eu/cip/index_en.htm. Back
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