Galileo?an organizational challenge for Europe

Abstract

Galileo is being developed as the European contribution to the next generation of navigation satellites to replace GNSS1. Sponsored by the European Union, Galileo will be a civil, internationally controlled and operated system that will secure the long-term availability of satellite-based navigation services for multi-modal purposes throughout the European region and beyond. Galileo will be designed to support a wide variety of applications. These include professional navigation, position reference, safety, emergency, tracking, sport/leisure and governmental. Such services may be open to all, for safety of life applications, or for commercial users. In the case of safety and commercial applications in particular, it is imperative that the appropriate institutional control and regulatory framework is in place for purposes of safety and economic regulation. To ensure that the various parties understand their obligations and liabilities clear legal instruments must be put in place to support the organizational framework. It is planned to attract private investment to fund elements of system development and operation through public/private partnership (PPP) arrangements. At present there is no institutional, regulatory or legal framework that will enable the early impetus to Galileo development to be maintained. This presents a challenge that Europe must address without delay. It has been the subject of several European Commission studies since 1998. In a complementary activity under contract to the European Space Agency (ESA), a European industry consortium comprising Alcatel, Alenia and Astrium was tasked to undertake a comparative systems study which included the preliminary design of the space and ground segments by December 1999. One task of this study, led by Astrium, related to an appraisal of the impact of institutional, regulatory and legal issues on the organization and development of Galileo. Since the completion of a comparative systems study, Industry is presently engaged in the preparation of a more-detailed system design and business case analysis for consideration by the EU Council of Transport Ministers in December 2000. This paper describes the studies undertaken into the legal and institutional issues within the overall Galileo development programme. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.