European Commission Seeks Comments on Galileo Navigation System

The European Commission is seeking public comment on potential privacy and ethical issues that could arise with the deployment of the Galileo navigation system.



The European Union is building a global navigation satellite system called Galileo, which will offer positioning, navigation and timing services as from 2011. To date, one Galileo experimental satellite is already in the orbit and a second one will follow in 2007.



Galileo will compete with the current U.S.-funded Global Positioning System (GPS), promising greater reliability and efficiency. By boosting the development of new applications by European industry, Galileo is expected to create many jobs across the EU. The satellite navigation market, in which Galileo will play an important role, has been forecast to EUR 400 billions by 2025.http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/green-paper/index_en.htm