Article 2 European satellite navigation systems and programmes
United Kingdom
The European satellite navigation programmes, Galileo and EGNOS, shall cover all the activities needed to define, develop, validate, construct, operate, renew and improve the European satellite navigation systems, namely the system established under the Galileo programme and the EGNOS system, and to ensure their security and interoperability.
Those programmes shall also aim to maximise the socio-economic benefits of the European satellite navigation systems, in particular by promoting the use of the systems and fostering the development of applications and services based on those systems.
The system established under the Galileo programme shall be a civil system under civil control and an autonomous global navigation satellite system (GNSS) infrastructure consisting of a constellation of satellites and a global network of ground stations.
The EGNOS system shall be a regional satellite navigation system infrastructure monitoring and correcting open signals emitted by existing global satellite navigation systems, as well as the open service signals offered by the system established under the Galileo programme, when they become available. It consists of ground stations and several transponders installed on geostationary satellites.
The specific objectives of the Galileo programme shall be to ensure that the signals emitted by the system established under that programme can be used to fulfil the following functions:
to offer an open service (OS), which is free of charge to the user and provides positioning and synchronisation information intended mainly for high-volume satellite navigation applications;
to contribute, by means of Galileo open service signals and/or in cooperation with other satellite navigation systems, to integrity-monitoring services aimed at users of safety-of-life applications in compliance with international standards;
to offer a commercial service (CS) for the development of applications for professional or commercial use by means of improved performance and data with greater added value than those obtained through the open service;
to offer a public regulated service (PRS) restricted to government-authorised users, for sensitive applications which require a high level of service continuity, free of charge for the Member States, the Council, the Commission, EEAS and, where appropriate, duly authorised Union agencies; this service uses strong, encrypted signals. The question of whether to charge the other PRS participants referred to in Article 2 of Decision No 1104/2011/EU shall be assessed on a case-by-case basis and appropriate provisions shall be specified in the agreements concluded pursuant to Article 3(5) of that Decision;
to contribute to the search and rescue support service (SAR) of the COSPAS-SARSAT system by detecting distress signals transmitted by beacons and relaying messages to them.
The specific objectives of the EGNOS programme shall be to ensure that the signals emitted by the EGNOS system can be used to fulfil the following functions:
to offer an open service (OS), which is free of charge to the user, and provides positioning and synchronisation information intended mainly for high-volume satellite navigation applications in the area covered by the EGNOS system;
to offer a service for the dissemination of commercial data, namely the EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS), to promote the development of applications for professional or commercial use by means of improved performance and data with greater added value than those obtained through its open service;
to offer a safety-of-life service (SoL) service aimed at users for whom safety is essential; this service, which is provided free of direct user charges, fulfils in particular the requirements of certain sectors for continuity, availability and accuracy and includes an integrity message alerting the user to any failure in, or out-of-tolerance signals from, systems augmented by the EGNOS system over the coverage area.
As a priority, those functions shall be provided within the Member States' territories geographically located in Europe as soon as possible.
The geographical coverage of the EGNOS system may be extended to other regions of the world, in particular to the territories of candidate countries, of third countries associated with the Single European Sky and of countries in the European Neighbourhood Policy, subject to technical feasibility and on the basis of international agreements. The cost of such extension, including the related exploitation costs, shall not be covered by the resources referred to in Article 9. Such extension shall not delay the extension of the geographical coverage of the EGNOS system throughout the Member States' territories geographically located in Europe.