By Xinhua
Belgrade : The European Union on Monday moved closer to the realization of its satellite navigation project by endorsing a proposal regulating the project’s implementation.
“EU Transport Ministers today supported the text of the proposal of the so-called Galileo Implementation Regulation, which represents the legal basis for the implementation of the budget and sets out a new management structure for the project,” said a statement by the current holder of the EU presidency Slovenia.
The proposal endorsed at the meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) is believed to be a decisive step forward in the realization of the Galileo project whose future had long been shrouded in uncertainty because the relevant countries could not agree on how to cooperate in its implementation.
President of the Transport Council of the EU, the Slovenian Transport Minister, Radovan Zerjav said: “Today, we sent a clear signal to Europe and the whole world that we are still firmly committed to provide all European citizens and enterprises with a high-quality satellite-navigation service by 2013.”
“We will create new jobs and Europe will claim its rightful place side by side with the technologically most developed world powers,” Zerjav claimed.
The 3.4 billion-euro European global satellite-navigation system consists of two separate programs of EGNOS (of earth control centers and satellite transponders) and the GALILEO program (of a constellation of satellites and a global network of earth stations).
The major dispute over the location of Galileo’s two control centers was solved in November 2007 when Spain eventually gave up the locations of the centers to Italy’s Fucino and Germany’s Oberpfaffenhofen.