This communication is the response to the Council's request. The issues at stake 2. In the field of satellite navigation, there are considerable and numerous issues at stake. The current dependence, especially on GPS, raises questions of a strategic nature, since the systems utilised are not under European control. The challenge is to safeguard European strategic needs, for example in the field of the common foreign and common security policy, without risk or excessive cost.
Satellite navigation offers obvious advantages for managing transport.
It allows for greater safety, better traffic flow, reduced congestion and environmental damage, and the support of multi-modal development. The implementation of the European Galileo system will remedy these shortcomings. The stakes are both economic and industrial. In particular, with a potential global market valued at EUR 40 thousand million between now and 2005, the challenge is to capture a fair share of the satellite navigation market as well as the jobs which flow on from it. Finally, the regulatory aspects are also considerable.