Summaries of EU legislation: The Summaries of EU legislation inform on the main aspects of the European legislation, policies and activities in a clear, easy-to-read and concise way. These Summaries are intended for a general, non-specialized audience.

This regulation lays down the rules for the European satellite navigation programmes Galileo and EGNOS.

Regulation (EU) No 1285/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the implementation and exploitation of European satellite navigation systems and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 876/2002 and Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council

Summary
The aim of the EU’s satellite navigation policy is to provide the EU with 2 satellite navigation systems, namely Galileo and EGNOS (European geostationary navigation overlay service). Each set of infrastructure consists of satellites and a network of ground stations.

Galileo aims to set up and operate the first global satellite navigation and positioning infrastructure (system providing navigation, time and location data) specifically designed for civilian purposes, which can be used by a variety of public and private actors in Europe and worldwide. The new system is being designed to function independently of other existing systems – such as the United States’ global positioning system (GPS) or Russia’s Glonass system – or potential systems.

Galileo is to be interoperable with GPS and Glonass. This interoperability will allow manufacturers to develop terminals that work with Galileo, GPS and Glonass.

EGNOS aims to improve the quality of open signals from existing global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) as well as those from the open service offered by the Galileo system when it becomes available. EGNOS offers certain sophisticated safety-critical applications such as for guiding aircraft both vertically and horizontally during landing approaches or navigating ships through narrow channels.

The EU is making around €7 billion of funding available for related activities from 2014 until 2020. The European Commission has overall responsibilty for the two programmes and manages the funds.

The funding will be used for:

• the completion of the deployment phase of the Galileo programme by 31 December 2020 (e.g. the construction and protection of space-based and ground-based infrastructure);
• the exploitation phase of the Galileo programme (e.g. management, maintenance, improvement and protection of space-based and ground-based infrastructure);
• the exploitation phase of the EGNOS programme (e.g. management, maintenance, improvement and protection of space-based and ground-based infrastructure);
• the management and monitoring of the Galileo and EGNOS programmes.