The Galileo positioning system is another EU infrastructure project. Galileo is a proposed Satellite navigation system, to be built by the EU and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Galileo project was launched partly to reduce the EU’s dependency on the US-operated Global Positioning System, but also to give more complete global coverage and allow for greater accuracy, given the aged nature of the GPS system.

Governmental Satellite Communications (GovSatcom)

Satellite Communications (SatCom) are critical elements for defence, security, humanitarian aid, emergency response or diplomatic communications. They are a key enabler for civil missions and military missions/operations in particular in remote and austere environments with little or no infrastructure. Governmental Satellite Communications (GOVSATCOM) has been defined as one of the four capability development programmes by the European Council in December 2013. The mandate was given to prepare the next generation of satellite communication (2025 timeframe).

Start Date:	2013
End Date:	n/a
Participating Members:	AT, BE, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, IT, LT, LU, LV, PL, PT, SE, UK, NO, ATHENA MECHANISM
Other stakeholders:	European External Action Service, European Commission, European Space Agency

Project goals

* Demonstrate the benefits of a European dual-use approach for the development of such capability.

* Provide EDA Member States and European CSDP actors with access to a GOVSATCOM capability, based on existing, pooled and governmental SatCom resources.

* Demonstrate the benefits of a Pooling and Sharing collaborative model.

Sources:

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#Telecommunications_and_Space (10.01.2020)

European Defence Agency, https://www.eda.europa.eu/what-we-do/activities/activities-search/governmental-satellite-communications-(govsatcom) (17.01.2020)