Galileo partner
01 May 2008
Proposals by the European Commission could see negociations opened with Argentina on a possible collaboration over the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system.
Although Galileo is an EU project, it is attracting partners from outside the region. China and Israel have already signed co-operation agreements with the EU, and discussions are under way with India, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Malaysia and Australia. If the proposal is approved by the Council, Argentina will join that list.
Galileo is due to go into operation in 2008 as a complementary, or perhaps rival, network to the US military's Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation system.
Although the systems will be fully interoperable, Galileo will be under civil control. There will be no intentional degradation of the highest accuracy signals, as is the case with GPS, which classifies the best quality positioning data for military use only.