Galileo, the Long Road to European Autonomy Actuelles de l'Ifri, The Europe & Space Series, No. 2, December 2010
Galileo is one of the most ambitious programs ever managed by the EU. As such, it illustrates the challenges and the opportunities offered by the development of a European Space Policy at the political, industrial, economic and international level.
Galileo, the European program for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), was launched by the European Union in 1999. Part of the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the future satellite constellation is meant to be a leading project for Europe, bringing strategic independence and political status to the continent, allowing Europeans to reap huge benefits from future services while maintaining an industrial and technological basis. The program has been crippled by a series of disputes and delays, however. More than ten years after the official launch of Galileo, the expected date for the Full Operational Capability (FOC) of the system keeps being pushed back. It is currently 2016.