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The European Union’s ambitions in space were in focus during a recent visit to the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Prague headquarters by French State Secretary for European Affairs Amélie de Montchalin, who visited the Agency on Friday 29 November.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is launching the 2019 edition of its Galileo User Satisfaction Survey and its EGNOS User Satisfaction Survey. These surveys aim to gain a better understanding of the needs and requirements of Galileo and EGNOS end users and to ensure that these needs are taken into consideration in future evolutions of the programmes.

The Finnish team uMaze was declared the winner of the GSA’s Accuracy Matters challenge in the Galileo Innovation Challenge, which took place at Traficom Headquarters - Dynamicum, in Helsinki on 29 November – 1 December. The hackathon was organised by Ultrahack, with support from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) and European Space Week. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) acted as a partner, providing mentors and judges and sponsoring a challenge.

Use of European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS, EGNSS) is not restricted to Europe’s borders, and the compatibility of space systems means that users and businesses around the globe are able to benefit from greater coverage, higher accuracy and more confidence in their position fixes thanks to EGNSS. International users are therefore interested in exploring opportunities for greater cooperation with the European space programmes. Horizon 2020 is a key entry point for this.

The University of Technology of Compiègne, France, has hosted a live demonstration of the first autonomous vehicle powered by Galileo. As part of this demonstration, a Renault ZOE electric car has been autonomously driven on tracks and on public roads in a world first for the Galileo programme.

On Tuesday 19 November 2019, a debate entitled ‘Prague’s Guide to the Galaxy: From GSA to EU Agency for the Space Programme’ was held on the premises of Prague House in Brussels. Organised by the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU, the debate looked at how space data can transform our economy and businesses.

The European Union’s space infrastructure and know-how provide the assets needed to guarantee leadership in the area of security and defence policy. At a meeting of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) on 12 November European GNSS Agency (GSA) Chief Operating Officer Pascal Claudel spoke about how the European Union's space programmes contribute to its strategic autonomy in the area of security and defence.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) has issued an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for a service contract on using satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) for applications such as road tolling or pay-as-you-drive insurance with the aim of developing an appropriate integrity concept for payment/liability critical applications focused on the road sector.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has released updates to its Reports on User Needs and Requirements. This series of reports is compiled following a systematic process of consultation with the community of users of position, navigation, and time services and technologies. Thanks to these consultations it is possible to take users’ needs and requirements into account in the short and long-term evolution of European GNSS.

The European Space Programme was very much in focus at two meetings in Brussels at the start of November. The first, on 5 November, was a meeting of the European Council’s Space Working Party, dealing with space solutions for a sustainable Arctic, while the second, on 6 November, dealt with European space policy – perspectives for business. At both meetings, the invaluable contribution of EGNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) was underscored.