On the eve of Europes decision to launch the Galileo programme, 38 European industry leaders stress the vital importance of this infrastructure programme for the development of key high technology markets and the creation of more than 100,000 jobs.
Galileo will encompass a key enabling technology family that is likely to revolutionise daily life in the same way that the mobile phone and Internet have done in recent years, while also heralding the development of a new generation of universal services..
Galileo will foster European industrys advance in strategic future markets related to mobility in the information society, because Galileo will give access to capabilities that will be critical for Europes economic development in areas such as transportation, location-based services, telecommunications, safety-related applications and search and rescue. It will also lower Europes dependence on GPS for vital economic areas such as mobile telecom networks or financial transactions..
Galileo will have a strong leverage effect in terms of jobs created (140,000) and European added-value in high technologies (in the whole value chain, from satellites to applications and services). With a cost equivalent to 150 kilometres of semi-urban motorway, it will generate a market of equipments, applications and services estimated at 9 Billion Euros per year..
Such an opportunity cannot be missed..
Galileo is the joint project of the European Commission and the European Space Agency to deploy a new infrastructure based on a 30-satellite constellation, to provide positioning and timing services. Galileo is to be operational in 2008..
(signed)
AIRBUS Industrie Noël Forgeard, CEO
AITEC (Portugal) João Reis Barata, Member of the Board
ALCATEL Serge Tchuruk, Chairman & CEO
ALENIA SPAZIO Giuseppe Viriglio, CEO
ARIANESPACE Jean-Marie Luton, CEO
ASTRIUM GmbH Josef Kind, Managing Director
ASTRIUM UK Chris Chant, Managing Director
CONTRAVES SPACE AG (Switzerland) Dr. U. Somairi, CEO
DASSAULT Aviation Charles Edelstenne, Chairman & CEO
EADS Philippe Camus, CEO
EADS Rainer Hertrich, CEO
EADS Launch Vehicles Philippe Couillard, President & CEO
EUROPEAN INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS AND CONSUMER ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION Anthony Parish, President
EUTELSAT Giuliano Berretta, Chairman & CEO
FDC (France) Eric Gellée, General Manager
FOKKER SPACE (Netherlands) Dr. B.M. Spee, CEO
HELLENIC AEROSPACE INDUSTRY George Goulios, CEO
HISPASAT (Spain) Jacinto Garcia Palacios, CEO
INDRA Javier Monzón, Chairman & CEO
INOV (Portugal) Fernando Moreira, President
INTECS HRT (Italy) Marco Casucci, Managing Director
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF RAILWAYS Philippe Roumeguère, Chief Executive
KONGSBERG SEATEX AS (Norway) Bjorn A. Fossum, President
LOGICA (UK) Royston Hoggarth, Member of the Executive Board
MAN TECHNOLOGIE AG (Germany) Horst Rauck, Speaker of the Board
MARSH SA Stanislas Chapron, Member of the Executive Board
NAVOCAP (France Edgard Antoine, Chairman
PTV (Germany) Hans Hubschneider, Executive Director
SAGEM SA Grégoire Olivier, President du Directoire
SCOR Jacques Blondeau, Chairman & CEO
SEPTENTRIO (Belgium) Peter A. Grognard, Managing Director
SNECMA Jean-Paul Bechat, CEO
SOCRATEC Group (Germany) José M. Fraile, Managing Director
TCHIP Semiconductor SA (Switzerland) Norman Thompson, CEO
TECHNOLOGICA (Spain ) Luis Gomez, General Manager
TELESPAZIO (Italy) Salvatore Pinto, CEO
TERMA A/S (Denmark) Claus-Jorgen Nielsen, Vice-President
THALES Denis Ranque, Chairman & CEO
