General remarks:

• The Meeting was open - refer to an open letter by Chairman of the Group: Prof. Dr. Hab. Stanisław OSZCZAK

• Programme of the Meeting was announced on this page before the Meeting - refer to Preliminary Draft Agenda

• He started with a welcome address, directed to the invited guests, members of the Group and all present persons.
• Then he recalled the main objectives of the WG, as they had been accepted during the First Meeting in Nice, May 1998.
• Also, the report of  Group activity was given.

• Current problems of EGNOS (eg. low elevations of both INMARSAT satellites in European latitudes),
• RIMS stations,
• System Galileo for Europe - plans, options, advantages,
• GPS modernisation process,
• GLONASS status and future.

• in January 1998 - strategy for GNSS by the European Commission,
• in March 1998 - European Council of Ministers requested for:  recommendations on the future approach to GNSS, intensification of contacts with US and Russia, prediction of GPS and GLONASS future,
• GALILEO options and description of the proposed system, phases of development,

• what is GNSS1 (GPS, GLONASS, EGNOS, Local Area Systems),
• EGNOS - system definition, architecture and description,
• WADGPS - general concept (instead of sending overall error corrections, as in LADGPS, the approach is to break pseudoranges errors down into components and estimate them separately),
• conclusion - GPS + GLONASS is too less for safe navigation.

6. After a coffee break, according to the programme, the Second Meeting proceeded with the European
    Open Forum, chaired by Mr Brian Toll from the European Commission.

7. As the first speaker, Ms Fiona McFadden from the European GNSS Secretariat, Brussel, Belgium, took
    the floor.

• She presented herself as the Secretary of the European GNSS Secretariat,
• Her role is to promote EGNOS and its development, since there is an urgent need to create one, unified, safe navigation system for the whole Europe,
• this statement is clearly seen when looking at the following figures:

- there has been observed a considerable increase of number of member states in the UE (from 15 to
   27 countries),
- number of inhabitants living in United Europe has grown from 370 to 480 million,
- the surface of the unified countries has increased by 33%,
- during the same period, there has been observed the growth of GDP by 9% only,
• main conclusion from the presentation given by Ms Fiona McFadden has been formulated as follows: "satellite signals cannot stop at country borders, the system similar to GNSS should be developed and applied in the region, providing profits to whole Europe".

• The project aiming at the expansion of EGNOS for South America and the Caribbean,
• Creation of the Iberian-American Test Bed,
• Conclusions of the report:

- an involvement of all interested parties should be sought from the beginning of the project,
- the highest level of political support must be awarded to the project for the best chances of success,
- the involvement of the European Commission, the European GNSS Secretariat and the ESA
   Executive enables the best support,
- it is not easy to get everybody together in the same project and avail everybody of the resulting
   synergy; but it is our job to try and to preserve.

• Prof. Hein asked about the intentions to go to the South America. The answer, by Prof. Rosa, was that we would be the first there.
• Comments given by Prof. Graszka from Technical University in Budapest, Hungary:

- he has an experience in working for Libia transport, the used geostationary satellites and a local
   navigation system,
- suggestion to create a DGPS European standards (through establishing of a Working Group on
   DGPS),
- comment on the name of the Galileo system - it should be "Galilei",
- the Europe, if it wants to be global, it must go out of its  borders,
- some comments on the GPS and GLONASS current status,
- the question: who will pay for the new system (in the context of the costs of 8 billion paid for GPS),
   perhaps it would be better to buy the GLONASS system?

• experience in using long waves for sending DGPS corrections, structure of the reference station in Prague,
• LF and VHF coverage,
• possibility of using DGPS within EGNOS,
• LW dissemination will be useful also for EGNOS in hilly and urban areas,
• description of  data channels in EGNOS,
• the EGNOS corrections can be repeated (re-calculated) by LW transmitters and/or RDS.

• Prof. Łatka from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, asked "a provocative question" to Prof. Graska: "Why do you suggest to buy the GLONASS system, telling at the same time the system is not usable? The answer was that there is a need to make it operational.
• Prof. Hein gave a few remarks: we (Europe) need to obtain two frequencies, only the Americans and the Russians have their frequencie; the Russians have very good clocks. Prof. Graska answers that we may use frequencies at about 1 GHz, they are not protected.
• Mr Brian Toll comes back to the questions previously stated by Prof. Graska. He agrees that the name "Galilei" would be better. This system, in spite of its name, should be an integrated system, it would be better that it would be a DGNSS. 24 satellites is too less for transportation navigation, it is better to have 27 satellites. Furher remarks concerned the promotion of our, European products and job markets, not American. Europe should integrated with Russia, Russia must be treated as real partner. The Galileo system will be civilian. It will cost about 20 billion of US$, it will be protected against hacking (this costs much, but it is very important nowadays). All components of the new system will take their origin in Europe. The GPS system is military, it will always depend on military and political requirements. Considering GLONASS - Russia wants to be an equal partner to the European system.  Now, the very hot topic is frequency. There must be organised a frequency conference. What concerns costs - the system will pay for itself, it will influence a development of the whole Europe.
• Prof. Graczka thanks for the answers and comments.
• Brian Toll concludes:

- contacts between all the involved European countries and their representatives are of great
   importance, he believes it is not our last meeting,
- we must ensure a political agreements in all the European countries,
- we will find money if we find applications for the new system, we must be inventive and know the
   realities,
- he thanks to all participants for their taking part in the Meeting.

The Minutes prepared by Dr. Zofia RZEPECKA
Institute of Geodesy, Olsztyn University of
Agriculture and Technology
e-mail: zosiar@moskit.art.olsztyn.pl
tel: +48 89 5233481, fax: +48 89 524768