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Norway gives EU satellite navigation bases at top, bottom of world
Sep 22, 2010, 12:49 GMT
Brussels - Norway on Wednesday gave the European Union the right to site two satellite navigation (satnav) base stations on territory it holds in the Arctic and Antarctic.
The EU is currently setting up a satnav system, known as Galileo, to make Europe independent of the United States' Global Positioning System and Russia's Glonass system.
For maximum efficiency, the system needs ground control stations close to the top and bottom of the globe.
Norway has therefore signed an agreement allowing the EU to site one ground station on the Arctic island of Svalbard and another on land claimed by Norway in Antarctica, according to an announcement by the EU's executive, the European Commission.
In return, the EU is allowing Norwegian companies to supply some 'niche technologies' - specialized small components for specific jobs - to the Galileo project.
The project is one of the EU's headline initiatives to boost its high-tech industries. Galileo is set to start offering navigation services to commercial users in 2014.
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