Portal:European Union

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The Galileo positioning system is a proposed satellite navigation system, to be built by the European Union as an alternative to GPS (which is controlled by the United States military) and the Russian GLONASS. The system should be operational by 2010, two years later than originally anticipated. The first stage of the Galileo program was agreed upon officially on May 26, 2003 by the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA).

It is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. The Galileo positioning system should not be referred to as GPS, which refers specificially to the existing United States system, but as "Galileo." Galileo is intended to provide: greater precision to all users, improved coverage of satellite signals at higher latitudes, which northern regions such as Scandinavia will benefit from, a positioning system upon which European nations can rely even in times of war or political disagreement.

Selected city

Rome is the capital of Italy and of its region, called Lazio. It is located across the confluence of the Tiber and Aniene rivers. It was once the capital of the Roman Empire, the most powerful, largest and longest lasting empire of classical Western civilization. The Vatican, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Pope.

Rome is the largest comune in Italy and it is also one of the largest European capital cities in land area, with an area of 1,285 square kilometers. Within the city limits, the population is about 2.5 million; almost 3.8 million live in the urbanised area of Rome, as represented by the province of Rome, making it second in population to Milan. With a gross domestic product of €97 billion in the year 2005, Rome produced 6.7% of Italy's GDP.

In the news

• The European Space Agency sends the resupply spacecraft Jules Verne to the International Space Station.

• Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica resigns, dissolving a coalition too divided over the loss of Kosovo and corresponding governmental position towards EU to carry on joined governing. (The Daily Telegraph)

• Dmitry Medvedev is elected to succeed Vladimir Putin as President of Russia.

• The wind storm Emma kills four people in Austria, two people in Germany, and two people in the Czech Republic.

• The European Union fines Microsoft €899 million for non-compliance with a 2003 antitrust ruling, the largest penalty the EU has ever imposed on a single company.

• Hungary agrees to join the South Stream gas pipeline project. (Reuters)

• Kosovo's parliament endorses a unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia and adopts a flag (pictured); response from the international community is mixed.

• The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announces plans to nationalise the Northern Rock bank following credit problems caused by the subprime mortgage crisis.

• Václav Klaus is re-elected as the President of the Czech Republic.

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Did you know?

• ...that there have been 101 EU presidencies in total?
  
• ...that Greenland is the only territory ever to leave the EU?
  
• ...that the EU's parliamentary election is the biggest transnational election in the world? (Parliament pictured)
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