The European Commission Directorate General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) awarded a contract at the beginning of 2004 to a team led by Helios Technology Ltd to contribute to the development of a European Union Radio Navigation Plan (ERNP) and to support European Union Radio Navigation policy. The team comprised Telematica of Germany, General Lighthouse Authorities of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, INECO of Spain and the University of Leiden from The Netherlands.
The recommendations produced by this study are the culmination of a nine-month exercise that has included regular consultation with the EC’s ERNP Expert Group, attended by technical experts from EU Member States and other organisations such as Eurocontrol.
This study has for the first time produced a comprehensive inventory of all the existing radionavigation services available in Europe today, including the recent GNSS services provided by EGNOS and GALILEO. The study has clearly shown the potential benefits of creating an ERNP for Europe. These benefits include:
The study started in January 2004 and concluded in October 2004. There were three phases: System and Policy Inventory, System Qualification, and Implementation. There was a consultation process at the end of each phase to review progress with users, industry experts, and Member State representatives.
The main outputs at the end of Phase 3 were a document containing recommendations to the European Commission "Recommendations towards the development of a European Union Radio-Navigation Plan (ERNP)" and a second accompanying document with details of radionavigation systems and applications entitled "European Union Radio-Navigation Services (ERNS)".