The European Union is building up its own global positioning and timing system called Galileo, which is the only Global Positioning System under civil control. So far approximately EUR 6 billion has been spent on the research, development and deployment of Galileo. Four operational satellites have been launched and the next two are scheduled for September 2013. In the next financial projections (2014–20) nearly EUR 7 billion has been reserved for this project in the EU budget. In 2004 the EU has concluded a cooperation agreement with the US indicating, among other things, that the GPS and Galileo will be compatible and interoperable. 

The global market for applications related to positioning and timing is estimated at around EUR 250 billion in 2020. Currently 6–7 per cent of the GDP of the EU and even more of the US already relies on services requiring positioning and timing (such as banking, electricity networks, agriculture and road systems). For some governmental services these are key capabilities.