The quote still resonates today. Last year, Ursula von der Leyen experienced first-hand how important it is to have a reliable satnav system. While flying to Bulgaria, the navigation on her plane was disrupted just before landing, forcing the pilots to use alternative navigation. While the Commission claims Russian interference, Bulgaria has doubts. Without a full investigation, we don't know for sure.

Strategic autonomy in technology is a top priority for Europe – above all given its dependence on the US and China, as well as threats from Russia.

Today, billions of people around the world rely on Galileo. Its public signals are available worldwide, and the system outperforms US, Chinese, and Russian alternatives. Galileo can pinpoint locations within 20 cm, while the US GPS is accurate to about a metre. Its signals are also more robust against natural disruption and deliberate interference.

Galileo went live in 2016, when 18 satellites were launched into medium Earth orbit, more than 20,000 km above Earth. Since then, smartphones, cars, and other devices have been able to navigate not only using GPS signals, but Galileo's too.

“Globally, there are already four billion smartphones equipped with Galileo,” said Jörg Hahn from ESA’s satnav department. The Galileo constellation has grown to more than 30 satellites.

European aviation, on the other hand, remains dependent on GPS due to the need for processing by Egnos, a system that checks signals’ reliability in real time, enabling reliable navigation. The Egnos system does not operate with Galileo signals, which is a weakness in the current geopolitical situation – although system updates should change by 2028.

There is also room for improvement for Galileo itself. In Cyprus, your smartphone can suddenly claim you are 200 km away in Lebanon. This is the result of foreign interference.

Israel frequently manipulates satnav signals to throw hostile missiles off course by delivering false coordinates to receivers. This so-called “spoofing” can reach far beyond conflict zones.

Russia also uses it, along with the more basic technique of jamming, which disrupts signals without imitating them. In Eastern Europe, these practices regularly cause problems. Numerous passenger flights have been affected, mostly in the Baltics.

Currently, Galileo is being upgraded to protect against threats like jamming and spoofing. One approach is giving satellite signals a digital fingerprint to verify their authenticity.

The constellation will also be expanded in low Earth orbit, with a range between 160 and 1,000 km above Earth.

Low-orbit navigation satellites travel shorter distances, and their signals are still powerful when they’re received on Earth, making them harder to interfere with.

Satnav from low Earth orbit is still a new concept, and Europe is leading the way. ESA recently launched a batch of test satellites as part of the Celeste demonstration mission – a wink to the nickname of Galileo Galilei’s daughter.

“The expansion of Galileo with low-orbit satellites is necessary to keep our satnav independent,” said ESA's Roberto Prieto-Cerdeira, head of the Celeste mission.

While it's easy to find examples of Europe lagging behind in terms of tech innovation, Galileo is a counterexample of Europe acting swiftly as a leader in the field.