Hello Arianna, could you tell us what happened with the airplane

that carried the president on Sunday during her trip to Bulgaria?

We understand there was a possible GPS incident that you believed could have been conducted by Russia. Could you tell us more? Thank you. Thanks, Jorge.

We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,

but the plane landed safely in, in Bulgaria.

We have received, information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect,

that this was due to blatant interference by, Russia.

We are, of course, aware and used to somehow to the threats and intimidations that are regular,

that are regular component of Russia's hostile behavior.

Of course this will only,

reinforce even further our unshakable commitment to ramp up defense capabilities and support for Ukraine.

This incident actually underlines the urgency of the mission that the

president is carrying out in the frontline member states these days.

There she has seen firsthand the everyday challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies,

and of course the EU will continue to invest in

defense spending and in Europe's readiness even more after this incident. Questions on this incident. Yes, go ahead. I think it's Maria.

Thank you very much, just a quick follow up, do I understand that,

I mean, the Bulgarian authorities think it was a Russian attempt.

Was it concretely, do you think, to the president's plane?

Was it to the airport were other planes affected?

And just a clarification, I understand it was, I mean, the commission had not having planes.

It was a charter, a commercial flight.

There were other more passengers in the plane. Thank you.

Thanks, it was a charter flight on whether this was intended

to target the plane on which the president was traveling or not.

I think the question is best asked for sure to the Russians if indeed it is them who have carried it out.

As the Bulgarian authorities suspect and to the Bulgarian authorities who are looking into the matter,

what we can say is that the Bulgarian authorities suspect this blatant interference was carried out by Russia,

and this is the information we have received from them. Yes, go ahead.

Thank you, just for, for the details because I didn't understood, was she, was the president and the president's plane was it

rooted somehow because of the interference with where was she traveling

to and has her roots being somewhat somewhat deflected by the interference. Thank you.

Thanks, I don't recall the exact name of the location to which she was traveling, but you can find it in, in our daily news,

of, of, Friday, I believe, in which we have published a detailed,

agenda of, of her missions with the precise locations.

As you might know, the president is visiting 7 frontline member states these days.

She has started on Friday and is concluding the visits today.

One of the stops was Bulgaria where she was going to visit the the front,

and, and there, there was this episode of interference.

The plane in any case landed safely in the original location where it was foreseen to arrive,

so there was no change of route because of this. Yes.

Angela Skujins from TVP World, can you tell us if there have been other suspected jamming attempts spearheaded by the

Russian authorities as well as what other actions will be taken in the future to prevent attempts such as this. Thank you.

I'm not sure I understand the question on other attempts in relation to the president or more generally in relation to the president.

I'm not aware of other incidents during this trip.

On jamming practices, Anna-Kaisa perhaps can provide more information. Thank you very much. Where are you? In which corner of the world? Thank you very much.

So generally we have been seeing quite a lot of such jamming and spoofing activities,

notably in the eastern flank of Europe.

Europe is the most concerned region in or most affected region globally.

On this, and there was a letter sent by 13 member states to the Commission in June this year,

and they drew our attention additionally to this issue,

which is something that is becoming almost daily daily practice.

It has serious impacts on maritime and aviation.

And obviously with the economic impact as well.

So we are taking action on this.

We are already working on a aviation specific plan in cooperation with EASA.

Eurocontrol with our Member States obviously as well,

and air navigation service providers and the manufacturing industry.

So in these kinds of cases and what is happening, the collaboration,

the exchange of information and the cooperation of the Member States is of course of course paramount.

And then of course Thomas will be, will be able to tell you more about our Galileo that can be highly,

highly useful for for this as well when we when we monitor and when we develop our strategies to prevent this,

but it is, it is something that is very much on our radar.

There was there was increased amount of such events which also sparked the member states to

to Ask us to take this up in the council formation to have a discussion about this.

And now that I had time to check, it was Plovdiv International Airport in the south of Bulgaria.

Apologies for not remembering the name on the spot. Go ahead with your question.

Thank you Antonov for Japanese TV and HK.

Just this might seem obvious, but just in case, did the Bulgarian authorities already told you why they are concretely

suspecting Russia of being involved in this specific disturbance and

have they already provided you with some concrete hints or proofs? Thank you. Thanks. No, this is a question. Best advice to the Bulgarian authorities.

All I could do is refer their suspicion on this incident.

Of course it is for them to investigate.

It was in their territory that it occurred.

It concerned, I understand,

the entire airport at the location.

Therefore, perhaps also affecting other planes as I wouldn't know.

It is for the Bulgarian authorities to confirm and it is for them to investigate what happened. Go ahead.

I quickly add to your question of what we are doing one thing that we are doing to address the situation

is also sanctioning some several companies who have led activities

related to GPS signal disruption which has affected our member states.

So we have actually listed a couple of of such companies under the sanctions regime.

So, this is, something that we are also very concretely, I mean very concrete step that we have taken,

in the very obvious blatant case of, of these originating, originating from Russia.

Florentin Collomp from Le Figaro, could you specify the type of plane in question and how many passengers were on it, please?

I would not have this information at hand.

The information is always published online, I believe, with a few weeks delay, Balazs can provide 2 weeks, every 2 months, apologies, every 2 months,

the information on missions and on the means of traveling is published online,

so it will become available, but I wouldn't have it at hand right now. Yes, go ahead, go.

For, Leo, yeah, so the, the problem has been, known for for years now,

and the European authorities have been working on, alternative solutions.

Can you please elaborate on these solutions?

What are we trying to do like develop, alternatives to.

GPS or the satellite navigation systems,

and can you please explain what happens when a plane loses its GPS signal?

I assume they have other satellite systems they can rely on.

I I do have to admit that my expertise in operating an airplane is rusty as I'm just back from holidays, but it will be back to speed tomorrow and I will be able to tell you how to switch from autopilot to not autopilot and what it means when you are operating

a plane in the cockpit on what we are looking in terms of strategy to To address this, obviously the first step is to make sure that all actors who have any kind of involvement,

any kind of expertise, knowledge, and also we have to look into the competencies,

the airspace, all these things.

It's very much a mix of economic actors, political actors, safety, security, etc.

So we are now rather looking into.

The Member States' initiative to come up with an action plan, but whether we are looking at alternatives to current GPS systems or current technologies that exist,

this is something that we will have to see once we agree

on an action plan on the wider approach how to address this.

We are currently at this stage and we obviously will keep you informed as the work advances,

but it is very much something that this is also coming from our member states.

It's a request from member states, especially for those who are most impacted on the eastern flank.

It concerns all of them from Finland to Cyprus.

Go ahead and then turn to the side of the pressroom. I'm from Lexpress.

I'd like to pick up on what you said a while back

about Galileo and Thomas telling us a little bit more about that.

So what difference does that make the GPS and Galileo method that we have at our disposal to to have an overall Imagery of

overall I mean we can use it to have a snapshot of what is happening,

how the airspace is used, etc.

It's basically an imaging service as we know, but I mean it is, it is something that we want to use as an additional tool when we are looking at this because

obviously it is an issue that has to be looked looked at very very globally given

that this touches very many sectors as I mentioned, not just aviation also maritime. Thanks Anna-Kaisa, we continue. Thank you for Euractiv

Will the Commission seek redress through ICAO?

Will it seek a whole of EU suit against Russia at ICAO Currently it's only the frontline countries

affected by Baltic jamming that are seeking redress against Russia,

like let's say stripping it of civil aviation frequencies.

Will the Commission join this effort and spearhead further sanctions through that?

What I can, you mentioned IA they are also developing a global plan on this,

and we clearly are contributing to that one as well,

which is basically the strategy that we that I mentioned that we are developing.

It will be our contribution to ICAO's global plan because obviously this is not just an EU issue.

To what we are going to be doing on the sanctions, I would leave that commenting to colleagues,

but we have already sanctioned some of these companies and

individuals that have been behind.

These actions and from the Commission point of view, that is one side sanctions always more for Member States to agree on, but from our side,

where our competencies are, is now to work together with our Member States and

with the actors that I mentioned to ensure that we do have an action plan.

And then see what what what is possible, what, what is possible within the framework that we work in to look,

look for alternatives and look for more effective means to address

this situation that clearly is something that is ongoing as we speak. Quick follow up, yes.

So the commission response is to work towards an action plan to tackle this. This is one of the ways.

The other way is that we have sanctioned specific companies, specific individuals behind these kind of jamming and spoofing,

and then we have to also address the situation according to our competencies,

and one of them is that we Take input from our Member States.

We work with Eurocontrol, with EASA, as well as the air navigation service providers, and we come up with a plan and then obviously the plan can include more concrete actions,

something that has more teeth to really concretely address this, but for the moment this is what we are doing.

Thanks, I'll take a couple of questions from remote and then we'll change topics since it's already 20 minutes,

we are discussing this matter. Valerie. If you want the floor.

It's not a follow up question,

so I'll wait until we move on. OK, that's fine. Andreas next please. Sorry.

It's, it's also not a follow-up question to the GPS incident.

It's about the FT interview the president has given yesterday. OK.

Then, considering that there are so many hands raised on other topics, I would close this chapter if you have more questions for me and Anna-Kaisa,

you're very welcome to reach out bilaterally later and now,

I will, revert to Eloise.

Hi, sorry, not Eloise, Valerie, to whom I had given the floor first.