Ministers to cut funds for satellite navigation project

Date: 10/06/1999

By Renée Cordes

EU TREASURY chiefs are set to release only a small fraction of the funding requested by the European Commission for an ambitious new satellite navigation system.

They will insist on holding back the rest of the money until the Commission produces a detailed blueprint fleshing out its plans.

Acting Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock has repeatedly sought the member states' support for his proposal to deploy European satellites in space to help aeroplanes, trucks and ships pinpoint exactly where they are. The Galileo project aims to boost safety and fuel efficiency by helping transport operators to select the fastest routes.

Kinnock has called for €2.2-2.9 billion from the public and private sectors for the first phase of the project from 2000-2008, and has suggested that about h1 billion of this would come from private companies.

But finance ministers plan to grant only €100 million, or about 3% of the public funds requested, insisting that no more can be released until the Commission provides more information about its plan. They will give the institution until December 2000 to supply details of the additional funding needed and exactly what technical specifications the programme would entail.

" A number of member states are not yet willing to hand over the money for a formal project," said an EU diplomat "We need to clarify the technical, organisational and financial aspects further before we make any real decisions on whether to fund it."

Currently, the American and Russian military own and control the only satellites which transmit signals for navigation, although they do offer a second, less reliable set of signals for civilian users such as commercial airlines.

Kinnock has repeatedly argued in favour of an independent European-based system to both avoid dependence on the US and Russia, and to ensure European firms get a slice of what is expected to become a 50-billion-euro-a-year global market over the next few years.

" If you do not have a role in the satellite signal and in the technology, then you are going to be left behind in trying to compete in this market," said one Commission official.

Germany, which has made the programme a key priority of its presidency, is confident that transport ministers will sign up to a general statement of support for the initiative at their meeting next Thursday (17 June). "We want to give the Commission the security to go ahead with this," said one official.

Keyword: Galileo.