Prodi hits at ‘expensive’ EU delays

Speaking two days before the European Council meeting in Laeken, in December 2001, Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, attacked Member States for failing to implement agreed decisions, arguing that delays in completing the single market were 'very expensive for Europe'. He said there was a huge gap between taking decisions and delivering them and the Galileo satellite project was singled out as an example. Galileo was enthusiastically backed by science ministers and subsequently blocked by other ministerial meetings.