MEPs call for fresh money for Galileo

Members of the European Parliament’s budgets committee have called for EU governments to provide new money to pay for the Galileo satellite navigation project.

In a vote on the 2008 budget on Tuesday (9 October), MEPs called for an extra €739 million from the budget line for growth and competitiveness to pay for Galileo next year. This would take the total EU funds to €890m, compared to €151m that the Council of Ministers agreed in July.

But some member states, in particular the UK, are opposed to increasing the ceiling for this budget line.

On 19 September the European Commission proposed taking unspent funds from the EU’s farm budget and the budget line for administration to plug a €2.4 billion gap in funding for the 30-satellite project after a consortium of industrial companies which was supposed to inject private investment collapsed.

But at a Council meeting on Tuesday Germany, the UK and the Netherlands opposed the Commission’s bid. Finance ministers will revisit the subject in November.

The Parliament’s budgets committee wants to increase the overall level of spending for 2008 to 0.99% of the EU’s gross national income (GNI), higher than the Commission’s proposal for 0.97% of EU GNI (€121.5bn) and the Council’s desired figure of 0.95% (€119.4bn).

MEPs also agreed to increase the budget for Frontex, the EU’s border control agency, by €30m to €70m and to find €87m in extra funds for the planned EU mission in Kosovo and for support for the Palestinian authority from the flexibility reserve.

The committee’s position will be voted on in plenary on 23 October ahead of conciliation talks with the Council on 23 November.

Members of the European Parliament’s budgets committee have called for EU governments to provide new money to pay for the Galileo satellite navigation project.