Barrot refuses to yield on Galileo funding

EU finance ministers are coming under increased pressure to agree at their next meeting in Brussels (13 November) on funding plans for the stalled satellite navigation system Galileo.

Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot’s proposals for allocating ‘unspent’ funds from the EU’s farm and administration budget lines to the project were rejected by almost all finance ministers on 9 October. Barrot was asked to come up with new ways of plugging the €2.4 billion gap in funding for the 30-satellite project, left after a private consortium refused to underwrite the project.

Barrot, however, seems determined to ignore member states’ pleas.

"We’ve made our proposal and that is what will remain on the table," said a spokesman.

Opposition to Barrot’s proposals for EU funding is led by the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. Germany is especially keen to ensure that it wins a share of public procurement contracts proportionate to its funding contributions. It is unlikely that member states which have already pumped millions of euros into the project will agree to any funding solutions that do not guarantee national interests.

The European Parliament moved in favour of community funding for Galileo this month (25 October) as part of a vote on the 2008 budget. It was agreed that an extra €738 million would be taken from the growth and compet-itiveness budget line to pay for Galileo’s costs next year.

Although MEPs are aligned with the Commission in calling for a community solution, they would prefer to see ‘real’ rather than ‘unspent’ funds allocated to the project over the entire duration of the EU’s budget for 2007-13. MEPs will tackle the issue with member states at forthcoming conciliation talks for the 2008 budget (23 November). "We’ll have to see whether the finance ministers are willing to put their money where their mouth is," said a Parliament spokesman.

EU finance ministers are coming under increased pressure to agree at their next meeting in Brussels (13 November) on funding plans for the stalled satellite navigation system Galileo.