Galileo deals feed resentment in poorer nations, experts warn

Date: 25/03/04

By Karen Carstens

SECURITY experts have warned that the lucrative bilateral deals Brussels is striking up giving China, Israel and other countries access to the €3.2 billion Galileo satellite navigation system could spark resentment in less well-off nations, especially in already unstable regions.

An agreement reached with Israel last week, which could bring in some €50 million in commercial user fees and investments, followed on the heels of a €230m deal with China in October 2003 and an accord with India. Gustav Lindstrom, a research fellow at the Paris-based European Union Institute for Security Studies, said he is worried about how the amount of cash a given country pumps into the Galileo system will affect how much of a say it will have on its operation.

“These countries have interests in ways of using Galileo that haven't been fully thought out by policymakers,” he suggested.

Still, he added, at this stage of the game it is just “too premature” to make any predictions as the system is not due to be fully operational until 2008.

However, he cautioned, in the case of Israel there could be long-term political ramifications if its neighbours feel they have been denied access to a new global satellite system their neighbour has signed up to.

“If Israel has something that other countries in Israel's neighbourhood do not, that gives Israel a leg up, that could have huge implications further down the line,” he said.

But Gilles Gantelet, spokesman for EU transport and energy chief Loyola de Palacio, dismissed such fears as pure “fantasy”, as Galileo will be used mainly for commercial applications and any “sensitive aspects” will be strictly off limits to all third countries.

“They will not have access to sensitive aspects of Galileo,” he said. “This is a typical fantasy we hear from time to time, because people see [reports] on TV about how Americans use GPS signals for military applications.”

The US had harboured reservations about Galileo, viewing the project as a rival to its own Global Positioning System (GPS). But it was agreed under a deal struck between Washington and Brussels last month that Galileo would use the same 'free signal' as the GPS. Gantelet said that Galileo's own 'public regulated service' signal, also known as the 'government signal' as it will be used by member states, would have “a confidential character”. Moreover, he pointed out, if Israel or China wanted to use a signal for military purposes, it could already tap into the Americans' GPS signal.

Haim Assaraf, spokesman for Israel's mission to the EU, also stressed that the EU-Israeli Galileo deal “is a purely non-military agreement”. Assaraf said Israel would welcome countries like Morocco, Jordan or Egypt into the Galileo fold, as this could only serve as a “win-win situation” for all parties involved, acting as a key plank of the EU's “wider Europe” strategy.

A network of 30 satellites, Galileo is principally a civilian navigation system, designed for such tasks as locating ships in danger of capsizing. But experts have pointed out it could be used by military planners to manage troops and munitions.

Russia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Morocco have also expressed interest in Galileo.