Galileo Versus GPS Funding Furrows Brows

From a Deutsche Welle German radio broadcast on September 19th, information regarding the EU’s Galileo project was broadcast. And as most of our readers are well aware, the multi-billion-euro Galileo satnav project, a counter to the US global positioning system GPS, has experienced some troubles of late. The European Commission (EU) has proposed funds from their bloc budget be infused to plug the holes remaining in the project after private companies declined to pay for their part of the development costs. These untapped funds, worth 2.4 billion euros, could certainly make a substantial difference as to whether the Galileo moves forward, or not.




According to European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot, “I am still convinced that Europe needs Galileo. Today (September 19th) I have come up with all the facts and figures to enable the European Parliament and ministers to take the necessary decisions on the program and its funding by the end of the year."




EU ministers admitted in June that plans to secure private financing for Galileo had failed. The ministers did not agree as to whether a resulting shortfall should be covered by individual EU states, or the 27-nation bloc’s collective budget. The new money for Galileo is to come from funds budgeted for this year and 2008, which will not be used in areas such as agriculture. Each year, several billion euros earmarked for various projects remain unspent and are returned to national coffers.




Galileo’s original financing plan recommended public money pay for the first four satellites. A private consortium of companies building the satellites was to then pay for two-thirds of the 26 remaining satellites. There is interest by Eutelsat to move into the Galileo project and the company has already implemented specific elements for the project.




Galileo is intended to be an independent, European alternative to the American global positioning system (GPS). One extremely noticeable difference between the EU project and the US GPS system, which is run by the Defense Department, is that the latter is offered free of charge to businesses, while Galileo plans to charge its users. Russia and China have also been working on getting similar satellite navigation projects off the ground.