EU's Galileo location service gets funding boost

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By Paul Meller

(IDG) -- Galileo, Europe's equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network, was given the go-ahead Tuesday after European telecommunication ministers agreed to inject $393 million into the project.

The $3.1 billion project will by 2008 consist of 30 satellites orbiting the earth, just as the U.S. network of GPS satellites do at present.

Together with $568 million already earmarked for the project, the $393 million will secure funding through 2005, a spokesman at the Council of Ministers said.

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Ministers were divided on how to proceed with the project, which will be the European Union's biggest joint infrastructure project to date.

The UK was the least enthusiastic. But a UK official said Tuesday his country was satisfied with a compromise that would exclude private companies until after a tendering offer to find a private operator of the system had been put into place. That move is expected by the end of next year.

"This ensures the integrity of the tendering process. It avoids a potential problem of conflicts of interest," he said.

Unlike the U.S. GPS, Galileo will be a purely civilian satellite network, serving transport networks such as airlines and shipping companies, as well as emergency services such as search-and-rescue teams. Potential private investors in Galileo are likely to include aerospace firms, the Council spokesman said.

The U.S. has tried to discourage the EU from developing Galileo, arguing that it was unnecessary and might complicate matters in space if the two systems aren't compatible.

But Loyola de Palacio, commissioner for transport, said the EU would continue its "best cooperation" with U.S. officials to ensure Galileo and GPS are compatible and complementary.

The recent cooling of relations between the U.S. and the EU has been cited as one reason why the Europeans are now rallying around Galileo. European politicians at a summit of EU heads of state in Barcelona last week warned that Europe risked "vassal" status to U.S. technology in space.

Galileo "permits the EU to shake off dependence" on the American GPS, French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot said after the vote on the project.