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Galileo
Navigation Satellite System Funding Situation Confused
In mid-December ESA
voted to approve funding for the Galileo navigation satellite
system, followed days later by european transport ministers voting
to refuse endorsement of the system. The vote has thrown Galileo’s
funding in doubt.
The European Space
Agency (ESA) agreed on Dec. 20 to spend US$45 million (Î
50 million) on Galileo, with an additional  US$450
million (Î
500 million) to be committed in late 2001 to begin actual
construction of the system. However, the ESA ministers said their
approval was conditional on the European Union agreeing to finance
an equal amount for the program.
European transport
ministers on Dec. 22 refused to endorse the Galileo
satellite-navigation system. The decision was made at 4 a.m. after
several ministers had already left the Brussels meeting. The
ministers called for further work detailing the management of the
program and the eventual role the private sector would play in its
financing. European Union governments are expected to review the
program again at a meeting in March in Stockholm, Sweden. The
European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, had
asked the transport ministers to clearly signal whether Galileo
should proceed. Gilles Gantelet, a spokesman for the Transport
Directorate, said several nations had imposed too many conditions on
their approval for Galileo to be acceptable to the commission and to
the other nations backing the project. The British, German and Dutch
governments had expressed the most hesitation about Galileo,
according to one industry official involved with Galileo.
ESA and European
Union officials will meet during January to determine Galileo’s
status and to determine whether preliminary work can be started
prior to the European Union's March meeting in Stockholm.
Galileo
is a 30-satellite navigation system planned to begin service in
2008. Its total costs have been estimated at Î3.5
billion, with at least some of that money to come from the private
sector through revenues generated from Galileo commercial services. 
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