EU transport ministers gather in Brussels on Tuesday to launch Galileo, a multi-billion-euro European navigation-by-satellite program to rival the American GPS system from 2008.
Barring unforeseen hitches, the Council of Ministers will put into action a unanimous decision by EU heads of state and government, taken at their Barcelona summit on March 15-16, to go ahead with the ambitious project.
“We hope to be able to have a decision Tuesday … once and for all,” Gilles Gantelet, spokesman for EU Transport Commission Loyola de Palacio, told reporters on Monday.
In the policy pipeline for many years, Galileo would involve a constellation of 30 satellites and ground stations, enabling users to pinpoint their exact position to within one meter (one yard). But unlike the established GPS system, or its waning Soviet-era counterpart Glonass, Galileo is being designed primarily for civilian — rather than military — applications.
The United States has said that, given the explosive growth of civilian GPS usage, it considers Galileo unnecessary. But it has also stated that if Galileo does go ahead, it would like to participate in its development.
Overcoming several years of hesitation, the Barcelona summit showed the 15 EU member states to be ready to take on the project that is estimated to cost 3.6 billion euros (3.17 billion dollars).
European Commission President Romano Prodi has described the price tag, to be shared by the public and private sectors, as a bargain — about equal, he said last week, to building 150 kilometres (93 miles) of motorway.
In the days since the summit, negotiations on financing details have advanced quickly, with the member states all but agreeing on how to manage the project, several informed sources have said.
Some 1.1 million euros in development costs through 2005 are to be covered by the European Space Agency and the European Commission through a corporation to be co-managed by the ESA and the EU. From the end of 2002, the development corporation will put out tenders to find an operator for Galileo, with the European Commission hoping to get competing bids from two or three industrial consortiums.
From 2006, the successful bidder would take over the reins of the project, with responsibility for deploying the 30 satellites in time for Galileo to be up and running in 2008. This deployment phase is expected to cost 2.1 billion to 2.5 billion euros, with at least two-thirds of the money coming from the operator, and no more than one-third from public funds. It is these slices of the pie that the transport ministers will be finalizing on Tuesday.
From 2008, the European Union would continue to help cover the operating costs — estimated at 220 million euros — until such time as Galileo generates enough revenue to pay for itself and earn a profit for its operator. Tuesday’s council meeting is also to decide where Galileo’s project headquarters will be situated. The European Commission is recommending Brussels for practical reasons.
In addition, the transport ministers will consider whether the private sector should be invited to put capital into the development corporation. The European Commission supports the idea. But Britain and the Netherlands are said to favour a 100 percent public corporation, to avoid any possible conflicts of interest.
