Paris, 4 June 2008 – The Assembly has called for the EU to make up for lost time on the Galileo satellite navigation project and to learn from the lessons of the collapse in 2007 of the public-private partnership (PPP) that was to finance it.

The Galileo project is an ambitious satellite navigation programme. It will comprise 30 satellites placed in a medium earth orbit (at an altitude of approximately 24 000 km). The system will be completed by a network of some 40 ground stations. The Galileo project has suffered delays due to political and industrial difficulties. These have now been overcome thanks to intervention by the European Commission which is now fully in charge of the programme. Galileo is important for security since it will enable the EU to assert its autonomy in the field of satellite navigation and positioning systems.

A debate following the presentation by Edward O’Hara (United Kingdom, Socialist Group) of a report he drew up jointly with Giannicola Sinisi (Italy, Liberal Group) was marked by a strong attack on the project by Christopher Chope (United Kingdom, Federated Group) and an equally strong defence of the project by his compatriot Claire Curtis-Thomas (United Kingdom, Socialist Group).

In a report entitled “Space systems for Europe’s security: GMES and Galileo – reply to the annual report of the Council”, Mr O’Hara acknowledged that the project was four to five years behind schedule and had suffered cost overruns. It is now due to be fully operational by 2013. “We are not yet out of the woods”, he told the Assembly. The third generation of the American GPS system could come on stream by then, Russia is progressing with its GLONASS programme and China and India “are poised to challenge us”, he said.

James Clappison (United Kingdom, Federated Group) asked whether it was possible to be confident in current cost and timetable forecasts, and urged effective evaluation and scrutiny rather than “political imperatives and face-saving”. The report noted that Galileo had had “something of a bumpy ride” and that the extra costs were due to the failure to take decisions in the early years “and the political tug-of-war” between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission.

Christopher Chope recalled that as Chairman of the British Parliamentary Transport Committee, the late Gwyneth Dunwoody had written a number of “withering reports” on the Galileo project, in particular highlighting the initial promises that it was for civilian use only and would not be financed by taxpayers. “Over the years, it has become clear that this couldn’t happen”, Mr Chope said. His fear is that the EU is involved in “an exercise of pride and vanity, and unnecessary duplication of a defence system that is already available in NATO”. The PPP collapsed “because it was economically unsustainable and unnecessary”, he added. The 940 million euros cost to the EU this year “is almost obscene” and would be better spent on the troops in Afghanistan.

These remarks brought Claire Curtis-Thomas to her feet to defend Galileo. The system would give the EU intellectual property rights, licensing and patents that would otherwise have accrued only to the US if Europe had decided to continue relying on the GPS system. She described Mr Chope’s arguments as “rather simplistic” and the idea of saving 940 million euros as “quite farcical”. The spending would enhance EU scientific and technological research, she said. “It is an exercise in investment in Europe” and not in pride and vanity, she declared.
 
Summing up, Mr O’Hara said it had been recognised that it was impossible to separate civilian and defence sector needs and likened Galileo to the Channel Tunnel, which “has been chasing its tail” ever since former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had refused public funds for the project. The benefits of Galileo “are vital for Europe”, he added.

The report also covered the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) project which along with Galileo is “of major importance for the EU and its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)”. It should in the longer term give the European Union an autonomous, coherent and centralised earth observation capability, in particular with regard to security and the environment, and at all levels (local, regional and worldwide).