Dec 07/Jan/08

A strongly sceptical message about the Galileo project - Europe's answer to America's GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite network - has been issued by the UK Parliament's Transport Select Committee.

It follows a declaration by the European Commission re-stating 'the importance of the Galileo programme as a priority for the European Union'. The Commission has also published a revised formula for costing the project between now and 2013, which says the system will take 3.4 billion euros to achieve what it calls 'full operational capability'.

The Select Committee, however, has countered that UK Government 'must do everything in its power to prevent the Galileo satellite navigation programme from going ahead unless a rigorous cost-benefit analysis has been produced.'

The committee is particularly sceptical about a decision taken by the Commission to transfer several billion euros to the Galileo programme from other Community budgets such as agriculture, which it describes as 'unprecedented'. It says it has 'serious concerns' about the continued merits of the project and the lack of rigorous assessments of its true costs.

 

According to Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody, MP: 'The Government must stop this folly, and endeavour to bring the European Commission to its senses. The Commission is poised to spend billions of tax-payers' money on a satellite system without any realistic assessment of its costs and benefits.'

She says the Commission 'is prepared to break all the rules for prudent budgetary discipline,' and insists: 'This cannot be allowed to proceed.'

The Commission takes the view that the world needs GPS (as the term is now understood), and cannot assume that the US will continue to provide it in future under all circumstances. Independence is therefore a key objective, though others include added-value services and greater accuracy.

Use of Galileo's basic positioning signals will be free, and future location devices are expected to reference them in combination with GPS and Russia's GLONASS system, but today's GPS devices may not be equipped to use them.