Ministers agreed on Galileo funds
105243
EU governments have agreed that the troubled Galileo satellite navigation network will have to be built with public funds.
382945
(InfoWorld) - Satellite navigation boxes using the GPS (global positioning system) are no longer the preserve of luxury car owners in Europe. Now you see them in the humblest vehicles on the Continent's highways. That's part of the reason why the European Commission Wednesday proposed taking on the entire â¬3.4 billion ($4.7 billion) cost of creatingÂ Galileo, Europe's answer to GPS, which is based in the U.S. "Do consumers really want this product? To answer that you must ask why consumers like GPS so much," said transport commissioner Jacques Barrot at a press conference Wednesday. "Consumers are answering the question by buying more and more GPSes," he said. "Galileo will make money, and with the E.U. as its owner, it will generate income for the E.U. budget." Barrot's confidence wasn't shared earlier this year byÂ the companies picked to share the cost and benefitsÂ of building the 30-strong constellation of satellites. Unsure of the costs and unconvinced of Galileo's eventual commercial potential, theÂ companies dragged their feetÂ to a point in June where the Commission abandoned the partnership with the private sector. Under the original plan, public money was supposed to pay for the first four satellites and then the private consortium of companies building the satellites were to pay for two-thirds of the 26 remaining satellites. This amounted to a private sector cost of â¬2.4 billion. The companies -- AENA, Alcatel-Lucent, EADS, Finmeccanica, Hispasat, Inmarsat, TeleOp, and Thales -- were to recoup their investment costs by then operating the satellites and collecting fees once they were in operation. Barrot said Wednesday that the Commission wants the â¬2.4 billion to be paid for out of European Union funds. The E.U. has already committed â¬1 billion to the project. He said that he initially wanted the 27 member states of the E.U. to fill the funding gap through payments directly to the European Space Agency (ESA). But as 10 countries in the E.U. aren't members of the ESA this was dismissed, leaving the E.U. budget as the only possibility for ensuring that the project is financed. With the E.U. as the sole owner of Galileo, it will still need companies from a variety of industries to build the system's infrastructure, Barrot said. Astrium (EADS group) and Thales Alenia Space (Thales and Finmeccanica groups) approached the ESA for some of this work recently, the commissioner said. "Galileo is extremely important for the strategic autonomy of Europe. We can't let this opportunity to manage the know-how in this advanced technology pass," Barrot said. Transportation ministers of the E.U. member states will meet in Luxembourg on Oct. 2 to debate the Commission's proposal. Countries with most to gain from the project include France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. They are believed to support the Commission. However, others including the U.K. and the Netherlands, remain to be convinced that there is a real need for a European GPS. Separately, U.S. president George W. Bush said in a statement issued by the U.S. mission to the E.U. Wednesday, that he will stop the GPS signal from being interrupted or degraded by military purposes. One of the main justifications for launching Galileo was that GPS is ultimately at the mercy of the U.S. Department of Defense, and could be jammed for strategic reasons, potentially endangering private users' lives. Galileo is intended to be purely for civilian use. However, the U.S. recently has taken steps to assure GPS users that they can count on the system. "President George W. Bush has accepted a recommendation to end procurement of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites that have the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals," the White House press secretary said in a statement Tuesday. Although the U.S. stopped the intentional degradation of GPS satellite signals in May 2000, this new action will result in the removal of "Selective Availability" capabilities, thereby eliminating a source of uncertainty in GPS performance that has been of concern to civil GPS users worldwide. This decision reflects the nation's commitment to GPS users that this free global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil activities around the world, the statement said.
164125
The 200m euros (Â£135m) needed to cover cost overruns on Europe's Galileo sat-nav system has materialised just in time to meet a crucial deadline.
653639
The European Commission approved on Wednesday state aid to help the British Post Office cover the costs of providing public services.
674800
EU governments agreed Friday that the troubled Galileo satellite navigation network needs a public bailout if what was supposed to be a showcase for Europe&#39;s technological prowess is to get off the ground.
175488
Plans for two major offshore wind farms in the Thames Estuary are given the government go-ahead.
54563
The City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, announced today that it has agreed a Â£194 million compensation fund for investors who lost money in split-capital trusts four years ago.
135077
Esa agrees to fund work on its ExoMars mission despite not having final approval from European governments.
263277
Eighteen City firms have agreed to pay Â£194m into a fund to compensate investors who lost money in the split-capital trust scandal.
667156
THE Financial Services Authority has finally agreed a multi-million pound fund with 22 City firms to compensate victims of the split-capital investment trust misselling scandal.
614891
Fourteen space agencies have agreed to co-ordinate future space exploration of the Moon and Mars.
132702
Novel ideas that exploit the pin-point accuracy of Europe's soon-to-launch Galileo system are being sought.
407081
European Union finance  ministers and central bankers agreed on Saturday to step up  co-operation among themselves to improve their handling of  cross-border financial crises.
488899
Bulgaria's government and central bank on Thursday signed an agreement about their mutual obligations related to the adoption of the single European currency, the euro.
397718
The European Commission defended on  Monday its 3.4 billion euro ($5 billion) cost forecast for the  Galileo satellite navigation program following a report the  budget is bound to be seriously overrun.
329591
European governments failed to agree Friday on how to salvage their troubled satellite navigation system, Galileo.
692178
The Irish government is allocating over a quarter of a million euro to urban and village renewal projects.