Another 1.5 billion euros to put Galileo in orbit
According Deflesselles MP Bernard, author of a report on Galileo in late 2009, the Commission estimated shortage of 1.5 billion euros to finish funding the program.
The EU transport ministers have approved the fourteen simple contracts awarded for fourteen satellites and two double contracts for four other satellites. These eighteen satellites by 2013 would launch the partial but effective system of Gallileo.
The need for additional financing of the budget is due to cost overruns to deal with the certification of satellites and their launch. However, if the EU did not choose to commit this supplementary budget, the only alternative would be to move the launch of Galileo in 2018-2020. This could then lead to an additional cost of 200 million euros.
The rapporteur has sought to underscore the lack of technical capacity of the European Commission for such a project. He said it was possible to go through the European Space Agency.
Moreover, the deputy of Bouches du Rhone has insisted that the legislature had to meet a legal vacuum regarding the rules for compensation in case of hardware failures. Because no one is clearly defined as responsible for breach of the signal transmitted by Galileo, it is distributed free or so. To whom do we will then turn around?
Finally Bernard Deflesselles wanted to reassure his colleagues Commission about the viability of the Galileo system: from the GPS system being developed by the Americans, the European system is much more accurate since its precision reaches 1 meter approach against 10 for the system across the Atlantic. Emphasis should be placed on what are the applications, subject will make the difference between the systems in future competition from U.S., Europe, but also from China, India or Russia.
