Brussels, 20/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The cost of the Galileo project for 20 years has increased from €2.6 billion under the original estimates at the beginning of the 21st century to €22.2 billion, according to information obtained by Open Europe. The latter has just published a dossier on this subject, “Lost in Space: how the cost of the EU's Galileo project has skyrocketed”.
The Galileo project seeks to create a European satellite navigation system, similar to the US GPS system. Open Europe is an independent think tank, which would like to see further reform of the EU. In a press release, Open Europe affirmed that right from the beginning, the project was affected by delays and inflated costs. It should have been completed in 2008, largely by way of private sector funding. It is now exclusively financed by the public sector, will not be operational before 2017/2018 and will have a total cost increase of 1000%. (Gp./transl.fl)