Brussels, 22/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council did not reach an agreement on the launching of the operational phase of the planned European satellite positions system, Galileo, as had been requested by the Nice Summit. The European Commissioner for Transport, Loyola de Palacio, strongly opposed the nine page draft resolution presented by the Member States that she considers too detailed and binding and, especially, not giving a clear political signal on the continuation of the Galileo project. Moreover the Commission felt that the drafts from the Council concerning the procedures for the selection and management of the project, gave excessive control to the Member States.
The Netherlands and the United Kingdom insisted, on their side, that the public financing of the project be closely conditioned to a clear participation by the private sector. Germany also proposed a text in which it was stipulated that an industrial consortium should be engaged to deliver at a fixed price a part or all of the future satellite system and finance more than half of the investment costs, while specifying the same selection conditions.
After a difficult debate over lunch on Thursday, and another between two and four o'clock Friday morning, the Council Presidency simply expressed the wish that the Council should be able to define "the modalities for launching the project", in April, and that, meanwhile, technical work can come up with ways of setting up an interim management structure.