Brussels, 08/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament supports the creation of a joint enterprise to secure the development of the Galileo project for satellite navigation and tracking, but does not recommend private participation in this structure in order to avoid all conflict of interest. The Glante report (PES, Germany), adopted by plenary on Thursday, proposes that the companies taking part in Galileo financing should be associated to the joint enterprise through a "promotion company" that will make it possible to ensure there is regular and institutionalised exchange between the private sector and the joint enterprise, to promote the Galileo programme among users and the general public, and possibly to carry out tasks defined by the joint enterprise. The Parliament, which is only consulted on this question, very broadly followed the recommendations of the Glante report on the functioning and the mission of the joint enterprise (see EUROPE of 9 January, p.10). MEPs adopted by a large majority (388 yes, 77 no and 11 abstentions) an amendment by CSU member Alexander Radwan calling for the "military use of Galileo for conducting peace-keeping operations".
The Parliament requests that the official site for Galileo (for which the Commission is proposing Brussels) should be determined bearing in mind the taxation system of the potential host country.