Brussels, 20/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission will take stock of the progress made on the Galileo project in a communication that should remain discreet about what is, however, one of its main concerns: - the amount of time that the European Space Agency (ESA) has taken to complete its part of the project. The joint undertaking, which is to manage the development phase of the European satellite radio-navigation programme covering the world for the years 2002 to 2005 is still not fully working. The statutes of the company entered into effect on 28 May, but the constituent act for a joint venture, which is to be signed by the ESA and the Commission before its begins its work, cannot be finalised until the ESA has settled its part of the financing (see EUROPE of 1 June). ESA must provide EUR 550 million, the same sum being made available from the Community budget. ESA is in rather a peculiar situation as it has too many subscribers. The Agency works according to the "industrial returns" rule, whereby the management of the project and the contracts are partly attributed according to the level of the contributions from each country. Germany and Italy are in conflict over who is to direct the project and therefore they both hope to provide the strongest subscription. Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Belgium each want to "substantially" contribute and the first four each up to 25%, explains one ESA official. The same official assures that this "political problem" has not for now delayed the project and will not pose a problem, "on condition that a solution is found during the coming month". He hopes that the ESA Council of 8 October will make it possible to bring the situation out of deadlock. Both sides trust the joint venture will begin operating in the autumn.
The Commission's communication should take stock of discussions on the services to be provided by Galileo, the security of its signals and international negotiations. The Commission hopes that the Council will take a decision in December on the services provided by Galileo and the question of frequencies, in order to prepare the World Radio-communications Conference scheduled for June and July 2003. There is still no agreement with the United States on the matter of superposition between the future ultra-security signal of Galileo and the American GPS. In the summer of 2003, the Commission plans to present its proposal for the creation of a Galileo security body. In autumn 2003, it should give a report on the pre-selection of project concessionary. The first experimental satellite should be launched one year later. In the shorter term, the major meeting with the industry to be held during October has been postponed till early 2003 (see http: //europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transport/en/gal_en.html). We recall that, on 26 March this year, the EU15 Transport Ministers had finally decided to follow through the Galileo project after one year of prevarication (see EUROPE of 27 March). It is foreseen that Galileo will be operational in 2008. The Commission's communication should be presented to the Transport Council on 3 and 4 October.