Brussels, 05/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, Ulrich Stockmann, German Social Democrat and member of the European Parliament's Transport Committee asserts that it is necessary to immediately exit the dead-end over the nominations for Galileo project heads, 'through a compromise between the governments of Berlin and Rome within the European Space Agency' (ESA) (see EUROPE of 8 January, p. 10 and of 16 January, p.9).
Companies from the satellite industry 'absolutely need this EUR 1.1 billion made available for the project's development phase', underlined the European MP, who warned: the continuation of this impasse will compromise jobs and orders, which could go to the Italian space industry, and in particular Alenia. The present impasse is chiefly due to the Italian government's demand, within ESA, to take control of Galileo, control which is also demanded by Germany, whose percentage of project financing is greater due to its higher level of GDP, notes Mr Stockmann. He complains: 'This situation is absurd: this project risks paralysis due to a controversy over who has the right to provide increasingly significant contributions, while a year ago the project risked failing due to a lack of financing.'
Mr Stockmann, for whom the leadership of the project should go to Germany, suggests a compromise: - the Galileo project will be equally managed by the European Commission and ESA, who will designate the new heads; - the operational centre will be located in Germany (according to Mr Stockmann, the best suited location being Oberpfaffenhofen, close to Munich), but Italy and Germany share 'the selection of important nominations'; - the assembly of most of the thirty satellites will take place in Rome. According to the MEP for Sachsen-Anhalt, this would be a 'truly European solution worthy of this project.'