Brussels, 02/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - Contrary to what the European Commission would have wished, the joint venture that was due to manage the development of Galileo, the European satellite radio-navigation project failed to be launched on 30 April. the Commission was hoping to be able to reunite on this date, the Galileo monitoring committee, for signing the creation of the joint venture with the European Space Agency (ESA) its parity partner in the project. But the meeting depended on what occurred at the ESA Council on 25 April. Hopes were dashed once again. Faced with Spain maintaining opposition to the funding compromise project, the European Space Agency finally withdrew the point from the agenda. Spain is requesting that its contribution to the project is increased. Germany and Italy, who opposed the leadership of the projection, reached a compromise at the end of March, which would allow for shared management tasks in the project and its funding. The four "large" countries (Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom), are each expected to provide a contribution of 17.5% to the project and therefore obtain the seam return on investment, according to the rule of ESA's industrial returns. According to this agreement, Spain would contribute 9%, which it deems insufficient. As long as there is no agreement, EAS cannot confirm its participation in the project or sign the common enterprise agreement.
ESA Director, Antonio Rodota, very recently wrote to Spain attempting to persuade the country to accept the compromise. Officially, ESA provides assurances that it had not planned to include Galileo on the Agenda for its Council, either at diplomatic or Ministerial levels. An ESA spokesperson indicated that on this subject, "there is no Ministerial meeting planned for 27 May), adding that, "the solution lies in the hands of Spain". The ESA Executive explained that given that the political decision for the Galileo project had been taken by the Ministerial Council, did not have to return to the issue but had to wait for the Spanish position to develop, notably with regard to informal political contacts. The EAS press service has stated that it had not heard any mention on an emergency meeting of the EAS Council on Galileo in mid-May, which had been spoken about by some diplomats in Brussels.
In order to not lose crucial frequency emissions from Galileo via the world telecommunications conference, all frequencies will have to be operational and in use by June 2006, according to an expert. For this, a satellite will have to be sent in December 2005 or January 2006 at the latest. It is therefore becoming extremely urgent to get the company up and running so that the appeal for tenders can be launched, warned experts.