Brussels, 15/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Israeli Minister for Trade and Industry, Ehud Olmert (who was visiting Brussels this week where he also met Romano Prodi and the Commissioner Günter Verheugen), has announced that Israel is to make a "considerable" financial commitment to the European satellite navigation programme Galileo. "This will be considerable. It will be quite a large sum of money", the Minister told the press after the signing of the co-operation agreement on Galileo between Israel and the European Union. The EU was represented by the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bernard bot, and by the Commissioner for Transport, Loyola de Palacio. "We take our involvement in the programme very seriously. This is a very important programme for us, and we want to play a major part in it", added the Israeli minister. "We realise that everyone who wants to take on this kind of role must also make a proportionate investment. And this is what we will do", he continued. At the signing of the agreement, Ehud Olmert said that the sum total of the Israeli commitment would be made public "very soon, maybe in two weeks' time".
Although this sum has not bee officially confirmed, the Israeli contribution is likely to be as much as 50 million EUR initially, a Community source told EUROPE.