By Martin Banks - 4th April 2011
Galileo system represents value for money
Thomas Brandtner
A senior EU official has defended the spiralling cost of the EU's Galileo satellite system which one day aims to rival America's GPS system.
However, speaking in Brussels on Monday, Thomas Brandtner acknowledged there were concerns over the "added value"' of the system.
His comments come in the wake of a meeting last week by EU transport ministers who discussed a request for an extra €2bn to make the global satellite navigation system operational, on top of the €3.4bn earmarked from the EU's 2007-13 budget.
Earlier this year, the European commission warned national capitals that a lack of enthusiasm among private investors meant that the cost of Galileo was likely to rise to over €5bn.
The extra cost has been criticised at a time of austerity cutbacks to many national state investment projects and after the meeting UK transport minister Philip Hammond said, "We will continue to object to any increase in the budget. We will certainly block any further increased spending in the next two years".
Despite British opposition, the meeting of European transports chiefs decided "unequivocally that the programmes should continue to be financed from the EU budget".
France, Germany, Italy and Spain are supporting the extra funding but Britain has argued that it would be more economical to get the Galileo "up and running" with 18 satellites in order to attract private investment to build the other 12 needed to complete the navigation system.
Speaking at a debate to mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight, Brandtner, a head of unit for industrial policy at the council of the EU, said, "I still believe that despite some criticism, Galileo system represents value for money."
He said the project, however, cast doubt on the viability of private-public partnerships for such schemes.
Originally, the Galileo project was to have been funded by a public-private agreement but this had now been shelved.
Brandtner said, "What this has shown is that such partnerships can be very complex and one is perhaps best to think very carefully before you embark on such a partnership.
"Otherwise it can be a very costly model as we have found to our cost."
He also warned that due to technological advances, Europe was "running out of time" in meeting its provisional deadline for Galileo to become operational.
In January, Berry Smutny, the German boss of OHB Technology, a company that has a €539m contract to build 14 Galileo satellites, was sacked after attacking the project as a "stupid idea" that is "a waste of taxpayers' money".
