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Galileo Problems
18 Feb 2008
The Galileo project, Europe’s proposed answer to the US Global Positioning System (GPS), is in disarray following the failure of an eight member group of companies to meet a European Commission deadline to transform itself into a legal entity with a chief executive, headquarters and a strategy.
As a result, there is a possibility the project may not even go ahead. According to EC sources in Brussels, a decision on implementation or otherwise will be taken early in the autumn.
The sources add that total project costs, including maintenance, could be bad news for European taxpayers if, as anticipated, they reach €10 billion by 2020.
The private sector consortium of companies originally charged with getting Galileo operational consists of Inmarsat of the UK, EADS, the Franco-German aerospace concern, Thales and Alcatel-Lucent of France, Finmeccanica of Italy, Aena and Hispasat of Spain, and TeleOp, a German organisation headed by Deutsche Telekom.
