Following the failure of the negotiations relating to the contract regulating the concession for the realization and running of Galileo – the main European programme of radio-navigation via satellite -, the European Commission has, as a matter of urgency, adopted a Communication that, on the one hand, guarantees the continuation of the programme and, on the other, proposes modification to the initial financial Regulation with “the integral assumption by the European Community of the costs relating to the construction phase of Galileo”. According to the Executive’s proposal, the funds necessary for the period 2007-2013 now amount to 3.4 billion uro (including the Egnos programme – European system of cover for geo-stationary navigation). The new Communication also revises the costs of the infrastructures, analyses the “risks linked to the programme’s realization and management and underlines the need to fund new investments to “permit Europe to position itself on the radio-navigation market and maintain a significant quota”.
