Agriculture raided to fund Galileo and EIT

Back on track…thanks to global budget repositioning…

Of this huge household rebudgeting, €309 million will go to the EIT and the balance will be added to the €1 billion already earmarked for Galileo in the EU’s 2007–2013 budget.

The move is required after the various private sector companies that were expected to part finance Galileo decided the project was not commercially viable. In May the EU was forced to look for alternative ways to pay for the scheme.

Similarly, with EIT, the Commission’s hopes of attracting funding from the private sector are – as yet – unrealised. The project itself has been reduced to a virtual shadow of the institution to rival the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was proposed originally.

The Galileo project sits under the Transport Directorate and the rescue package has been masterminded by Jacques Barrot, the Transport Commissioner. “I am still convinced that Europe needs Galileo,” the Frenchman said as he unveiled the scheme. “Today, I have come up with all the facts and figures to enable the European Parliament and ministers to take the necessary decisions on the programme and its funding by the end of the year.”

Barrot’s plans to transfer unspent agricultural subsidies may be particularly challenging for the French government, with its notorious devotion to the Common Agricultural Policy. But as unspent EU money is usually returned to national coffers, other governments will have to be convinced too.

The €300 million being lifted from FP7 has been earmarked for a particular aspect of Galileo, the European Satellite Navigation Programme. In its statement the Commission described this as a “re-profiling” of research funding that was already foreseen for Galileo.

If the plan is approved Galileo can go ahead without any increase in the EU’s overall budget of €974.8 billion for 2007–2013.

The EU has found it hard to get private sector backing for Galileo because the US-owned GPS service is free. The Commission argues that Europe needs its own system to guarantee its independence. In its statement the Commission said Galileo is “a pillar of European space policy and signifies Europe’s ambitions in space, technology and innovation.”