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Brussels: European Union transport ministers failed on Tuesday to agree where to base the authority that will oversee its Galileo satellite navigation network. “We were unfortunately not able to reach a political agreement on the location of the authority,” Finnish Transport Minister Susanna Huovinen told journalists after chairing a meeting with her EU counterparts.
“This was not the moment for the decision but we have made good progress,” she added.
Prague, Ljubljana, Munich, La Valetta, Brussels, Strasbourg, Barcelona, Cardiff, Noordwijk, Athens and Rome are in the running to host the site.
She said that after the meeting the 11 cities remained candidates even though EU heads of state and government had agreed in 2003 that the newest members should get priority to host new EU agencies.
Europe hopes the Galileo project, ultimately involving around 30 satellites and scheduled to be up and running commercially by 2010, will rival the reigning GPS (Global Positioning System) network from the United States.
Unlike GPS, which is controlled by the US military, Galileo will stay under civilian control, increasing the European Union's strategic independence.
The new system is expected to be more accurate than GPS, giving mariners, pilots, drivers and others an almost pinpoint-accurate navigational tool.
A private sector consortium will manage the deployment and operational phase of Galileo — from 2008 onwards — and is to be overseen by the public body called Galileo Supervisory Authority.
