German Radio, German officials welcomed a new EU proposal for the planned Galileo satellite navigation system saying it would secure competition and give the domestic industry a chance to apply its technological expertise.
“If a proposal like that comes through and the financing is secured, it would offer a decisive benefit for Germany's aerospace industry,” a spokesman for the Transport Ministry told a regular German government news conference.
Progress on the so-called Galileo project has been hampered by disagreement on how to fund a 2.4-billion-euro ($3.56 billion) budget shortfall.
In an attempt to break the stalemate, the Commission proposed a new tendering process that would split the project into six segments and thus prevent a single company from dominating contracts.
“We want to guarantee competition and transparency and make sure all European businesses take part,” a spokesman for Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said earlier on Friday.
According to the new plan, no single company could be the prime contractor for more than two project segments.
Last chance
Barrot previously proposed diverting unused community funds. This, however, would have required revising the EU's budget for 2007-2013, which governments had already agreed on.
Berlin has been blocking Barrot's previous rescue plan because of concerns that it might exclude its aerospace industry from the project.
The EU Commission warned that the Galileo system would have to be scrapped unless national governments resolved their differences over funding within the next five weeks.
“If no agreement is reached by the end of the year, we will have to put an end to our efforts because it will be too late,” a spokesman for Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.
Competing with the US
EU officials hope to have the ambitious technological platform operational by 2013. But so far, only one test satellite has been put in orbit.
Galileo aims to become a commercial rival of the United States' GPS system, which is now used by millions of people around the world.
Galileo's funding controversy is expected to dominate the agenda of EU transport ministers meeting on Thursday in Brussels.
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