"We cannot let Europe lose its independence in this strategic sector," said EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, highlighting Galileo's importance for Europe's strategic autonomy as he presented, on 19 September 2007, the Commission communication on the way forward for Galileo and re-profiling the European GNSS Programmes.
However, he said that the Commission had definitely abandoned the idea of a public-private partnership to build the satellite system. The private sector, he said, was expected to participate in the Galileo concession only afterwards, during the exploitation phase.
The Commission proposes to fully finance the €3.4 billion required to launch Galileo with Community funds. €1 billion is already foreseen for this purpose in the Community financial framework for 2007-2013, whereas it proposes a revision of the multiannual financial framework permitting the use of unused funds and remaining margins for other policies within the EU budget, and thus providing the extra €2.4 billion.
"For 2007, the margin in agriculture is €2 billion and for 2008, €2.5 billion," Barrot explained. "There is also a margin for administration. The use of these margins would not affect the policies concerned because the margins correspond to the right to spend," explained Barrot. These margins are "above and beyond the forecasted budget needs", explained a Commission official.
In a separate development, US President George W. Bush announced, on 18 September 2007, that the US will end procurement of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites that are capable of intentionally degrading the accuracy of civilian signals, known as Selective Availability (SA). This means that the US will make a more accurate version of the GPS, currently available only to the US military, available for global civilian activities.
