Galileo, Galileo, will you do the fandango?
Transport Ministers have approved funding of Federal Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system from the general EU budget.
The £2.4bn cost (more like £3bn once fraud and theft has been taken into account) will be met from “spare” money. Why are we throwing billions at Federal Europe if they don’t need it all? Why don’t they give us the “spare” part of our very generous subsidy back?
Galileo will consist of two receiving stations – one in Germany and one in Italy – and 30 mid-earth orbit satellites.
The EU Transport Commissioner, Jacques Barrot, said that “Spatial navigation is really an indication of our power amongst the countries of the world”.
As we’ve been told, repeatedly, the EU not-a-constitution will turn the EU into what is, to all intents and purposes, a country. The aim of the EU, from when it was initially brought into being, was to create a Federal Europe. The Schuman Declaration actually said that it was the first steps toward a European Federation. The not-a-constitution hasn’t even been signed yet, let alone been approved in the planned Danish and Irish referenda, but the EU’s minions are already talking about the EU as a country.
Petty one-upmanship with the Americans is not only pointless and petty, but it costs the English taxpayer a fortune. The American GPS system gives almost worldwide coverage and is free to use. There is no need for a proprietry EU system to duplicate what is already there.
Technorati Tags: Federal Europe, Galileo, GPS
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by wonkotsane on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 11:42 am and is filed under Federal Europe, Health, Transport and is .
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The american GPS is only free for as long as the american military let us use it. They could block us, or more likely switch it off because it is old.
These systems take a long time to build, maintain and a lot to run, so a new one does have to be built
November 30th, 2007 at 8:23 pmThey’re unlikely to turn it off, NATO runs off GPS and so do many other systems the Americans are involved with and use. We’re paying through the nose as one of the only net contributors to the EU to pay for this system and when we leave the EU they are more likely to block us from using it out of spite than the Americans are.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:23 pmYes, there is no shortage of money to transfer tanks to work off GPS2 or whatever it is going to be called but the current system is old and must be reaching the end of its servuce life?
The Americans, who own it, are more likely to invest in a newer system than try to prop up an old decrepit one
December 1st, 2007 at 1:13 amI believe the Galileo system is also intended to be used in an EU wide road pricing network. In other words little spy boxes in our cars, trucks, vans etc. This will give the authoritarian nature of the EU and not least the British Government a means to track our movements wherever we go. Fanciful? I don’t think so.
December 1st, 2007 at 1:22 amYes, one of the many ‘useful’ applications it will be able to do!
December 1st, 2007 at 10:43 am