The European Union will likely take over the Galileo satellite navigation project, which has made little progress under the direction of a consortium of private builders.
鈥淭here will be greater participation by the public sector in the construction phase of the system,鈥� said German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, whose country holds the EU presidency until the end of next month.
He made the comments on Monday, three days before a deadline for the project鈥檚 eight private builders to sort out their differences. 鈥淚 am confident we will reach a solution on [Galileo] in June鈥�, when EU transport ministers meet, he said.
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The Galileo project is meant to compete with the US Global Positioning System (GPS), a free navigation system that some fear could be turned off at the whim of the US government.
But almost two years after being named, a private consortium of industry giants 鈥� AENA, Alcatel, EADS, Finmeccanica, Hispasat, Inmarsat, TeleOp and Thales 鈥� has made little progress on the project, angering the commission (see Political infighting threatens Europe鈥檚 satnav plans).
鈥淕alileo is going through a deep and grave crisis,鈥� Tiefensee said.
He said it was probable that public funds would be used in the 鈥渃onstruction鈥� of the system while the private partners would take responsibility for the 鈥渆xploitation phase鈥�.
One official has said that completely taking over Galileo would cost just less than 聙2 billion ($2.7 billion) on top of the 聙1.5 billion the European Commission already allocated in the 2007-2013 budget period.
On 16 May, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot is due to present a list of alternatives for the struggling project.
They are expected to range from totally taking over Galileo, a system of some 30 satellites which could become operational as late as 2013, partially financing the project or abandoning it altogether, officials have said.
