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Galileo Project

Volume 461: debated on Wednesday 6 June 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the total cost is to British public funds of the British contribution to Galileo in each year since 1997, broken down by Department. (139852)

The information about the UK's contribution to the programme is not available in the form requested. The total UK contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA) element of the programme since 1997 is €142 million.

The European Union (EU) and the member states of ESA jointly fund the design and development programme for Galileo on a 50/50 basis. DTI and DfT co-fund the UK element of the ESA subscription.

UK subscriptions already paid and future commitments to the ESA element of the programme total €142 million, of which DfT is contributing £22.45 million (approximately €31 million).

Programme subscriptions to ESA are subject to inflationary increases and can vary from predicted profiles. UK contributions to the different phases of the programme are as follows:

€15.3 million—subscription to the definition phase (1998 prices);

€95.7 million—original subscription to the development phase (2001 prices);

€31.0 million—additional contribution for the development phase (2001 prices).

The EU's contribution to the design and development programme is made from the EC budget and is estimated by the Commission to be €790 million. The United Kingdom makes its contributions to the EC Budget as a whole and not to individual spending programmes within it. There is not therefore a specific United Kingdom contribution to the design and development programme.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how much the Government plans to contribute to Galileo in the next five years, broken down by Department; (139853)

(2) when he expects Galileo to be fully deployed and functioning;

(3) what the Government’s policy is on the European Commission’s proposal for national governments of member states to fund the deployment phase of Galileo.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) on 23 May 2007, Official Report, columns 1353-4W.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he plans to levy charge on operators or users of existing satellite based positioning systems in order to fund the Galileo project. (140207)