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EU and China Collaborate on Galileo Navigation Satellite Project
By Peter B. de Selding
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 03:08 pm ET
21 September 2003
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Untitled PARIS -- The European Union and China have reached an agreement on China's taking a major financial stake in Europe's Galileo satellite-navigation system, the European Commission announced Sept. 19. Chinese officials in the past have said they were prepared to participate at around the same level as one of Europe's major national contributors -- France, Germany, Britain and Italy -- which would mean an investment of at least $200 million in the program. A hefty Chinese financial stake would relieve pressure on European authorities, who have said repeatedly that the estimated $2.3 billion they still need to finance construction and deployment of Galileo's 30-satellite constellation by 2008 has yet to be found. An initial investment of about $1.2 billion has been paid for by equal contributions from European Union (EU) transport ministries and the European Space Agency. Commission officials did not place an exact figure on China's eventual stakeholding beyond saying the two sides had agreed that China would be the first non-European nation to take a share in the Galileo Joint Undertaking, a European government body created earlier this year to manage Galileo. The commission, in its Sept. 19 statement, said only that China would "take a substantial financial part in the program." The agreement follwed six months of negotiations that ended on Sept. 18 with a meeting in Beijing between Francois Lamoureux, the commission's director-general for transport and energy; and Shi Dinghuan, general secretary of China's Ministry of Science and Technology. China's State Council still needs to approve the deal, as does the European Union Transport Council, made up of transportation ministers from the European Union's 15 member states. The council is scheduled to give its approval on Oct. 9. Final signatures by EU and Chinese heads of state are scheduled for an Oct. 30 during an EU-China summit. China and the commission have also agreed to establish the China-Europe Global Navigation Satellite System Technical Training and Cooperation Center in Beijing to coordinate Chinese involvement in Galileo.
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