EU's Galileo satnav scheme needs millions more next year: MEPs

Last July, under the European Union's 2008 budget proposals, the amount to be given to the ambitious project was set at 151 million euros (216 million dollars).

But deputies in the EU Parliament, who share budgetary control with the 27 EU member states, deemed this sum grossly insufficient.

At their first reading of the budget bill in the Strasbourg parliament, they bumped the figure up to 890 million euros, an amount they said was necessary if the project is to be deployed in 2013 as planned

The problem is that the extra 739 million euros would bust the scheme's projected EU funding for the entire 2007-2013 period, thereby requiring some difficult revisions of the bloc's financial plans for the period.

Deputies, who understand these problems perfectly well, wanted to force member states to demonstrate their political backing for the Galileo project, parliamentary sources explained.

"Parliament is asking for this project to be run properly and that the funding shortfalls should be found from the community budget," said Finnish Liberal Kyosti Virrankoski during a parliamentary debate earlier.

"Parliament cannot accept jeopardising Galileo ... which is an indispensable strategic tool," added French socialist MEP Catherine Guy-Quint.

Work on Galileo, supposed to be a showcase for Europe's technical prowess, has stalled as cost over-runs pile up, private contractors bicker and member nations push their own industrial interests.

The European Commission published proposals last month to raise an extra 2.4 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars) for the 30-satellite project, mainly using unspent money intended for farm subsidies from the EU's joint budget.

In more general terms the Strasbourg parliament is calling for a higher EU budget for 2008.

In July, member states backed an overall budget of 119.4 billion euros, 3.4 percent up on 2007 but 2.1 billion euros less than the European Commission had proposed earlier.

The MEPS had called for the budget figure to be set at 124.1 billion euros.