European Parliament committee calls for withdrawal of private sector from Galileo Joint Undertaking
The European Parliament's Committee on industry, trade, research and energy (ITRE) has called for withdrawal of the private sector from the Galileo satellite navigation project's 'joint undertaking,' a legal entity for the development of the scheme. In a report by socialist MEP Norbert Glante, ITRE expressed concern over the Commission's proposal that private companies would become members of the Galileo joint undertaking, which MEPs believe could lead to a conflict of interest. ITRE wants membership restricted to the founding members, the European Communities and the European space agency (ESA), with possible future membership for the European Investment Bank. The committee would also like to see the creation of a separate development company to maintain private involvement in the initiative, intended as Europe's answer to the Russian Glonass and the US GPS system. In an opinion adopted in November last year, the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) made a similar call for the joint undertaking to be 'funded solely through public funding' to avoid a possible conflict of interest from private sector involvement. The ESC's Raffaele del Fiore warned: 'What we want is to have the European Commission, the European space agency, the Member States and the private sector involved in Galileo, but we need to ensure the Community law on public procurement is applied.'