Following months of disagreements,
the EU has reached a funding
compromise and resolved the crisis
around its Galileo satellite navigation
system. Two thirds of the missing 2.4
billion euros will be provided from
EU farming pots alone. This was
announced by the Portuguese Chair
of the European Council in Brussels
on Friday night following more than
12 hours of budget negotiations
for 2008 by the EU Ministers of
Finance or their representatives.
Germany could not uphold its
reservations against fully funding
Galileo from the EU budget, reported
EU diplomats. Berlin didn’t want to
put the EU’s long-term financial plan
on the line, which runs until 2013.
According to German Minister of
Finance Peer Steinbrück, the German
government was also apprehensive
of straining its national budget by an
additional more than 500 million euros.
European Commissioner for Financial
Programming and Budget Dalia
Grybauskaite spoke of an “important
decision”. As she had suggested,
farming subsidies would for the
first time be used to improve the
EU’s competitive position. The
current Chairman of the Council of
Ministers, Portuguese State Secretary
of Finance Emanuel Augustos
Santos, said that farming subsidies
had not been exhausted this year,
and that therefore nothing would
be taken away from anybody.
This compromise has also finalised
the EU budget for the coming year.
Payments are to increase by 4.2 percent
to 120.346 billion euros. The funding
compromise also includes the European
Institute of Technology (EII). The EIT’s
intended purpose is to connect the research
departments at top European universities
and in industry from next year.
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/99568
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