Britain considers setting up satellite
system to rival EU's Galileo: FT
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[April 25, 2018]
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is
considering setting up a satellite navigation system to rival the
European Union's Galileo project amid a row over attempts to restrict
Britain's access to sensitive security information after Brexit, the
Financial Times reported
The Galileo satellite programme is the EU's 10 billion euro ($12.2
billion) programme to develop a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning
System.
The FT also said that Britain's business minister Greg Clark was taking
legal advice on reclaiming the 1.4 billion euros it has invested in
Galileo since the project started in 2003.
The European Commission has started to exclude Britain and its companies
from sensitive future work on Galileo ahead of the country's exit from
the EU in a year's time, a move which UK business minister Clark said
threatened security collaboration.
"We have made it clear we do not accept the Commission’s position on
Galileo, which could seriously damage mutually beneficial collaboration
on security and defence matters," he said in an emailed statement.
Britain has played a big part in Galileo so far, carrying out about 15
percent of the work on it. Clark said that if Britain was excluded it
could result in years of delays and higher costs for the project
"stretching into the billions".
He promised to ensure that Britain's space industry was not deprived of
future opportunities.
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The Russian Soyuz VS01 rocket, carrying the first two satellites of
Europe's Galileo navigation system, blasts off from its launchpad at
the Guiana Space Center in Sinnamary, French Guiana, October 21,
2011. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
"We will continue to work with the UK space sector on this issue and
through our modern Industrial Strategy will ensure the UK can
realise the opportunities of the commercial space age," Clark said.
Britain's space sector is growing four times faster than the rest of
the UK economy and the country has a 7 percent share of the global
space industry.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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