Galileo Key to European Defense, Says Parliament

July 11, 2008

While the European Parliament agrees that European space policy should not support the weaponization of space, it nevertheless recognizes the need for Galileo to serve the European Union's defense and security — a change from its earlier stance on the issue.

Galileo proponents originally envisioned the European GNSS as existing completely in and for the civilian realm — one of the chief arguments for Galileo has been the fact that GPS is administered by the U.S. military. In fact the European Parliament in the past has rejected resolutions or legislation that hinted at a military role for Galileo. But with Europe having settled on public funding for the project, on Thursday it recognized the role of Galileo to European defense and military interests in space, effectively changing its collective mind.

The parliament adopted an "own-initiative" report by Karl von Wogau, security and defense subcommittee chair Karl von Wogau by a large majority (483-99-20), effectively making the report a resolution. The report underlines "the need for space assets in order that the political and diplomatic activities of the European Union may be based on independent, reliable and complete information."

It goes onto recognize "the necessity of Galileo for autonomous European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) operations, for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), for Europe's own security and for the Union's strategic autonomy." The report also urges EU member states to ensure the interoperability of their various observation and reconnaissance systems and "recommends the urgent conclusion of agreements between the EU Satellite Center and EU member states to provide imagery to ESDP operation and force commanders."

The report decried the militarization of space, even as it decried Europe's lack of an early-warning system for ballistic missile launches. In the report adopted by the parliament it urges "that under no circumstances should European space policy contribute to the overall militarization and weaponization of space." Parliament goes onto call on the European Union to "promote a conference to review the Outer Space Treaty, with the aim of strengthening it and expanding its scope to prohibit all weapons in space" and called on the international community "to refrain from using offensive equipment in space."

But as for defensive weapons in space, the report supports the establishment of early-warning systems to detect ballistic missile launches. It "underscores the vulnerability of strategic space assets" and therefore "stresses the need for them to be adequately protected by ground-based theater missile defense, planes, and space surveillance systems."

With a nod to the Galileo project's troubled financing history, the report also urges Europe to set up an operational budget for European space assets, putting them under the European community budget. "As experience has shown, large-scale common projects cannot be properly managed when 27 different national budget authorities applying the principle of fair return are involved," it stated.

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