![]() But it is not willing to give up the possibility of military, political, and commercial autonomy. They have come to fit into the category of infrastructure that a state - or a union of states, in this case - needs to look after for itself.Įurope is not a superpower mainly because its people don't want to spend the money necessary to become one. Positioning services, European officials believe, will be indispensable - for improved air traffic control, intelligent highway systems, and a range of commercial activities. Such vital infrastructure is not something states entrust to outsiders. The drive for autonomy is rooted in the idea that space is an essential part of a nation's infrastructure in the 21st century - as railways were in the 19th century and roads and power grids were in the 20th. Galileo represents the same assertion of independence with regard to positioning systems. European Air War driver#Commonly called the Bildt report (it was coauthored by Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden and chair of the Dayton peace process Jean Peyrelevade, chair of Credit Lyonnais and Lothar Späth, a German industrialist and politician), its key conclusion was this: "The driver of European Space Policy is to make Europe not dependent on non-European space infrastructure for any strategic and commercial applications associated to space systems." The inelegant double negative is a mild-mannered but firm declaration of independence.Įurope already has its own launchers and communications satellites (the development of which the US tried to stymie in the 1970s), and in recent years, Germany and Italy have increased efforts to develop satellites for military reconnaissance. ![]() To understand Europe's insistence on building Galileo, it's important to consider first an influential report, written in 2000, on the future of European space policy. ![]()
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