European ministers vowed yesterday to press ahead with plans to develop a satellite navigation system to provide "independence" from the US, in spite of divisions about how to pay for it.
Transport ministers from the 27-member bloc agreed unanimously to end talks with a private consortium contracted to develop the Galileo system and to find €2.4 billion to build it themselves instead.
Wolfgang Tiefensee, German transport minister, who chaired the Luxembourg talks, said Galileo was of "colossal importance" to Europe. "Europe should have its own satellite navigation system," he said. "It would gain independence vis a vis other states such as the US."
But the UK said it would ground the project unless a business case for it could be made - and insisted other European Union projects be scrapped to pay for it.
Stephen Ladyman, UK transport minister, said: "I don't see a strategic case for it. One of the questions we have never asked is how to make a return from this system."
Although €1 billion of European funds have already been spent on Galileo, Mr Ladyman said the UK would seek cancellation if concerns were not answered.
But Britain faces stiff resistance. France joined Germany in stressing the need for Europe to retain high-technology expertise and gain an independent space capability.
Dominique Bussereau, French transport minister, called the Galileo project "strategic and indispensable". The "British brake" could be overcome, he said.
The US military operates the global positioning system. China is building its Beidou system and Russia is improving its Glonass system.
Mr Tiefensee said a compromise over funding would have to be found by the end of the year if the system was to beat rivals.
Ministers asked the European Commission to draw up a detailed funding proposal and suggest possible sources of money by October.
Officials now admit that an earlier decision to allow the merger of two private-sector consortiums contracted to build the system had failed.
