Well if they're arguing over 'where' not 'if' then the baby is named and little baby Galileo already has proud parents fighting over him.

Christ, they're worse than spoilt kids in a sweet shop. There's pork for all..... and vegetables ..... and gravy ....... and all with the sweet trolley to follow.

With everyone bickering to Lead/not be left behind, is there no leadership being displayed.

Par for the course in Public Service, is it?

And it's just €2.4 bn, that's what, £1.5 bn? Peanuts, I say feed the monkeys! Plus the resolution will be higher, so hopefully your galileo sat-nav would know which lane you're in on those huge roundabouts that are impossible to navigate and advise you accordingly.

"You reckon that 2.4Bn is a fair price to pay for a service we currently get for free, only owned by a different big-government entity with delusions of grandeur that we don't trust?"

TeeCee,

We can't have GPS suffering delusions all on their own. What on earth do you think special relationships are for, if not to beam down specialist help into the nests of vipers.

They do say that nothing is ever free, which makes one wonder what it must be really costing us whenever they wheel that hoary old chestnut out to counter another player entering the game.

Psst..... has anyone any idea how long it takes to run off 2.4Bn at the printing works for spending elsewhere? Any longer than the time to read this post, do you think?

We get whatever the US (who own it) will let us have. If the US have financial difficulties, they could stop GPS updates. The US is mostly mid lattitudes and North, so artic circle coverage is bad and the southern hemisphere is worse.

Also, we only get the resolution and accuracy that the US will let us have.

Given we've given a £25Bn (~€40Bn) loan to NR merely because a run on a single, relatively small bank is a bad idea, ponying up £1.4Bn for Gallileo isn't any worse.

Once the new Lisbon constitutional ooops "reform" Treaty, on which Gordon Brown is so very keen, has been ratified there will be no way to stop the EU funding Galileo even if it has to rob all the other budgets and shove it through on majority voting. UK is stuffed on this, it knows there is no point in Galileo, but can't stop picking up the bills. This is because under Brown's beloved constitutional oops "reform" treaty, the EU will at be legally authorised to run its own space policy, instead of using the ESA. This white elephant, redundant before it is launched, will be an immensely expensive, and inevitably mis-managed, EU funding disaster, and the UK will be far and away the biggest payer, as we always seem to be with the EU.

Yes. It could also allow for extra train and air movements too and it's not that expensive compared to the 'value' of digital cartography company shareholders/aquisitions. We must have secondary & independent european sourced navigation with or without politics I think. It's just got to happen.