Spain gives approval to industry plan for ground control centres

Support from Spain has established EU-wide support for the controversial Galileo satellite navigation project.

All member states apart from Spain approved plans last Thursday. But Madrid rejected the scheme because it wanted a ground control centre on Spanish territory to have equal importance as those in Germany and Italy.

The agreement on control cetnres in different EU states operating as a networkl and therefore having equal importance, was amended on Friday, said EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot.

In September the European Commission decided to meet a €2.4bn (£1.7bn) funding shortfall for the Galileo European satellite navigation system by reshuffling resources from agriculture and research budgets.