§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the United Kingdom's involvement in the proposed European Galileo positioning system. [HL4161]
§ Lord Davies of OldhamGalileo is a project developed jointly by the European Union and the European Space Agency. The United Kingdom is therefore involved in Galileo both as a member of the European Union, and as a participating state in the European Space Agency programme. We have taken a leading role through expert involvement in technical committees and as one of the four countries with the equal largest shares in the financial contributions to the European Space Agency's element of the programme. As a result, companies in the United Kingdom have benefited from the award of contracts including the construction of the first test satellites for the programme. We are also committed to the development of new applications for satellite navigation that will make use of the enhanced performance that will be available when Galileo is operational.