Regulatory changes regarding launch and operation of global satel...

up the beleaguered system entirely with public money, after business couldn’t agree on a way to put up financing (CD Sept 20 p12). The draft report by Hungarian MEP Etelka Barsi-Pataky amends an earlier proposal by the Parliament and the Council of Ministers on Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System, a three-satellite network. Crucial amendments concern EU ownership of the system, revenue-sharing and the Global Navigation Satellite System Supervisory Authority’s role, said an ITRE spokeswoman. Also on the agenda is a report on an EC move to select and authorize mobile satellite services systems, which link satellites and mobile earth stations. In February 2007, the EC decided on harmonized use of the 2 GHz frequency bands for MSS but didn’t say how MSS operators should be chosen and authorized, UK MEP Fiona Hall’s report said. Hall said she “broadly” agrees with the EC plan but sees some parts of the selection and authorization process as political rather than technical -- and so deserving of exclusion from EU “comitology,” in which committees aid the EC with regulations, sometimes unsupervised. Hall wants more emphasis on public interest services and coverage throughout Europe. She urged quick accord on the plan, saying EU MSS providers’ chance of becoming world leaders in the market will “slip out of our grasp” without fast action on a selection and authorization process.