[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[infowar.de] U.S. Out of Line on Global Positioning, EU Says
Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sorgenkind: trans-atlantische Beziehungen
-Es geht um die technologische Abhängigkeit Europas
von USA und US-amerikanische Sorgen darum, dass
Galileo im Falle eines Krieges von "Feinden"
(Wolfowitz) benutzt werden können.
-Frankreich ist für Galileo.
-Von Deutschland, GB und Holland erwartet man, dass
sie USA unterstützen werden. (wirtschaftliche
Motivationen)
Während Rumsfeld erwartet, dass Europäische Länder
mehr Geld für Rüstung ausgeben und sich engagierter an
dem Kampf gegen Terrorismus beteiligen, versucht sein
Vize Wolfowitz, Europas technologische Fähigkeiten zu
reduzieren. Gerade diese unnötigen Widersprüche muss
die US-Regierung vermeiden, um die Zukunft der
trans-atlantischen Beziehungen zu sichern.
Mehr zu diesem Thema:
Estranged Partners
By Jessica T. Mathews
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_novdec_2001/mathews.html
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.iht.com/articles/42335.html
Barry James International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
----------------------------------------------------
PARIS The European Commission said Tuesday that the
United States had sought to block the deployment of a
European system of navigation known as Galileo, with
the Americans arguing that an enemy could turn it
against the West in the event of a war.
The U.S. move added to the economic and political
pressures surrounding the project in Europe, where
many countries see it as a vital means of catching up
with America in a key technology sector but others
balk at the expense.
Only last weekend, at a summit meeting in Brussels,
leaders of the European Union instructed government
ministers to try to resolve the financing issues by
March.
A spokesman for the commission said the U.S. Defense
Department had written to the defense ministers of the
15 EU countries warning that Galileo could be used by
an enemy and asking governments to consider scrapping
the project.
But President Jacques Chirac of France warned that
Europeans risked "vassal status" if they abandoned
this and other important space projects.
France and several other governments, as well as the
European Commission, see Galileo as a vital
counterweight to the U.S. Global Positioning System,
which has a vast number of military and civilian
applications, from landing smart weapons on target to
locating trucks on a continental highway network.
The United States offers free use of the Global
Positioning System to the EU countries, but the
commission spokesman, Gilles Gantelet, said there was
no guarantee that it would still be free in 10 years'
time.
Loyola de Palacio, the European commissioner in charge
of the Galileo project, angrily denounced the
prospects of further delays. "We are at the limits of
coherence already," she said, "and any new delay
threatens the profitability of the project."
While the United States had originally expressed its
support for the European project, Mrs. Palacio said
there was now "a letter and pressure exerted by the
United States. American pressure against the Galileo
project has increased since September 11."
The commission says the project must be operational by
2008 to be profitable. This is partly because the
World Telecommunication Union has guaranteed radio
frequencies only up to that date, and partly because
the EU has entered into commitments with a number of
other countries, including the United States, Canada,
Russia and China.
Under the worst possible scenario, including the need
for backup launchers and satellites, the final bill to
deploy Galileo could be as high as E3.6 billion ($3.2
billion), according to an independent accounting
survey carried out on behalf of the commission this
year.
But the accounting study also estimated that Galileo
would generate economic benefits more than four times
greater than that, with wide scale applications in
transport and personal communications, and a vital
contribution to the operations of police, fire and
emergency services. The study indicated substantial
social and economic benefits, "notably for the
protection of the environment, employment and European
technological development."
Mr. Gantelet said the U.S. objections were contained
in a letter dated Dec. 4 from the deputy secretary of
defense, Paul Wolfowitz. He said the Americans
considered, "in times of conflict, they would have
problems because of Galileo. They feel that the enemy
could use some applications of Galileo and that they
could not impede that."
According to diplomatic sources who have seen the
letter, Mr. Wolfowitz said the United States was
planning to upgrade its Global Positioning System by
separating the military and civilian spectra.
The addition of Galileo services in the same spectra,
the letter said, "will significantly complicate our
ability to ensure availability of critical GPS
services in times of crisis or conflict and at the
same time assure that adversary forces are denied
similar capabilities."
He said the U.S. government was willing to work toward
finding acceptable solutions to "avert potentially
serious impacts."
The apparent U.S. bid to block Galileo is likely to
have the most resonance precisely in the countries
most skeptical about the project: Britain, the
Netherlands and Germany. They argue in essence that it
is pointless to spend so much money on something they
can get for free from the United States.
Because of their objections, EU transport ministers
refused on Dec. 7 to release money to fund the next
phase of the project.
In a speech to the National Center for Space Studies
in Paris, Mr. Chirac said that satellite navigation
had vital commercial and industrial applications and
would be a key factor in the European Union's ambition
to build up an independent security capability, with
the planned creation of a rapid reaction military
force.
Mr. Chirac said the United States spent six times more
on space ventures than the European Union. Not to
react to U.S. space conquests, he said "would lead our
country inevitably to a vassal status, first
scientific and technical and then industrial and
economic."
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of
your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com
or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
Liste verlassen:
Mail an infowar -
de-request -!
- infopeace -
de mit "unsubscribe" im Text.