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Britain ramped up a Brexit space row with the EU on Thursday, saying it will demand repayment if it is excluded from the Galileo satellite navigation project. Newspaper reports suggested London could seek £1 billion ($1.34 billion, 1.14 billion euros) in compensation for its investment in the programme.
Brussels has said it will deny London access to Galileo's encrypted signals after Brexit, citing legal issues about sharing sensitive security information with a non-member state.
A report issued by Britain's Department for Exiting the European Union said it had "strong objections" to being frozen out of the 10-billion-euro programme and called for an "urgent resolution to the exclusion". "Should the UK's future access be restricted, the UK's past contribution to the financing of space assets should be discussed," the report said. The British report suggested it may have to reopen negotiations on the £39 billion (40-45 billion euros) Brexit "divorce bill" that was agreed in December to make up for its exclusion. It said the deal agreed then had provided for Britain's continued involvement in the Galileo programme, which has important uses in both the civilian and military fields.
[...] Britain played a major role in developing Galileo, an alternative to the US's GPS, which is expected to be fully operational in 2026. It demands continued British access to the secure signal and a right to compete for contracts. Britain is looking into developing its own, separate system if the EU maintains its position, and has also raised the question of Galileo's use of Britain's overseas territories as monitoring bases.
[...] The Times newspaper reported Thursday that the decision to block Britain was being led by a "German-backed clique" in the European Commission, and that it had caused a rift with French officials, who were reportedly unhappy with the plan. Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Baltic states have also objected to denying Britain access, said the report.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @02:26AM (3 children)
Your lack of understandng of wrtten engilsh indicates a poor level of educaton.
The vote was on EEC membershp. Nowhere was a trade block mentioned.
that fantasy only turned up much later.
As you struggle so much with basic english (sorry if you normaly speak something else) I'll make it easy for you.
Just point to a newpaper article or TV report from the time which talks about the EEC being only a trading block.
No one has been able to do this so far. These reports ony exist in the constantly repeated fantasies. (alongside the banana bending stories)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @06:49AM
Excuse me! THAT is exactly what the EEC was, a trade block and nothing else
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 26 2018, @06:51AM (1 child)
I'm afraid it is your lack of understanding that is showing. There was no EEC (European Economic Community) at the time the UK joined. It was called the "United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, 1975" [wikipedia.org].
The expansion into federalism occurred later and was never put to a vote. The UK refused to join the Economic Community and has kept its own currency rather that shift to the euro which is controlled mainly by France and Germany. Some of the reasons that the UK voted to leave the EU (European Union) - albeit narrowly - are that we could no longer kick convicted foreign terrorists out of the UK because the European Court decided that such action wasn't fair, and other EU laws were created that ran counter to the UK's own laws. None of this was ever put to the vote of the UK population. The European Communities has morphed into an organisation that has considerably more influence than the original trade block that it started out as and was never envisaged at the time of the referendum to join. A further frustration was watching UK money being paid to bail out other countries that could not get their own house in order and who fail at any attempt at fiscal management.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:05PM
> we could no longer kick convicted foreign terrorists out of the UK because the European Court decided that such action wasn't fair, and other EU laws were created that ran counter to the UK's own laws.
It is like laying whack-a-mole.
As has repeately been pointed out, that decision by the court of Human Rights not by the EEC court. Why do you continue to confuse the two? can't you prove your case without resortng to fantasies?
> None of this was ever put to the vote of the UK population.
Except by the UK parliment containing MPs voted for by the UK populaton.
Your fantasy is really easy to point out this time. Or can you point to any evidence that the UK MPs weren't voted in by the UK electorate.
> The European Communities has morphed into an organisation that has considerably more influence than the original trade block that it started out as and was never envisaged at the time of the referendum to join
Again, please pont to a singe instance of such a claim being made at the time of the original referendum. No-one has ever been able to do that. Put up or shut up.
> A further frustration was watching UK money being paid to bail out other countries that could not get their own house in order and who fail at any attempt at fiscal management.
You are talkng about the UK which was being bailed out by the IMF and was an economic basket case, unable to produce anything anyone wanted to buy. The UK which had to apply to join the EEC to find someone to trade with?
Perhaps you have confused the film and comic book UK with that of the UK in the real world?