Today's Date:

The Prime Minister welcomed the European Union Transport Council's decision today to launch the Galileo programme.

The launch of the Galileo programme is excellent news for Europe and for France. There is a spectacular growth in new applications for satellite navigation systems, which will tomorrow be at the heart of our economies and our communication systems. So it was fundamental for Europe, which has successfully demonstrated with Ariane and Airbus that it was capable of being one of the world's major players, to develop its own system in this strategic technological sphere. It will thus be able to make Galileo a benchmark as the GPS is today.

Because this very comprehensive project combines space technology and electronic and telecommunications skills in which our firms excel, this is a tremendous development for our firms and for jobs. This decision sees the materialization of the government's unstinting efforts since 1997 to promote the project. Our partners have been convinced that Galileo constitutes an essential technological and strategic challenge and that we had to forge ahead with it./.