I still fail to see why this is an issue. The U.S. system is available and for all practical purposes free to the world. Why would someone want to duplicate the system at such expense to the taxpayers for, from what I can tell, that the U.S. might happen to shut it off at some point. Lets look at that argument for a second. Why would we do that? Military reasons right? Well since the GPS inception the U.S. has fought two major conflicts in Iraq and smaller regional interventions in Haiti, Panama, Grenada, Kosovo, and Somalia. Was it ever shut off? No! And lets face it. If it ever had to be....then we as a planet would have a lot more to worry about than finding, and blowing the dust off, a map! Save your money folks. This one is on "U.S."

Murph, Madisonville, USA/KY

Reminds me of the Concorde: advanced, World-beating, commercially useless. You would think people would learn from their mistakes, wouldn't you?

Frederick Davies, Oxford, UK

I am eurosceptic and yet I think that the idea was not stupid (are the Chinese and the Russians stupid ?).

Pierre, Coutances, Caen

I just loved some of the preceding comments, which seem to claim that the reason the Galileo project is floundering is all the USA's fault. How typical of the Europhiles. Most of us however, are not at all surprised that a fanciful project specified by European bureaucrats and paid for by sucker taxpayers is failing. Not all will be lost however. I'm sure that a large number of Eurosnouts are stuck in the trough and will continue to be so.

Tam Earl-Aine, Cheltenham,

Galileo has suffered from a number of conflicts. First, there is no agreed objective as each participating state wants a subtly different outcome. Second, the money spent on the project is subject to 'just retour' whereby each state has to spend what it puts in, regardless of national capability. Third, European institutions have seen the programme as a way of developing a supranational infrastructure at the expense of national interests. Unless these conflicts can be resolved Galileo is doomed to drift on and on which is a pity as there is a very good case for European system complementing the US GPS by adding reliability and redundancy for the benefit of all users.

Andy Lovett, Northwood, UK

Don't be fooled: the main purpose of Galileo is surveillance, in particular of all vehicle movements in the Evil Union.

But what benefits! No more need for ugly speed cameras - get enough penalty points to lose your licence in 15 minutes, without even realising. And surely the potential for fines (and bribes?) will quickly put the system into profit?

Of course, as with British CCTV systems, all the watchers will be of impeccable character, so if you have nothing to hide...

Surely you are not saying that you have something to hide, Comrade?

Alec in France, Aude, France

The author forgets that Galileo as originally designed was much superior to the US system and, through fierce political pressure from the US, was reduced to only a semi-useful fragment of its former self. In the end, it likely wasn't worth the doing. Too bad. Another case of US bullying to remain 'king of the hill.'

Larry Romanoff, Shanghai, China

Sir,
you're perfectly right at suggesting that for a program that was supposed to be operational in 2008, the 3.4 billions Euro decision of December 2007 may appear as a quite expensive "Face Saving" move from the EU.
However, it would be fair to mention that this failure can be seen as one the most prominent success of the british diplomacy in its continuous attempt to derail any european initiative that could put at risk the very special relationship between US and UK . Indeed, the initial Galileo purpose to get rid of US military "information dominance" was part of a political vision for Europe that has been systematically opposed by Britsh establishment . To this regard, the subtle strategy of British diplomacy, administrations and firms to engage the Galileo project into as many deadlock as possible would provide enough matters for a dedicated book.
Best regards,

Nussli, Toulouse, France

It's an EU project. Our money being spent inefficiently by unelected, undemocratic bureaucrats on things that no one wants or needs. How do you get on this gravy train?

Bob Reeve, Brighton,