As we all know the Galileo project is proving to be a bottomless pit where funding requirements are concerned. Bruno Waterfield, Daily Telegraph, reports on the latest wrangling about the funding problem.
Of course we immediately get the "We wont allow this" line from Philip Hammond, Transport Secretary, who is quoted thus:
"We will continue to object to any increase in the budget, We will certainly block any further increased spending in the next two years."
With Britain in a minority and allocation of these funds being taken by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) meaning that no member state has a veto (page 5 of this Open Europe research paper), one wonders how, exactly, Philip Hammond and the Government will block any further increase.
3 comments:
They love being able to say we're doing our best to stop it knowing that they can claim they were overruled.
The only solution that will work is to leave.
QM: Agreed re leaving. What annoyed me was saying "We will block...." when they can't is a downright lie!
Ah, Stage 2 of the Yachtsman's process for introducing EU legislation in the UK! To recap for those who haven't seen it before, the stages are:
1. There are no such plans
2. There are such plans but we will veto them.
3. We can't veto them, but we've got a great deal on something else as a recompense.
4. The plans as originally proposed are going ahead; it turns out it was all in the treaties anyway.
Postscript: The "great deal" in stage 3 is always vetoed by the French and therefore never delivered.
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