Anger at threat over EU satellite project

BRITAIN must accept being frozen out from parts of the EU’s global navigation satellite system, Michel Barnier said yesterday.

The EU’s chief negotiator spoke out amid a wave of disapproval from member states at Brussels’ hardline approach to the £9billion Galileo project.

Mr Barnier said it was inevitable that UK involvement would be limited due to Brexit.

his intervention came after British ministers repeated a promise to build a rival if no compromise was found.

But, in a sign of growing discontent with Brussels, governments across the bloc have raised concerns about the European Commission’s decision to cut UK firms out of the scheme.

The unease has been fuelled by a desire to conclude a wideranging Brexit security agree-

‘Consequences of their decisions’

ment with the UK, which remains one of the Europe’s leading military powers. Britain has said it ‘unconditionally’ backs a future security relationship with Brussels, but warned EU failure to back down on the satellite row could scupper future relations.

Mr Barnier yesterday insisted the EU was ‘not kicking the UK out’ of the Galileo programme, but said British companies could not legally compete for contracts attached to the project.

‘The UK decided unilaterally and autonomously to withdraw from the EU, leaving its programmes as well,’ he said.

The French official said the UK had ‘misunderstood’ the issue and told British politicians they needed to ‘assume all the consequences of their decisions’.

The EU’s blunt legalistic approach to Galileo has infuriated the Government, which has called for special access to the programme given the UK’s £1.2billion investment to date.

Mr Barnier said the British security services would still be able to access encrypted information produced by Galileo if a compromise is found in negotiations.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson raised his ‘puzzlement’ with the European Commission’s stance on Galileo during talks with his French counterpart JeanYves le Drian yesterday.