The Czech Republic is fighting hard to host Europe's ambitious satellite navigation program Galileo — a project that would relieve the continent's dependence on the U.S. Global Positioning System — but it faces stiff competition from nearly half of the European Union.

The Czech Republic and 10 other countries — including Germany, France and Britain — have applied to oversee the program dubbed the Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA). Winning the bid has become a prestigious matter for many countries, if for no other reason than it will serve up to 400 million people. But the project will also bring hundreds of highly skilled and high-paying jobs when it is launched in 2008.

"This could be the most significant new EU office set to open in the near future," said Transportation Minister Aleš Řebíček. "That's why it's so difficult to come to terms about where the new seat will be."

Řebíček and other Czech officials are hinting that the country is due. After more than two and a half years of EU membership, the Czech Republic is still waiting to host an EU organization, and the new government put Galileo in its sights this fall.

The country will be shortlisted to host the project, according to unnamed Brussels sources cited in several Czech media outlets.

The Czechs are pitching the current Czech Consolidation Agency (ČKA) building in Prague 7-Holešovice as a possible new home for the GSA. The state-owned bailout bank will be phased out by the end of 2007, and the building will be without a tenant. The government has offered to lease the building to the satellite program for a symbolic 1 euro ($1.33/28 Kč) per year for five years.

"We've got all necessary facilities and a very competitive offer, but it's become a political issue now," Řebíček said.

Indeed, the application process for the future GSA seat has become a hot issue for politicians.

President Václav Klaus, who has said he does not like to lobby, pushed hard for the Czech Republic to host the project at an EU summit in Finland Oct. 20.

"I think that I have never humbled myself in such a way," Klaus said.

Before the Dec. 12 meeting, Czech representative Jan Kohout threatened to block any talks unless the group decided to put the project in one of the 10 new EU member states. Kohout said there were signs that the old members had a secret agreement that the Galileo headquarters would end up in one of the 15 original states.

The old member states agreed that new European agencies would be located in new member states after the 2004 EU enlargement, but that has not come to pass, and the new members are beginning to question how much they are really involved in matters, Řebíček said.

Meanwhile, the old EU member states express concerns about security. For example, they point out that the Czech Republic has not yet become a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and that the country also lacks bilateral agreements with other EU countries over exchanging coded information.

Řebíček insisted the Czech Republic would sign the particular agreements and would join the ESA well before the GSA opening.