Re-inventing the wheel

Following from the EU wasting around £4bn of the Galileo system to rival the already in existence and free to users American GPS system, I now hear that France has received EU approval to spend $152million with several companies so as to build a European rival Quaero (Latin for "I search") to U.S. search giant Google. Meanwhile the EU Commission has also given the German government clearance to spend $165 million U.S. on the German arm of the project, called Theseus.

Two few points come to mind, first why should sovereign European Governments have to get permission from the EU to spend money on R&D? Secondly, what is the point of Countries building a rival to Google, if the private sector think it economic to do so they will, but this is not the role governments should be filling.