Germany told France it would scrap joint work to develop a next-generation fighter jet after encountering industrial rivalries over Europe's most ambitious defence programme.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the troubled project on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Montenegro last week and concluded there was no prospect of breaking months of deadlock between the arms firms involved in the plan.
Mr Merz has therefore advised Mr Macron not to pursue the construction of a joint fighter aircraft any further, German officials said.
Mr Macron's office said the two had discussed the project at length and regretted that the main industry partners, European aerospace group Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain, and French company Dassault Aviation, were unable to reach an agreement.
France appeared to lay the blame on Germany. “The German authorities felt it was not possible to exert further pressure on the companies involved,” Mr Macron's office said. “France remains convinced that Franco-German co-operation is essential for both our countries, as well as for our European partners, in the field of defence and security.”
Mr Merz is expected to announce the decision at the ILA Berlin air show on Wednesday, French news website La Tribune reported.
The decision to end the core pillar of Europe's largest defence project comes as western military officials warn of a growing threat from Russia, and as the US is stepping up pressure for Europe to rearm.
Mr Macron launched the project with former German chancellor Angela Merkel in 2017. But the failure to reach an agreement on the €100 billion ($116 billion) project, which also includes Spain, underscores the struggles Europe has faced in rebuilding its military capacity after decades of underinvestment.
For his part, Mr Merz has openly questioned whether developing a manned sixth-generation fighter jet still made sense for his country's air force and has said Germany does not need a nuclear-capable jet that could land on an aircraft carrier.
“It's hardly ideal signalling either to Washington or Moscow,” Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the IISS think tank, told Reuters.
Face-saving solution
The project, which centred on a core fighter jet supported by drones and linked by a classified “combat cloud”, had been in doubt for months amid wrangling over specifications and control.
A European source briefed on the matter told Reuters the two sides were moving towards a face-saving solution in which the systems outside the core fighter, such as the “combat cloud” of highly secure links, would continue to be developed under the same name: Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
The compromise is mainly symbolic, because FCAS is a generic name for such systems and not unique to this plan, but officials have been seeking a formula allowing Mr Macron to relinquish the fighter jet without having to declare the whole project dead.
Mr Macron and Mr Merz had tried for months to salvage the project and overcome differences between Airbus and Dassault.
There was no immediate comment from the companies, but Germany's IG Metall union said it welcomed the decision to end the scheme, saying it had been clear for months that Dassault and Airbus would not be able to co-operate on an equal footing.
“I would like to thank Friedrich Merz for this difficult but necessary decision, which is in the interests of Germany as an aviation hub and of the workforce,” said Jurgen Kerner, deputy chairman of IG Metall.
In addition to disputes over control of the next phase of development and access to intellectual property, the two sides had widely differing requirements for the aircraft.
The breakdown over the core fighter echoes France's decision to withdraw from the Eurofighter project in the 1980s and follows years of increasingly public bickering between Dassault and Airbus.
The defence initiative "has been on life support for three years”, said UK-based defence analyst Francis Tusa.
