By Sabine Siebold and Andreas Rinke
FRANKFURT, April 18 (Reuters) – Mediators have failed to resolve a dispute between the companies involved in the Franco-German FCAS fighter jet project, though political leaders still have scope to intervene, Handelsblatt reported on Saturday.
Citing people familiar with the talks, the newspaper said the mediators – one from France and one from Germany – would submit separate reports on their efforts.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the German mediator would conclude that building a joint fighter jet, once a key pillar of the project, was no longer feasible.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is to be briefed on the status of the dispute on Sunday, the person added.
Sources familiar with the project have previously told Reuters that Germany and France were likely to abandon development of the joint piloted jet but to continue cooperation on related software and data systems as well as on drones.
Merz is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron at the informal European Union summit in Cyprus on Thursday and Friday next week.
The risk of failure or scale-back of the FCAS project comes as Europe seeks to boost unity and collaboration amid threats from Russia and waning support from the United States.
The project has been stalled by a dispute over control between France’s Dassault Aviation and Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain in the 100-billion-euro project.
The head of Dassault Aviation said on April 1 he was giving his company two to three weeks to see whether a deal could be reached on the air combat system.
Late last month, Merz said he was doing everything in his power to salvage the programme and that two mediators had been appointed to overcome differences.
An Airbus spokesperson in France declined to comment. The German government, the French presidency and Dassault did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
($1 = 0.8631 euros)
(Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Paris, Joern Poltz in Munich. Writing by Ludwig Burger. Editing by Mark Potter)
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