Decision on Franco-German fighter jet to be taken by year-end, says Merz

BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron to take a decision on the future of the Franco-German fighter jet programme FCAS by the end of the year, Merz said on Wednesday.

"This will not be discussed at the upcoming government consultations (on Thursday and Friday in the south of France)," Merz told reporters in Berlin.

"I hope we will find a solution because we need to develop a new fighter jet in Europe," he added.

Berlin blames French industry for blocking the next phase in the development of the FCAS programme, estimated to cost more than 100 billion euros ($117 billion), by demanding sole leadership of the project, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

France's Dassault Aviation, which is responsible for the core crewed fighter part of the project, declined to comment.

Airbus and Indra are also involved in the scheme to start replacing French Rafale and German and Spanish Eurofighters with a sixth-generation fighter jet from 2040.

But Berlin and Paris are at odds over the composition of the consortium. France has told Germany it wants a work-share of some 80% in FCAS, a defence industry source told Reuters in July.

The differences jeopardise the launch of the second phase of the programme, targetted by the end of the year: the development of airworthy demonstrators, defence sources said.

At the end of July, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier said FCAS needed clearer leadership and organisation as partners move towards the second phase, and that in practice, decisions over key parts of the current design phase were having to be cleared with Airbus, adding complexity and contributing to delays.

On Thursday, Macron is set to receive Merz for dinner at his Bregancon residence on the Mediterranean coast, with ministers joining the talks on Friday in nearby Toulon.

A French presidency official told reporters in a briefing on Monday that the talks would touch upon the "slight" differences surrounding the fighter jet, adding there was a strong resolve by both sides to make the project work.

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(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Kirsti Knolle. Editing by Madeline Chambers and Mark Potter)