Germany, France, Spain to tackle fighter dispute next week, says source

By Sabine Siebold and Tim Hepher

BERLIN/PARIS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - German, French and Spanish defence ministers are set to meet on December 11 to discuss FCAS, Europe's next-generation fighter project, whose future is threatened by industrial turf battles, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The 100-billion-euro ($117 billion) Future Combat Air System (FCAS), floated more than eight years ago, has been mired in disputes between the companies involved over workshare and prized technology.

Bloomberg first reported the planned meeting.

At stake is the next phase of plans to deliver a fighter flanked by drones for France, Germany and Spain by 2040, mirroring a UK-Italian-Japanese initiative called GCAP.

Disagreements between France's Dassault Aviation and Airbus mean the project, also known by its French acronym SCAF, has hit an impasse.

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed the project in a bid to try to make progress. They have asked ministers to intervene.

'YOU DO THIS, YOU DO THAT'

Airbus represents the industrial interests of Germany and Spain in the project. It currently helps build the four-nation Eurofighter. France's traditional fighter champion, Rafale maker Dassault Aviation, represents Paris.

German sources say Dassault is trying to grab 80% control of the project, a figure the French company denies.

French sources accuse Airbus of exploiting its position as the anchor for two out of three countries to gain too much say.

A person close to lower-level preparatory talks said the two manufacturers remained at loggerheads, with "no change".

Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said "the jury is out" on the outcome of the negotiations, which he described as a matter for participating governments.

But he reiterated calls for existing governance arrangements to be kept for the next stage of the project, which involves costly plans to build a flyable demonstrator model.

"We don't want to be in a situation where there is one partner dominating the others and telling (them) 'you do this, you do that'," Faury said in an interview.

Dassault declined comment. CEO Eric Trappier has said Dassault should be free to take key decisions on the core fighter part of the project for which it is accountable, while conceding that Airbus should have an equally important say over the unmanned and other areas for which it has the lead role.

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(Additional reporting by Florence LoeveWriting by Madeline Chambers, Tim HepherEditing by Kirsti Knolle, Ludwig Burger and Lincoln Feast.)