Germany, France, Spain move to end deadlock in fighter jet dispute

(Updates with Spanish defence minister in Berlin on Thursday) FRANKFURT, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Germany, France and Spain will try this week to break a deadlock over Europe’s next-generation fighter jet programme, a project worth up to 100 billion euros ($117 billion) seen as vital for the region’s defence ambitions as the war in Ukraine grinds on. The push for progress at talks between the countries’ defence ministers follows mounting political pressure to salvage the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), launched more than eight years ago but stalled by industrial rivalries. Boris Pistorius of Germany, Catherine Vautrin of France and Spain’s Margarita Robles are due to meet in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the fate of the FCAS project - or SCAF in French. Plans for FCAS have been mired in disagreements between France’s Dassault Aviation (AM.PA) and Airbus (AIR.PA) over how manufacturing and technology development should be divided up. A German defence ministry spokesperson said on Monday that defence contracting projects would be on the agenda in Berlin, when asked whether the FCAS venture would be discussed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron are also expected to seek a resolution of the disagreement when they meet next week. A senior German lawmaker on Tuesday suggested that a focus on data network capabilities, known as “Combat Cloud”, and on unmanned systems could salvage the project. As a result, each country could focus on its own fighter jet, she said. UNION ESCALATES, REJECTS DASSAULT PARTICIPATION Germany’s powerful IG Metall union escalated tensions further on Wednesday, warning it would stop cooperating on the programme if France’s Dassault remained involved. A senior IG Metall official wrote in a letter to Pistorius and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil that the union had lost trust in Dassault for claiming sole leadership of the project. The French metalworking employers’ organisation, whose president is Dassault’s CEO Eric Trappier, responded by saying it cannot accept an exclusion of France’s industrial interests. In July, Trappier said FCAS needed clearer leadership as partners prepare for a second phase involving a flying demonstrator. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told France Inter radio on Wednesday he believed the programme would progress, but modes of cooperation were yet to be agreed. European Union leaders are due to meet in Brussels on December 17-19. Merz has said he wants a decision on the project’s future by year-end. ($1 = 0.8537 euros)