On the occasion of Airbus’ 50th anniversary celebrations, President Macron and Chancellor Merkel surprisingly decided to attend the Franco-German Defense Council together with the foreign and defense ministers of both countries. It was then announced, among other things, that Germany and France – after a long struggle – had agreed on legally binding rules that would apply to exports of jointly built weapons systems in future.
According to Merkel, there is a so-called de minimis rule for joint projects if components from one country are used in an armaments project in another country. This involves thresholds for components that companies from one country supply for a joint project involving several EU countries. In this case, export licenses should be granted more easily so as not to jeopardize joint developments in the defence sector. In addition, Germany should not block exports of French armaments in future if they contain less than 20 percent German components. When asked, Chancellor Merkel assumed that the SPD, which has been fighting against arms exports for decades, would also support the compromise, as it was negotiated at foreign minister level (i.e. with SPD Foreign Minister Heiko Maas). The SPD will elect a new party leadership at the beginning of December and will then also decide whether to remain in the German governing coalition.
The agreement applies centrally to two major projects that began in 2018, on which the heads of government reaffirmed their unity: the joint Franco-German development of a new 6th generation fighter aircraft (FCAS) and a main battle tank. Both projects were considered to be at risk due to the very different approaches to arms exports. Most recently, the two directors of Airbus and Dassault, Dirk Hoke and Eric Trappier, called on governments to commit to both billion-euro projects as soon as possible, with an FCAS prototype to be realized by 2026. The Defense and Security Council, consisting of the defense and foreign ministers, also emphasized the importance of the EU navigation system Galileo not only for civilian but also military use. Incidentally, the agreement reached does not mean that the major joint projects mentioned are now on track. While these issues will probably be decided in the Elyseé, the German Bundestag must approve all expenditure in excess of 25 million euros. Officially for this reason – but probably also due to the uncertainty factor of the SPD – both sides have stated in the communiqués that the contracts for the respective prototypes (demonstrators) with a volume of 150 to 220 million euros are expected to be signed in January 2020.
