Monday July 6, 06:09 PM
Britain, France aim to solve Airbus military jet row
EVIAN, France (AFP) - Britain and France said Monday after a summit in southeastern France they were looking to resolve a row on the long-delayed Airbus A400M European military transport jet project.
The two are "committed to finding a positive resolution to renegotiation of the A400M programme," said a joint statement issued after talks between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Evian.
Deliveries of the first A400M were scheduled for the end of 2009 but that has been pushed back to 2013 at the earliest due to delays in building the engines and there had been fears that Britain would drop out of the project.
Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey had until April 1 to cancel their orders because of the delays but Airbus (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) parent company EADS negotiated a three-month extension to present a new delivery timetable.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters after Monday's summit that he wanted to see the A400M and the A350 long-haul passenger jet projects proceed.
The summit statement said the two governments were "open" to continuing in their commitment to the A400M project "under reasonable conditions."
"The principle underlying this renegotiation is that the company in question will face the consequences of delays in the project and will compensate for the operational capacity deficit resulting from them," it added.
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