Ministers delay decision on Airbus military plane by a month

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2009

SEVILLE, Spain (AFP) — Defence ministers from the seven European nations engaged in building the troubled Airbus A400M military plane agreed Monday to postpone until next month a decision on whether to renegotiate the contract.

"We have reached an agreement to extend the deadline by one-month to look into the issues, in particular the financial questions with the company," said French Defence Minister Herve Morin.

The ministers from Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg had gathered in Seville, southern Spain, on Monday to decide whether to grant a six-month delay to renegotiate the A400M contract with Airbus, a subsidiary of European aerospace giant EADS.

Deliveries of the A400M transporter were scheduled to start at the end of 2009 but...