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Symbols were not lacking when the cabinets from Germany and France met in Paris in July 2017. President Emmanuel Macron was fresh in office, now he received Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers for the first joint Council of Ministers. State carriages pulled up in front of the Élysée Palace and guards saluted. Politicians from both countries greeted each other with kisses.
However, Macron and Merkel presented the most important symbol to the press. Macron announced that both countries wanted to cooperate on armaments projects, such as the development of a “new generation of combat aircraft” and a tank. Full of pathos, he added: It is a “profound revolution” – but one is “not afraid of revolutions” if they are peaceful. Even Merkel almost got into raptures: The armaments cooperation could “really bring Europe forward.”
Unctuous words are part of it when the governments from Berlin and Paris assure themselves of the friendship of the former hereditary enemies. The announcement that aircraft, tanks and other systems would be developed jointly was seen by observers as a great success: a “political, industrial and strategic quantum leap,” enthused the Berlin foreign policy think tank DGAP. But there were also warnings: the project was too big to fail – so politically charged that it was doomed to succeed.
Six years after the spectacular start, disillusionment has set in in Berlin and Paris. The partners have gotten tangled up in the prestige projects, which are intended to cut costs and simplify cooperation between the armies: National and industrial-political egoism, bean counting and distrust, rivalry between the companies and disputes over the use of the development results dominate. Even the shock of the Russian attack on Ukraine has done little to change that. Actually, Europe urgently wants to strengthen its defense capability so that it will have to rely less on the United States in the future, which is why France, like Germany, has promised significantly more money for armaments. These would be good prerequisites for the projects decided on in 2017 – but they are still not really getting anywhere.
A confidential report by the federal government, available to Capital, now shows how complicated the situation is and how hard the Germans and French are struggling behind the scenes. One project in particular is not progressing: the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), which is estimated to have sales potential of EUR 100 billion – a new main battle tank including escort vehicles that is intended to replace the German Leopard 2 and the French Leclerc. The “contentious issues” could “still not be resolved,” it said. The fight is all about which country and which of the participating companies KMW, Nexter and Rheinmetall should take the lead on certain components for the super tank.
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