Accusing French planemaker Dassault Aviation of trying to dictate terms on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project, Juergen Kerner, deputy head of the IG Metall union, and Marie-Christine von Hahn, head of the German Aerospace Industries Association, said Germany should make its own jet.

"FCAS was originally planned as a joint project between equal partners and operated as such for a long time," they wrote in an opinion piece published by the Handelsblatt newspaper.

"Those who now demand absolute control should not be surprised if there are consequences," they added, calling for "a commitment to two aircraft within the project".

Launched in 2017 to replace France's Rafale jet as well as the Eurofighter planes used by Germany and Spain, the project has stalled amid disagreements between Dassault and Airbus, which represents German and Spanish interests in the project.

Macron said in November that Paris and Berlin had "an obligation to achieve results" on the project, presenting it as a "test of credibility" for the continent.

But a German government spokesman told AFP in December that efforts to break the deadlock on the project had been unsuccessful.

While agreeing that a failure of the project would "weaken our security, European cooperation, capacity to innovate and not least well-paid jobs in industry", Kerner and von Hahn said developing two jets would represent the "maturation" of FCAS.

"That would allow for different national priorities and reduce tensions because cooperation would then take place where it makes economic and technological sense -- not where it is dictated by political symbolism," they said.

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Dassault Aviation

Airbus Group