MUNICH (HRNW) – Slow German government export approvals are holding up Airbus Defence & Space (AIR.PA) defence exports worth several billions of euros, the company’s chief executive said on Sunday, urging Berlin to speed up the process.
“Several countries are interested in the (military transport plane) A400M. Unfortunately we are having difficulties to get the German export licences on time,” Michael Schoellhorn told Reuters in an interview at the Munich Security Conference.
“Our problem is that we haven’t received any contracts yet from the Zeitenwende and important exports are not being approved.
This puts us in a very unsatisfactory situation,” Schoellhorn said.
He was referring to a 100-billion-euro ($107 billion) special fund set up last year to bring the military back up to scratch after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a “Zeitenwende” or sea change in security policy days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.