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Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/97 EUROPEAN RESTRUCTURING: WHO WILL WAIT FOR FRANCE? By Wolfdietrich Hoeveler Paris in June: The new French government of socialists, communists and greens is throwing sand in the gears of the European aerospace industry. The privatization of Air France is at stake, as is the one from Thomson-CSF and all military programs will be re-assessed. The election of a new president for Arianespace was stopped. The restructuring of Airbus Industrie is facing major French opposition to introduce a market-conforming cost management and, most of all, a company management with full control of the individual production sites. This situation is only superficially the responsibility of the newly elected socialist party. They only follow through with what has been pending for the past months anyway: the French resistance against the big opening up in the direction of European integration. The motto of the government in Paris: Who cares about the neighbors, we do what we want and what does us good. Joint goals, such as equal competition conditions in Europe, are left behind. At the same time, Paris is complaining about unfair competition from the USA. Paris is doing so although there are currently good perspectives for European companies to work together with the USA which is presently reorienting its aerospace industry to global structures. If the private enterprise companies in Europe continue to bond strongly with France, they will miss this chance for a global connection and they will loose markets. In Germany, jobs in the high-technology branch are at stake. We have made ourselves dependent on decisions of the French government, only to reach a status of a preferred supplier for the French industry. British Aerospace realized this danger and is splitting from its former partner McDonnell Douglas which can't be any longer a strategic partner on the other side of the Atlantic due to the British Airbus activities. BAe chairman Evans now forges new links with Lockheed Martin in the Joint Strike Fighter program. Daimler-Benz is also open to contacts with the Americans and Dasa is pursuing a tough course to secure the future. Dr. Manfred Bischoff is set to integrate satellites and missiles into the non-governmental Matra Marconi Space and Matra/British Aerospace Dynamics. The Dasa head announced in Paris that Dasa has submitted an offer to take over the Siemens defence electronics. Depending on the outcome of this step and depending on how the privatization of Thomson-CSF progresses, Dasa may have a good chance to take over this business together with Matra. In the case that the Eurofighter procurement decision will be further delayed, the handing over of the military aviation division to British Aerospace seems to be a sure thing. The possible extraction of MTU from Dasa and potential integration into a new European consortium or BMW Rolls-Royce are other pending questions. With this course, the two important European aerospace companies would reduce their dependency from the government in Paris, such improving their starting position in the merciless global competition. Even though it looks like everything will stay the same with Airbus, one might have to live with it, maybe even for a while. There are plenty of potential partners for the A3XX project and the question arises if one really wants to have troublemakers such as some French politicians or industrialists in the long-term anyway. If France stops the privatization initiatives, the politicians in Brussels and in Bonn were once again tricked by Paris, leaving the German Chancellor no choice: The French government must be told how wrong it is. Any further foul compromises are not getting Europe any farther ahead. If it comes down to it, the government in Paris needs to be turned out. From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 8/97 Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/97 Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated July 4, 1997 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany