e 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," French Defence Minister Herve Morin said. 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. 
(L to R) Defence ministers from France Herv Morin, Spain Carme Chacon, Turkey Vecdi Gonul, Luxembourg Luc Frieden and Britain Kuentin Davis pose in front of an Airbus A400M military plane during the meeting of defence ministers from the seven European nations engaged in building the troubled Airbus A400M military plane on June 22, 2009 in Sevilla. The ministers agreed to postpone until next month a decision on whether to renegotiate the contract of the Airbus A400M military plane. The A400M transporter was initially scheduled to start being delivered at the end of 2009 but the programme has suffered from delays of at least three years and clients have threatened to cancel their orders.
Deliveries of the A400M transporter were scheduled to start at the end of 2009, but the program has suffered from delays of at least three years, and clients have threatened to cancel their orders. The seven countries initially had the possibility to cancel their orders as of April 1 because of the delays, but EADS negotiated a three-month extension to present a new delivery timetable.
That extension was due to expire at the end of this month but is now extended until the end of July.
France and Germany were in favor of a six-month delay to renegotiate the contract, but Britain expressed concern at the additional cost of such a move. "For our British colleagues, it was out of the question," Morin said.
"It is better to avoid a complete blockage, and I have proposed that we have this delay of one additional month," he said. He proposed that the ministers meet again in late July to allow time to gather the "elements that it is hoped will allow us to be able to commit to a renegotiation of the contract and allow the continuation of the program." 
The A400M programme is a direct result of a commonly expressed need by European Air Forces for a new generation military airlifter. The scope of this initiative to jointly specify and procure an aircraft of a common definition remains unique at this stage. European NATO members issued a Request for Proposal in September 1997. It was to respond to this RFP that the aerospace industries of the concerned nations came together in the partnership now known as Airbus Military. June 2001 saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which represented a major milestone towards the industrial launch of the A400M. In May 2003, the contract was signed between Airbus Military Sociedad Limitada and OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d'Armement), representing Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey, and United Kingdom for a total of 180 aircraft. In April 2005 South Africa ordered eight aircraft, followed in December by a contract signed with Malaysia for four aircraft. Both nations became A400M programme partners, bringing the total commitment to 192 aircraft.
Quentin Davies, Britain's minister for defence equipment and support, described Monday's talks as "difficult." Asked whether Britain would remain in the project, he replied "we will be if we can be, but we need to make a very great deal of progress with [Airbus] in order to save this project."
Spain's secretary of state for defence Constantino Mendez emphasized that "all countries showed their willingness to be in the program and that they did not plan to withdraw either completely or partially."
The military transport plane was unveiled last year but has been hit by delays in building its massive turbo-prop engines, putting the 20 billion euro ($28 billion) project at risk.
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