Airbus military's parent EADS has denied reports that it threatened to stop work on the A400M after several of its customer nations failed to agree to drop penalty payments, due because of the delays that have plagued the programme. The allegations were published in the German weekly Der Spiegel on September 22, in an item that contained details of a letter sent by Louis Gallois, the French chief executive of EADS and Airbus, to the German ministry of defence. It is said to have stated that Airbus's current position on the A400M could become untenable within months and that its customers should wave the rig ht to penalty payments or EADS wouId be forced to freeze work on the A400M .EADS has had to invest E∪D1.4 billion ($2 billion) of its own money to continue development of the aircraftand admits that it will be very unlikely to make a profit on the project. Franz Josef Jung, the German defence minister, turned down a written request from Gallois to discuss reducing the penalties after he consulted other European customers, including France and the United Kingdom.
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机译：空客军方的母公司EADS否认有报道称其威胁要停止在A400M上的工作，因为由于困扰该计划的延误，其几个客户国家未能同意放弃罚款。这些指控已于9月22日在德国周刊《明镜周刊》上发表，其中包含EADS和空中客车公司法国首席执行官路易斯·加洛瓦斯致德国国防部的一封信的细节。据说已经说过，空中客车公司在A400M上的当前位置可能会在几个月内变得站不住脚，其客户应该动用罚款来支付罚金，否则EADS将被迫冻结A400M的工作。EADS必须投资E∪D1 0.4亿欧元（约合20亿美元）的资金用于飞机的继续开发，并承认在该项目上获利的可能性很小。德国国防部长弗朗兹·约瑟夫·荣格（Franz Josef Jung）在咨询了包括法国和英国在内的其他欧洲客户之后，拒绝了加洛瓦的书面要求，讨论减少处罚。
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