The German government is pressing ahead with its plan to buy a stake in Airbus parent EADS from Daimler, after this month's collapse of a merger plan with BAE, and has asked parliament to free up funds for the purchase.
In a letter made available to reporters, the Finance Ministry wrote to members of the parliamentary budgetary committee asking them to give a green light to the talks and to release EUR€1.6 billion (USD$2.08 billion) so that state-owned development bank KfW could proceed.
Plans for the USD$45 billion EADS-BAE merger fell apart earlier this month with most of the participants blaming German Chancellor Angela Merkel for derailing the deal, something Berlin denies.
KfW has been in talks for a year with Daimler, a founder of EADS, to buy a 7.5 percent stake as the automaker refocuses on cars. The talks paused during the merger bid.
