EADS chief executive Tom Enders who addressed German lawmakers on Wednesday on its mooted tie-up with BAE Systems has some way to go before winning over the German government, officials said.
Enders addressed the Bundestag's economic affairs committee in a one-hour, closed-door session where Chancellor Angela Merkel was represented by state secretary Hans-Joachim Otto.
"The federal government has kept open whether it wants to give its approval here or not," Kerstin Andreae, deputy chairwoman of the Green party's parliamentary group, said.
"From what we hear, it's not just a question of 'how' on the merger but also very basically 'whether'," she said after the committee met.
Later on, the government's aeronautics sector coordinator Peter Hintze told parliamentary question time: "The position of the government on the question of the merger is still completely open."
According to an economy ministry report, Berlin has reservations over the fact that EADS, the parent company of Airbus, would hold only 60 percent of the new group under the proposed $45-billion (35-billion-euro) deal, and that veto rights of participating countries would be limited.
The ministry also said that there had been inadequate guarantees on keeping company plants open, potentially threatening jobs.
EADS has operations in France, Germany and Spain.
British arms maker BAE Systems and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company revealed earlier this month that they were in talks to form a global aerospace and defence leader that would compete more effectively against US rival Boeing.
Crucially, however, the proposed transaction would give BAE 40 percent of the combined group and EADS a majority 60-percent stake.
Under the plan being discussed, the merged group would issue special golden shares to each of the French, German and British governments to replace their current ownership structures.
After the parliamentary committee, the EADS chief executive defended the projected division of shares in the proposed merger.
"I consider the 60 to 40 value ratio very fair," Enders insisted.
He said the share division had not been hatched by company bosses "over a beer, but has been prepared in a very professional way and this ratio very fairly reflects the circumstances of these two companies".
He also said after leaving the German parliamentary committee that other companies of a similar size had demonstrated that a state shareholding was not always required.
"There are many examples in industry which prove that companies in this branch and of this dimension do not necessarily have to be run via state holdings," he said.
Andreae said after the committee meeting that more questions remained than had been answered.
"It is not explicable, in industrial-political, technological-political terms, what is to our advantage from this merger," she said.
Martin Lindner, a member of the committee for the pro-business Free Democrats, a junior partner in the centre-right coalition, said before the meeting that he believed such a tie-up could herald big opportunities.
But he added: "For me it's not a question of state influence in EADS or in all the EADS divisions, but about keeping certain technologies in the country, that's the crucial point".
Berlin and Paris have taken a wait-and-see approach to the proposed tie-up, which was a major topic of talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande at the weekend.
Defence ministers from Germany, France and Britain are meeting in Cyprus on Wednesday to discuss the plan.