, Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser was forced on Nov. 30 to justify contacts he had with European aerospace group EADS even before a notice of tender won by the group for the sale of Eurofighter jets.
The tender for the controversial sale of 18 Eurofighter jets to Austria was launched in late 2001.
The two-billion-euro ($2.64 billion) contract, signed in 2003 and now challenged by the Social Democrats (SPOe), the environmental Green party and part of the far-right, is under parliamentary investigation following the election defeat in October of conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.
Grasser apparently negotiated with EADS
