* "Mirages of speculation" don't drive growth - EADS chief
* Tax, currency policy should help exporters - EADS chief
* French national loan could fund new industrial projects
* 10 years since landmark Franco-German aerospace deal
(Adds economist quote, currency, trade background)
By Tim Hepher
PARIS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Europe should beef up support for industry and put exporters first after the financial crisis exposed the "mirages of speculation", the head of Airbus parent EADS said in remarks published on Wednesday.
"I am convinced that Europe must play its industrial card with greater determination. The financial and economic crisis demonstrates that solid and lasting growth cannot be built upon the mirages of speculation," Chief Executive Louis Gallois wrote in an op-ed column for French newspaper Les Echos.
Gallois, who has repeatedly criticised the strength of the euro against the dollar, stepped up calls for governments and monetary policymakers to pay more attention to exporters but analysts said this was unlikely to force a change of thinking.
"Industry and related services are the cornerstone of stable and balanced development. In the face of emerging economies, we have reached a turning point where Europe must decide if it wants to stay in the industrial and technological race or not.
"This suggests first that policies -- taxes, currency, competition and research -- should take account of the need to support European industry, especially companies which export."
Gallois last year described the weakness of the dollar as a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over Europe's largest aerospace group, particularly its civil airliner subsidiary Airbus.
Airbus competes with Boeing for sales of aircraft built in euros but sold in dollars. Its deputy head last week urged central banks to boost currency stability.
Economists say Airbus is a bellwether for growing currency concerns in the euro zone. But tackling imbalances may be beyond Europe's grasp even if it manages to reach consensus internally.
"This is part of wider concern now in the euro area that the strength of the euro is really starting to bite," said Gilles Moec, senior European economist at Deutsche Bank.
"Intervention only works if it is coordinated across major world currencies. Even if Euroland gets really vocal and calls for dollar appreciation against the euro, it would take coordinated action with the (U.S.) Fed, Japan, Britain and probably China. For the time being I don't see any consensus."
RINGSIDE VIEW
Gallois' remarks were timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of a Franco-German deal in 1999 that paved the way for the creation of EADS, with Spain also on board, in 2000.
Europe's grandest financial and industrial ventures grew in tandem over the next decade as the euro asserted itself and airliner sales soared. But the gap between dollar revenues and euro costs squeezed EADS profits. And industrial delays kept a lid on shares which are 22 percent below their flotation price.
The euro stood at $1.08 on the day of the 1999 deal but has since risen 37 percent. At $1.48, it is up 18 percent since early February but well off last year's record of $1.60.
France has been among leading voices expressing concern over trade and foreign exchange imbalances.
But currency strategists say these protests are unlikely to prompt any concerted move even within Europe to restrain the euro's rise in the absence of public pressure from Germany, which traditionally backs a firm currency to curb inflation.
With its ringside view of strategic industries, EADS equally emerged over the years as a barometer of fluctuating industrial ties between the euro zone's two leading economic powers.
Internal power struggles, both between French and German executives and within the French camp, were blamed for exacerbating a crisis over delays to the Airbus A380 superjumbo which led to a plunge in the value of EADS shares in mid-2006.
Gallois told Le Figaro relations between France and Germany had been strengthened by joint efforts to tackle the recent financial crisis and this meant a "positive climate" for EADS.
Franco-German-controlled EADS combines Airbus, the Ariane space rocket, as well as interests in helicopters, missiles, Eurofighter combat planes and France's nuclear deterrent.
Gallois said the time had come to launch bold new industrial projects in Europe and suggested some of the funding could come from a national loan being drawn up by France.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled plans in June to take out a loan from the public or financial markets to fund priority investments for the country's future.
EADS is locked in a long-running dispute with Boeing over the role of government investment in aerospace, with each accusing the other of receiving unfair subsidies.
The World Trade Organisation last month ruled against European government loans for Airbus, according to sources familiar with a confidential draft ruling.
The European Union is counter-suing the United States over research payments which it says unfairly benefit Boeing. (Editing by Carol Bishopric and Jon Loades-Carter)