Chirac, Schroeder recommit to EU process

BERLIN – The leaders of Germany and France reaffirmed their commitment to the European Union’s proposed constitution on Saturday, agreeing that ratification must continue even after its decisive rejection by French and Dutch voters.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s spokesman, Bela Anda, also underlined a new German willingness to show flexibility on the EU’s future budget and said that “everyone has to move” on the tricky issue.

Schroeder’s Saturday meeting over dinner with French President Jacques Chirac was the first between the leaders of the two countries – the traditional motors of European integration – since the proposed constitution’s defeat in referendums in France and Netherlands over the past week.

“We cannot drop the idea of Europe because there are difficulties,” Anda said after the meeting.

“The chancellor and the president agreed that the constitutional process must continue,” he said. “We must use this development to make very, very clear that Europe is more than short-term voting behavior – this is about creating lasting peace, bringing about prosperity and freedom.”

Chirac’s spokesman, Jerome Bonnafont, said that “one country cannot decide on its own the fate of a treaty negotiated and signed by 25 states.”

“Each member state must be able to express itself in its turn,” he added.

Ten countries have ratified the EU constitution, most of them in parliamentary votes – among them Germany. The charter must be approved by all 25 EU members to take effect and, after the French and Dutch rejections, faces tricky referendums in countries including Denmark and Britain.