FRANCE/GERMANY: French president Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder have urged European leaders to continue the EU constitution ratification process despite the rejection by French and Dutch voters.
The two leaders also agreed during a hastily arranged weekend visit by Mr Chirac to Berlin that Britain must compromise on its EU rebate if looming budget talks are to be successful.
"The chancellor and the president agreed that the constitutional process must continue so that the views of each country are respected," said Bela Anda, the government spokesman in Berlin. The two leaders agreed over dinner in the chancellery that "particularly in the current phase, we cannot leave Europe in the lurch".
Mr Schröder made clear that "national egotism" can play no role in the mid-June budget talks, according to Mr Anda.
"Without calling any country by name, the chancellor made it clear that everyone must be prepared to shift their position in order to get a deal," said Mr Anda.
Mr Chirac agreed that all sides should "make a gesture" to reach agreement, according to his spokesman, Jerome Bonnafont. He declined to say whether this gesture included a French compromise on farm subsidies, but said the two leaders would establish a joint position for the budget negotiations during the next of their usual meetings this Friday.
Mr Chirac's lightning visit to Berlin was intended to show that Berlin and Paris are still standing together despite a difficult time for the European union, said Mr Bonnafont.
Meanwhile, Germany's opposition CDU leader, Angela Merkel, entered the EU row over the weekend, saying the French and Dutch "no" showed people were "overwhelmed" by the planned EU accession of Turkey.
She accepted that the decision to begin accession talks with Ankara in October was "agreed", but said the CDU would change the German approach to the talks if it won September's general election.
A CDU-led government would "bring its conviction to the talks that a privileged partnership instead of full membership is the correct result for the talks".
The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, warned that a "so-called privileged partnership contradicts the spirit of relations between Turkey and the EU".
"Remarks such as those in Germany from the CDU put the relations between Turkey and the EU on the line," said Mr Erdogan to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Meanwhile, CDU European spokesman Matthias Wissmann went even further than his party leader, saying the French and Dutch votes put the 2007 planned accession of Romania and Bulgaria into question.
"If fundamental things don't change in Romania in the coming months, then the January 1st, 2007 accession date is completely unrealistic," said Mr Wissmann.
Only a vote by a member state national parliament could hinder the 2007 accession wave.
A non-representative telephone poll of 391,000 readers of Bild at the weekend found that 96.9 per cent of Germans were opposed to the European constitution. Germany ratified the constitutional treaty last month in a two-stage vote by the two houses of parliament.
A representative poll at the weekend found that 44 per cent of Germans support the constitution, down from 52 per cent before the French vote.