Ever since the European Union (EU)'s founding after World War II, France and Germany have been the driving forces of the bloc, but now the French-German core is experiencing a "difficult period" in the wake of French and Dutch rejections to the EU constitution.

Just days ahead of the June 16-17 Europe summit on the EU charter and EU budget for 2007-2013, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met here Friday for a second meeting in one week to look for solutions to the political crisis arising after rejections to the EU constitution.

Both Chirac and Schroeder stressed the importance of the French-German core at Friday's meeting, during which Chirac said Europe "will better surmount the difficulties when there is a strong will between Germany and France to surmount them." 

 It was exactly today that the French-German friendship should prove itself in Europe, said Schroeder. "It is more important than ever to maintain the idea of unification and enlargement."

The two leaders tried to reduce the effect of the French and Dutch "no" to the EU constitution, of which the consequences are so heavy that France and Germany could face tough tests while trying to repair the damage.

Both leaders had campaigned for a "yes" vote on the EU charter in France, founding father of the EU. A French "no" could set bad example for other EU member states to veto the constitution that needs the approval of all the 25 EU members.

As the EU constitution hit the rocks, the influence of the French-German core would be weakened within the EU, analysts said.

Analysts also see the authority of the two leaders weakened recently: Chirac by the French defeat in the May 29 referendum that prompted French government's major reshuffle; Schroeder by a stinging state election loss for his party last month that made him call for early national elections.

The political crisis caused by the rejections to the EU charterwas worsened by differences between the French-German core and Britain on the European budget for 2007-2013.

France and Germany have met with difficulties trying to persuade Britain to abandon the budgetary rebate.

Britain must "make an effort" in negotiations over the EU's budget by putting on the table its annual rebate, Chirac said Friday. "Each one must make an effort. Above all our British friends must recognize how things have changed and the need for greater equity in the financial charges that each country bears."

"This has consequences on the way we assess the technique - nowold - of the British cheque," he said, referring to a 4.6-billion-euro annual rebate that the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher won in 1984 on the country's contributions to the EU budget.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair had said he was not willing to renegotiate the rebate unless there was a "fundamental review" of EU spending.

"Britain has been making a gesture because over the past 10 years, even with the British rebate, we have been making a contribution into Europe two-and-a-half times that of France... Without the rebate, it would have been 15 times as much as France.That is our gesture," Blair said.

"The Franco-German engine exists more on paper than in reality... The new member states, the Nordic states, and Britain will push for economic change," Alexander Stubb, a Finnish member of the European Parliament said of the French-German core. 

Editor: Yan