EU: France and Germany signalled yesterday they were digging in for a battle over the European Union's future, urging other EU partners to drop objections to a draft constitution they say will help the bloc take in 10 new member-states next year.
Three days before an EU summit at which a showdown is likely with Spain, Poland and others who oppose the draft, President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said they were optimistic about reaching a deal but it must be on their terms.
"I simply cannot imagine that one or two countries can block the progress that others want to make," said Mr Chirac, flanked by Mr Schröder, after a one-hour meeting in his Elysee Palace.
"The chancellor and I will not accept an accord at any price. We want an accord that reflects our idea of a future Europe," he told reporters, calling on Spain and Poland to "make a gesture" in negotiations that are seen going down to the wire.
Of the chances for a deal, he added: "It is not certain."
Mr Schröder reaffirmed that Paris and Berlin wanted a final constitution as close as possible to a draft text which would simplify EU decision-making and align voting power in Brussels more closely with national population size.
"We are going to the Brussels summit to get a deal . . . You can either go to Brussels as an optimistic sceptic, or a sceptical optimist. I am going as a sceptical optimist," he added.
Neither repeated the threat made by some French and German officials to push ahead in the fast lane of a "two-speed" Europe if negotiations collapsed, but they said the two countries were determined to seek greater union - come what may.
"We do a lot with each other and for each other. You can rely on that, whatever the situation," Mr Schröder said.
Spain and Poland are leading resistance to proposed changes in voting rules within the 15-nation bloc that would strip them of privileges won in the Nice Treaty of 2000.
Small countries oppose proposals that would threaten their levels of representation on the European Commission (the EU's executive body) while others resist plans to allow more EU decisions by majority voting.
France and Germany are determined to retain their central influence in the EU - even as it takes in new members - and are at the core of a group of states pushing for more integration.
"Voting structures must be designed so that no one country alone can hold up \ on key issues. That means majority voting as far as is possible," Mr Schröder said.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said yesterday he was ready to stand in for Prime Minister Leszek Miller, injured in a helicopter crash, at this week's European Union summit.
But Mr Kwasniewski said it would be better if Mr Miller attended the crunch talks in Brussels on a future constitution for the bloc after it welcomes 10 new members - mainly from eastern Europe - next year.
"I am on standby," Mr Kwasniewski told reporters in Krakow.
Mr Miller is in hospital after suffering two fractured vertebrae when his official helicopter suffered engine failure and came down in a forest just outside Warsaw last Thursday.
The 57-year-old premier has begun rehabilitation therapy.
In interviews from his hospital bed, he has said he wants to go to the summit - in a wheelchair or bodycast if need be.