EU: The French and German leaders have said they hope their "seamless agreement" on the key issues would help the Irish presidency and European leaders reach agreement at this week's summit.
Officials speaking at the edge of the discussions in Aachen yesterday said that the Belgian Prime Minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, is now the favoured candidate of the two leaders to lead the new European Commission.
"Germany and France are going hand in hand on this European way, this European road," said Mr Chirac after talks, in which their two foreign ministers also participated.
Despite both suffering stinging European election losses, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and French President Jacques Chirac were in good form for talks which Mr Schröder described as regular "but never routine".
Mr Schröder said he was confident the Irish presidency would find agreement on the outstanding issues, provided there are no surprises. "We assume that the double majority will not be under question. It will then depend on finding rules that will make this capable of finding a majority. We believe this will succeed," he said.
Mr Chirac struck a similar note, saying the two men "trust the Irish presidency will be able to reach a successful result in this week, namely a result that will put us in the position to reach decisions that will reform the institutions and advance Europe".
"Germany and France share the same vision of the Europe of tomorrow," he added. "We want to create a Europe that is more balanced and stronger and able to make decisions."
Neither of the leaders commented on remarks from their officials, after last week's failed approach to the conservative Bavarian leader, Mr Edmund Stoiber, that Mr Verhofstadt is now their favourite to be the next European Commission president.
"As regards the question of personalities, we will support the presidency to find a suggestion that is capable of attracting a majority and we are glad to be of help with advice and action," said Mr Schröder.
Mr Chirac thanked Mr Schröder for his speech last week during the 60th anniversary ceremony to mark D-Day.
"We have opened a new page in our history as a result of your speech. It was an historic gesture and I wanted to thank you personally and on behalf of all French people for what you did on that day," he said.