Nations celebrate 40 years of reconciliation

PARIS -- France and Germany celebrated 40 years of reconciliation Wednesday with a series of new measures to bring the once-bitter enemies even closer and position themselves as the engine of an expanding Europe.

To commemorate a 1963 friendship treaty, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac promised more cooperation on issues from crime to immigration to foreign policy.

The countries said they would seek "to adopt common positions" in international bodies, including the U.N. Security Council.

Their joint declaration did not mention Iraq, but at a news conference, the French president said that both France and Germany believed any decision on military force should be made by the U.N. Security Council, only after U.N. weapons inspectors have reported on their findings.

"For us, war is always the proof of failure and the worst of solutions, so everything must be done to avoid it," Chirac said after the two nations' Cabinets met together at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris.

Among other measures, the two governments said their Cabinets would regularly hold joint meetings and that both sides would appoint a senior official to oversee their cooperation.

The countries also said they would push for common European policies on immigration and asylum, a Europe-wide prosecution service and European criminal files, as well as a border police force to fight illegal immigration.

They also addressed their ambitions to be at the heart of building Europe, with EU preparations to expand eastward and welcome 10 new members next year.

"France and Germany are aware that they exercise a joint historical responsibility in the service of Europe," their declaration said.

"The joined destinies of France and Germany should be a leading force for Europe," Chirac said. Schroeder added that the partnership was not meant dominate other nations.

The countries said they would bid jointly to host major sports events and -- without setting a time frame -- said French and Germans should be allowed to take up the nationality of the other country.

The day of commemoration marked the signing of the 1963 Elysee Treaty.

Having fought three times, including in two World Wars, in just 70 years, the two countries sealed their reconciliation, committing in the treaty to consult on foreign policy, meet regularly and implement a host of defense, cultural and other initiatives to "profoundly transform the relations of the two peoples."

Schroeder, in France's Liberation newspaper and Germany's Berliner Zeitung, called the treaty the "heart" of reconciliation.

"For the young generations in the two countries, the reconciliation between Germany and France is something natural," he wrote. "The fact that their fathers and ancestors fought is now nothing more than the subject of history lessons."

Later Wednesday, the French and German parliaments will meet in an extraordinary joint session at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris.

The meeting place itself was a symbol of turning the page.

It was at Versailles that the victors of World War I had Germany sign a peace treaty in 1919 that, with its tough terms, laid the seeds of World War II. The chateau is also a site of French humiliation. There, after beating France in an 1870-71 war, Germany proclaimed itself an empire.

Over the past 40 years, Germany and France have come together in myriad ways. They are each others biggest trade partners. They share a common currency, the euro, along with 10 other of the 15 nations that make up the EU.

Yet, their differences remain fundamental. Germany is a federal state; France is tightly bound to Paris. They have different languages, histories and cultural backgrounds. But in building Europe, they often work in concert.

Recently, Germany and France have worked to overcome tensions that had crept into the relationship. At a European summit in December 2000, France and Germany had tussled over how to distribute power within the EU as it expands eastwards to include former communist nations. EU farm subsidies have also caused friction.