French President Jacques Chirac said on June 10 that the European Union (EU) needs unity and reflection to meet the Europeans' expectations.

"We are both in agreement in reaffirming how much the European Union... needs above all to unite and to reflect, in order to answer a certain number of questions, but essentially to unite," Chirac told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

It was their second meeting after France and the Netherlands, two EU founders, rejected the EU constitutional treaty in referendums during the past two weeks, while Britain decided to postpone its scheduled referendum on this landmark charter.

"Europe should conquer these difficulties. It will better surmount them especially when there's a strong will between Germany and France to surmount them," Chirac said.

The French president also called on the Europeans to make efforts to reach an agreement on budget at a European summit in Brussels next week, and reiterated that France asked for respect for commitments on common agricultural policy.

In 2002, the EU signed an agreement which fixed the level of most of agriculture spending in the bloc to 2013 and preserves large subsidies for French farmers.

Source: Xinhua