Mr Chirac got off to a bad start with Mr Schröder, with whom he fell out at the Nice EU summit in 2000; the French president even awarded the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honour, to Edmund Stoiber, Mr Schröder's rival in the 2002 elections.

But soon they found common cause on issues such as the Iraq war, the EU constitution, a desire to dismantle the EU's budgetary framework and a joint hostility towards Mr Blair's free market vision of Europe.

The Franco-German relationship seems certain to continue but the chemistry at the top may be about to change.

Chirac and Schroeder hated each other's guts after the Nice Treaty fiasco in 1999. (This was, of course, commented with glee in the same English language columns) But they understood that too much was at stake and they forced themselves to work together.

The UK has never shown any willingness to do the same. There are tactival alliances, and relationships that are more or less trusting, but no commitment to Europe in any way. Say what you will about France and Germany and their (very real) national egoism, but they HAVE repeatedly made compromises for the common good, and they have made the decision that cooperation was a good thing in itself - and that's pretty much the only thing holding Europe together, today.

So mock all you will, or say explicitly that your goal is to make Europe irrelevant and powerless, but don't dream about splitting France and Germany, because ity will not happen.