The foreign ministers of Germany and France on Monday called for ambitious steps to strengthen the European Union after Britain's shock vote to leave the bloc, reports the Bangkok Post.
"We will... take further steps toward a political union in Europe, and we invite the other European states to join us in this endeavour," Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault wrote in a joint position paper.
The top diplomats of the two core EU founding members and biggest economies said that "Germany and France have a responsibility to strengthen solidarity and cohesion within the European Union".
But they also signalled a willingness to accept a multi-speed union, writing that "we must... acknowledge that there are different degrees of ambition towards further integration among the member states".
The two centre-left politicians proposed closer cooperation in three key policy areas -- internal and external security, the migrant and refugee crisis, and on fiscal and economic cooperation.