Europe's leaders sought to defuse a bitter quarrel with Britain's David Cameron as they gathered for an emotionally-charged remembrance ceremony in Ypres, the scene of horrific carnage in World War 1.
As Europe recalled what happens when leaders fail to preserve peace on the conflict's centenary, Germany's Angela Merkel urged her peers to compromise with Cameron as he heads for defeat in a row over who will be the European Union's next chief executive.
"I think we can find compromises here and make a step towards Great Britain," Merkel said.
"I repeatedly spoke of a European spirit which is needed and which will help us to find good solutions," she added.
Cameron's vocal campaign against naming ex Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker to head the powerful European Commission goes to the wire tomorrow when the bloc's 28 leaders put it to an unprecedented vote at his demand.
Cameron has been abandoned by key allies in the fight against Juncker including Sweden and the Netherlands, triggering fears his isolation could reinforce a growing push in Britain to exit the EU.
Keen to avoid public signs of friction at the Ypres ceremony, European Council president Herman Van Rompuy has urged leaders keep the Juncker dispute off the table at commemorations of the 1914-1918 war in the small Belgian town.
The British leader told Van Rompuy this week that he also opposed the fact that Juncker was put forward by the European Parliament's conservative group, the EPP which lost seats but still emerged as the largest single group after May elections.
Van Rompuy is to step down in November and diplomats and analysts say his replacement by Denmark's young premier Helle Thorning-Schmidt who made headlines with a selfie with Cameron and Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's funeral might please Britain, though not France.
The remaining appointments may be discussed at yet another summit to be held, probably on July 17.
Cameron could be offered as a concession a vital portfolio on the 28-member Commission.
