Britse premier Blair wenst een "moderne en concurrerende Europese Unie" (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - UK prime minister Tony Blair made an engaged and passionate presentation on what the EU should look like and on the necessity to modernise it, in a speech before the European Parliament on Thursday (23 June).

After Mr Blair presented his views on Europe and on the priorities of his presidency of the 25-member bloc, starting on 1 July, the main political parties' leaders said they would support him if he put his words into action.

The British prime minister insisted on the need to modernise and "renew" Europe, as otherwise, he said, it would fail.

If European nations decided to "huddle together, hoping we can avoid globalisation, shrink away from confronting the changes around us, take refuge in the present policies of Europe as if by constantly repeating them, we would ... make them more relevant, then we risk failure", Mr Blair told MEPs.

The need to modernise Europe is urgent, he said, as the US is currently "the world's only super power", but countries like China and India "in a few decades will be the world's largest economies".

"We have to renew...And we can. But only if we remarry the European ideals we believe in with the modern world we live in", Mr Blair stressed.

Asked by journalists later if he thought that it was realistic to build the Europe he described - a modern and competitive one - with the budget he proposed, the prime minister said that tightening the budget was not a problem, as long as "it is wisely spent".

The UK is one of the six countries, together with Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria, to have proposed that the EU budget should be limited to 1 percent of European gross national income (GNI).

No naming and shaming

After EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on the EU budget during their meeting last week, some of them, including those of France, Germany and Luxembourg, were quick to blame Mr Blair, saying he had been stubborn in refusing to make compromises on the British rebate.

But the British prime minister rejected the accusations, and said he was the only British leader to have ever put the rebate on the table.

For his part, he chose not to name any political leader while defending his position.

"The debate over Europe should not be conducted by trading insults or in terms of personality", he remarked.

Describing the issue as one "between a free market Europe and a social Europe", as some do, is a "misrepresentation" aiming to "intimidate those who want change in Europe by representing the desire for change as betrayal of the European ideal", he added.

"I believe in Europe as a political project ... I would never accept a Europe that was simply an economic market", Mr Blair concluded, referring to the allegations that he only saw the EU as a free-trade zone.

From words to deeds

The prime minister was both applauded and jeered when he referred to himself as always having been a "passionate pro-European", and some of his own country's MEPs said they were sceptical as to what Mr Blair had said.

"He is euro-sceptical at home, then a passionate pro-European [in the European Parliament]", Conservative MEP Neil Parish told journalists at a press conference.

Sir Robert Atkins, also a member of the Conservative party, reiterated the concerns, noting "we can't trust the man and we do not know if what he says today is what he will say tomorrow".

However, they both admitted Mr Blair had presented a real reform agenda, and if he stuck to it, they would "stay behind him".

Other elements on which the six-month UK presidency will concentrate include trying to take forward the EU budget agreement, the controversial services and working-time directives, and starting EU talks with Croatia and Turkey.