Blair: Current EU crisis 'opportunity for change'
British Prime Minister Tony Blair today warned that the European Union must modernise or risk failure as an economic bloc and as a social model, and said the EU’s current political crisis was an opportunity for a change.
Setting out an agenda for Britain’s six-month EU presidency, which begins on July 1, Blair told the European Parliament in Brussels that the 25-member bloc must continue expanding and warned that to shut its doors would give rise to new nationalism and xenophobia.
“If Europe defaulted to euroscepticism … then we risk failure, and failure on a grand strategic scale.
"Only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism and its support among people,” he told EU politicians.
A summit of EU leaders ended in acrimony a week ago, with no agreement on a budget for 2007 to 2013 and no guarantee that the bloc’s first constitution will ever be ratified.
Some EU nations have blamed Britain for the collapse of the summit, accusing it of unwillingness to accept a compromise that would permit a deal on future funding.
“The debate over Europe should not be conducted by trading insults or in terms of personality,” Blair said. “It should be an open and frank exchange of ideas.”
Some of Blair’s critics, facing him in the chamber, heckled him when he described himself as a “passionate pro-European”.
But he won applause when he addressed fears Britain was interested in changing the EU to a mere free-trade zone, saying he believed in a Europe with a strong social dimension.
“I believe in Europe as a political project. I would never accept Europe that was simply an economic market,” he said. “This is a union of values, of solidarity between nations and people, of not just a social market in which we trade but a common political space in which we live as citizens.”
Blair faces a rocky six months at the helm of the EU. At the heart of his battle with other countries is Britain’s lucrative EU budget rebate, worth about €4.6bn a year.
Britain negotiated the rebate in 1984, saying it paid a disproportionate amount into EU coffers and received little back in regional grants and farming subsidies.
Blair says he would give up the rebate, but only if the EU reforms its economy and scales back agricultural subsidies that take up 40% of the budget. That has enraged French President Jacques Chirac, who is strongly resisting any cut in aid to French farmers.
“I never said we should end the common agricultural policy now or renegotiate it overnight,” said Blair. “Such a position would be absurd. Any change must take account of the legitimate needs of farming communities.”
EU politicians urged Blair to reach a compromise on future funding during Britain’s presidency and to present a vision for Europe that would transcend national boundaries.
“The EU is not an enlarged Britain. Tony Blair is not just a prime minister. He must unite, not divide, our countries,” said Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialists in the parliament.
Blair said the 25-nation bloc needed a new blueprint with “urgent” reforms if Europe was to grow and meet the needs of its citizens and compete with other top economic powerhouses like the US, China and India.
He criticised the current European welfare system, calling it outdated and in need of an overhaul.
“Tell me what type of social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe, productivity rates falling behind those of the US; that is allowing more science graduates to be produced by India than by Europe,” said Blair. “Of the top 20 universities in the world today, only two are now in Europe.”
There was a disconnection, he said, between citizens and their political leaders about where the EU should be going and what it was doing.
“It is a crisis of political leadership,” he said, pointing to the recent rejection of the EU’s constitution in France and the Netherlands three weeks ago.
“As ever I’m afraid the people are ahead of the politicians,” said Blair. “The issue is not about the idea of the European Union, it is about modernisation.”
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