Blair wants EU to take on British foreign affairs, says German ambassador

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Blair backs a plan to create a new EU foreign minster, according to Wolfgang Ischinger

Tony Blair is set to back plans for a powerful new EU foreign minister to represent Britain's interests abroad, it has been claimed.

A senior German official said it was time for Europe to "get its act together" by agreeing to create the massively influential post that would effectively limit the powers of national foreign ministers.

His comments will fuel fears that Germany is trying to revive the discredited EU constitution by the back door during its six months presidency of the EU.

And it is sure to be opposed by Tory leader David Cameron, who spoke out in Brussels against further centralisation of EU powers and the prospect of introducing key elements of the constitution - such as the common foreign minister plan - without the democratic support of voters.

Germany's ambassador to the UK, Wolfgang Ischinger, spoke warmly of the idea of an EU foreign affairs supremo, a role that would go to a full-time unelected Brussels figure who would strut the world stage at taxpayers' expense to present a "harmonised" foreign policy on behalf of the 27-member club.

Mr Ischinger confidently expressed his belief that Mr Blair secretly supports the plan - which critics warn is a major step towards a European superstate.

He claimed that other world powers could not "understand" why the EU had so many representatives on foreign affairs.

And he called for Javier Solana, the EU's current "High Representative" on foreign affairs, to be put in charge of European foreign policy as a formal foreign minister.

The EU was forced to ditch the foreign minister plan last year after the French and Dutch refused to back the blueprint, but European leaders are plotting to bring it back in some form.

Mr Ischinger told journalists in London: "Like a group of lobbyists, we are an incredibly diverse group of people and no-one in Washington has ever understood why there needs to be a President of the Commission, and a Commissioner, and then comes the higher representative for foreign policy, Mr (Javier ) Solana and then comes the Presidency...and it is very confusing for non-EU people.

"Why can't we get our act together and have a European foreign minister who can travel to Malaysia, or Washington, or some other country and say this is what the EU believes."

When asked whether the German Chancellor Angela Merkel also backs the idea of a single EU foreign minister, he added: "Absolutely. Sure. And I think the British Government thinks the same thing.

"We should do what is long overdue, namely to make sure that Mr Solana or whoever may at some point succeed him to give him a double hat and keep his current mandate so that there is one person who represents foreign policy.

"That would make the European Union look a lot more credible and effective in dealing with foreign governments and institutions."

He went on to call for a "permanent, professional" presidency, branding the current system - where the EU presidency rotates every six months - as "almost ridiculous".

The German ambassador said: "It would be as if in a company you throw a dice and ask for some members of the supervisory board who shows up twice a year to run the company and that is not a very good way of doing it.

"It is, particularly, incredibly hard for the small countries that may not have had a chance ever before to do this and all of a sudden you are asked to run a business of 500 million people for six months. It is almost ridiculous."

Mr Blair's spokesman refused to comment on Mr Ischinger's comments, which come only days before EU leaders meet in Brussels to discuss global warming.

He said: "In terms of our position on the constitution that is a matter that doesn't arise until June. This week's summit is about energy. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Mr Ischinger's remarks came as Tory leader David Cameron denounced any attempt to revive elements of the European Constitution and declared that any further centralisation of EU affairs would be "profoundly wrong".

In his first major speech on Europe since he became Tory leader, Mr Cameron said "there is no case for the constitution or a constitution lite".

Mr Cameron was adamant that any moves to give Europe greater powers over foreign and defence policy should be resisted.

"International security is ultimately a task for states, and for bodies such as NATO which have military resources at their command," he said. "I do not believe that the EU should acquire additional powers to control policy in this area."

He added that Europe must stop obsessing about institutional structures. He said: "Instead of looking outwards to the world, the EU is looking inwards, at itself. Seeking new "competences". Creating new posts. Attempting to breathe new life into a Constitution which was rejected by French and Dutch voters, and for which there is scant enthusiasm among the people of Europe.

"I believe they are profoundly wrong. In the globalised age, we need more flexibility, not more centralisation."

He was speaking at the the first conference of the Movement for European Reform (MER), which Mr Cameron launched last year with the Tory's sister party in the Czech Republic, the ODS.

He said he wanted to see a "3G Europe" - concentrating on globalisation, global warming and global poverty.

Mr Cameron said the MER was setting up an independent "European Reform Commission" - and one of its jobs would be to review the range of EU powers and see how they could be made "reversible".

The Tory leader was speaking to a Brussels audience of politicians and business leaders from 18 political parties and 17 different countries.

"The European Union needs to change if it is to be fit for the challenges of the new century, not stuck haggling over the debris of the last" he said.

"There is no case for the Constitution, or Constitution-lite.

"Change should open the EU up, so that it can prosper in the new world that is being created. That means putting an end to the sense that Brussels is a ratchet, accruing more and more powers to itself at the expense of national or local governments."

EU leaders had signed a declaration in 2001 including a pledge on "restoring tasks to the member states", pointed out Mr Cameron. But nothing had been done.

Now one of the jobs of the new European Reform Commission would be to see if the current body of EU law could be made reversible.

 

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