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PAOLA BUONADONNA: Before they left they called
themselves the Magnificent Seven - on a mission to the East....destination
Bratislava.
In the end only three made - it, just as in the film. The others taken
out, not by bandits, but by a difficult vote at Westminster. The Minister
for Europe, Keith Vaz, says Britain will do all it can to welcome new members
into the European Union.
But courtesy visits will not by themselves speed up enlargement - the
future of the whole project is in the balance at next week's summit of
EU leaders, during which essential reforms have to be agreed. The Labour
Government will be under pressure from the Conservatives to say no, while
the rest of Europe will push it to compromise to achieve its goal of a
wider Union.
KEITH VAZ, MP: Enlargement is the key,
that's why the Nice agenda is so important. Without Nice being successful
we cannot enlarge.
DICK BENSCHOP: If fifteen Prime Ministers
come in with the idea 'I can do nothing', where do we end up then? And
that's what everybody has to consider. We really want enlargement of the
European Union.
MENZIES CAMPBELL MP: In spite of the rhetoric,
there's always been the feeling that Britain has not really signed up for
the project, and one of the things Mr Blair can achieve at Nice is to demonstrate
that the rhetoric is supported by a real commitment to ensuring that the
Treaty of Nice contains the provisions necessary for enlargement.
PAOLA BUONADONNA: This trip to Slovakia kicks off
a series of visits by British ministers to Eastern European. The government
has made progress selling the idea of a co-operative Britain to Europe.
But it hasn't been quite as successful selling Europe to Britain. Tony
Blair had hoped his rapid reaction force initiative would show Britain
leading in Europe. But stung by criticism of it, that it is a European
army - he was forced to downplay it.
Britain needs the Nice summit to be a success - but whatever Tony Blair
agrees to will be portrayed as accepting further European integration -
and he could be forced on the defensive again.
VAZ: I don't think we're
being defensive. I'm quite happy to come out kicking for Europe because
I believe that, this country is stronger in Europe and Europe is stronger
because Britain is there. I don't think it's defensive at all. We are
restating a policy that we've had for the last three-and-a-half years,
that this government is pro-Europe and pro-reform.
CAMPBELL: The government is paying
the penalty for it's failure since nineteen-ninety-seven to put the European
case sufficiently positively. The events of the last two weeks or so,
demonstrate that the government has failed to persuade public opinion in
this country sufficiently.
BUONADONNA: The EU says the aim of the
Nice summit is to reform its institutions and decision-making to make them
more efficient and able to cope with as many as thirteen new members.
Larger countries are willing to give up one of their two commissioners,
provided the smaller countries allow them the votes in the council of ministers,
which would more accurately reflect the size of their population. But
the most intimidating issue for Britain is giving up the national veto.
Most of the fifteen countries of the EU and the Commission want more decisions
to be taken by Qualified Majority Voting or QMV, meaning no one country
can hold up agreement. Already eighty per cent of EU decisions are taken
like this, but now France, which currently has the presidency, has tabled
a further fifty items where the veto could be lost. The Conservatives
say they're against any loss of the veto but the Government is only ruling
out further QMV in six key areas.
VAZ: The Conservative party
when it was in government, when Mr Maude signed the Maastricht Treaty,
accepted Qualified Majority Voting in thirty new areas. Combined with
the Single European Act it reached a total of forty-two extensions under
the last government.
We will only agree to it when it's in the interest of our country. That
means that we have those areas that we will not move on, such as tax, social
security, border controls, treaty changes and other areas, such as the
European Court of Justice, where we made it clear that QMV would be good.
BUONADONNA: Sir Stephen Wall, Tony Blair's
Chief EU Policy Co-ordinator and the Dutch Europe Minister Dick Benschop,
agree on the need to streamline the European Union. But the Netherlands,
together with most other member states, will put pressure on the British
Government to agree on QMV in some aspects of taxation.
BENSCHOP: On the tax issue you
run into questions of competition and fair and unfair competition, within
Europe, especially in the single market where we all take part in, so,
on the exchange of information, on helping each other combating fraud,
it would be very good to have a more easy way of making decisions through
Qualified Majority Voting. But on the essential aspects of, of income
taxation, on rates, and tariffs, that's a national question, and that remains
with unanimity, also for the Netherlands.
VAZ: Germany has it's own
red line areas, where they're not prepared to give up the veto. France
has it, in terms of external trade, so this is not just the United Kingdom,
every single member of the European Union, every member state, has those
areas where it is not prepared to move to Qualified Majority Voting, and
they will fight tooth and nail, to make sure that happens. And Tony Blair
and Robin Cook, will fight tooth and nail to make sure we act in Britain's
interests.
BENSCHOP: If nothing would happen
on the fiscal aspect, I hope London would seriously consider other aspects
as well, because if everybody is starting to block one or two items, then
nothing will happen. And that's not tolerable.
BUONADONNA: The city of Nice is still largely
oblivious to the political drama about to unfold. The French Presidency
had hoped the summit would give Europe a new lease of life, but with so
many conflicting interests at stake, the reforms could be deadlocked.
There are going to be battles over further QMV in the six big areas but
outside these, the UK will give some ground.
Next weekend here in Nice the British government looks set to accept the
loss of the national veto in as many as twenty-seven new areas. Although
many of the topics are about appointments and rules of procedure, any
agreement on Qualified Majority Voting will be seen as a 'concession' to
Europe by the Conservatives and sections of the media.
PIERRE LELLOUCHE:; There is a problem of political
leadership in England, because the Conservative party, unfortunately, and
I say this as a sort of sister party to the Conservatives, the British
Conservatives, and I told Mr Hague, and his colleagues I find it very sad
to see the British Conservative party, espousing the cause of the anti-European
cause. I think it's deadly and suicidal. And that of course makes it
very hard for Blair to argue the case for Europe. And he's less and less
convincing when he does it, and if he does it, because he's extremely discreet
about it. I think, of the last half-dozen speeches he gave on Europe,
only one was pronounced in England, the rest was given abroad. You, you
cannot move forward if you don't explain to people what's going on here.
BUONADONNA: And there's another problem
for the government. France and almost all the other member states are determined
to make it easier for smaller groups of countries to push ahead with integration
even when other EU members don't want to participate - in jargon this is
known as enhanced co-operation. Tony Blair has been resisting this - worried
that it could lead to a two-speed Europe with Britain in the slow lane.
It was in nineteen-ninety-seven at the Amsterdam summit that the concept
of enhanced co-operation first surfaced. At Nice governments are likely
to agree that no one country can prevent others moving ahead together.
It looks as if Britain is willing to accept the loss of its veto on this
matter, despite suggestions that enhanced co-operation could be used as
a threat to leave the dissenters behind.
BENSCHOP: Enhanced co-operation
might have a preventive aspect, so to speak, if countries know that, and
they stand in the way of a sensible compromise that the others might move
along, but I won't use it as an instrument of blackmail in the normal decision-making
procedure, that's not how we work together. But it is an element which
we need in the future union, if there would really, really be a stale-mate
and we would, we would have to move beyond that, then it can be used.
VAZ: I have often asked,
even my good friend Dick Benschop, what kinds of things would you use enhanced
co-operation for. And as yet, those who have supported it, have not come
up with a coherent answer. They say there are cases and they talk about
it as being the last resort, but I think that we're happy to have this
discussion. We're happy to see whether it will help us do business properly
on behalf of Europe, but we will not allow a two-speed Europe to be created.
Tony Blair has made this very clear.
BUONADONNA: Along with France, the UK is
already part of an early example of enhanced co-operation, the rapid reaction
defence force. But Britain has refused to go along with another example,
the Single Currency. The French argue that it's up to each country to decide
what speed it wants to travel at.
LELLOUCHE: Mr Blair is in the driving engine
for defence, so he know, he knows it's a two-speed Europe, except that
he's in the first speed on defence. He doesn't want to be in the second
speed on currency, but if he's not on the, on the currency, it's his choice.
BUONADONNA: Whatever's agreed at Nice will
put in a new treaty which all the leaders will sign early next year. But
it will still have to be ratified by the British Parliament. The Government
might choose to postpone introducing legislation until after the General
Election. But it can't stop the Conservative Party making Europe a key
election issue.
CAMPBELL: If the Labour Government
is defensive about the Treaty of Nice, then it will create circumstances
in which the European issue will be used to the government's disadvantage,
indeed to the disadvantage of all pro-European parties in the forthcoming
general election. The Government must get on to the front foot.
VAZ: We're quite prepared
to stand up and put the facts before the people. What we will not allow
to happen any more, is that the myths will be able to go unchallenged.
It's time we dealt with these myths. It just so happens to come now,
but ministers over the last three-and-a-half years have been fully engaged
with what's happening in Europe.
BUONADONNA: As the three gallant British
ministers, led by Keith Vaz, brazened their way around Bratislava, they
were left in no doubt about Slovakia's desire to join the EU. But as
they prepared to ride out of town, they knew the Conservatives would be
lying in ambush back home. Both the government and the opposition are
committed to enlargement, but the Conservatives are determined to exploit
any concessions made to achieve that goal.
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