PAOLA BUONADONNA:            Children at the Langefel Primary 
school in Kent are looking forward to Europe Day. On Wednesday the EU flag 
will be raised over schools and public buildings all over Europe in an 
attempt to foster a sense of shared identity. Although Europe Day is still 
a very new concept over here it helps to give the impression that Britain 
is now a fully fledged member of the European family. Tony Blair has been 
given an easy ride in Brussels since he came to power four years ago. And 
his EU colleagues have - until now - abstained from raising issues which 
might embarrass the Prime Minister on the eve of a general election. But 
if Mr Blair thinks he can ignore questions about further political integration 
he will have to think again. The proposals for a federal Europe which were 
leaked from the office of the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, earlier 
this week,  were the first official indication of a debate which has raged 
in Europe for some time and which Britain will find hard to avoid.

LOUIS MICHEL:                The contribution of Chancellor 
Schroeder is very, very important because it bring us naturally to a debate, 
we are obliged to react to what's these positions' strengths are. Belgium 
its rather favourable towards these positions.

MICHEL ROCARD MEP:            Germany is evidently looking 
for some solutions to the present problems and wants to give great importance 
to the debate.    France will have to do so, Britain will have to do so.

BUONADONNA:                Socialist MEPs are a powerful 
force in the European Parliament and the centre-left is in power in 12 
out of the 15 countries of the EU. Tomorrow European socialist parties 
meet in Berlin for their annual conference. The British Foreign Secretary 
is expected to be elected president of the group. But some Socialist parties 
don't consider Labour to be sufficiently pro-European and Robin Cook's 
nomination has not been welcomed by all.

PERVENCHE BERES MEP:            Inside the group I must say 
if they, if we had to vote on this name I'm not so sure he would have been 
the elected president. Now that things are done and we have to try to work 
with it. If it can help Great Britain to move towards the mainstream in 
Europe, inside the socialist family I think it would be good news. 

GRAHAM WATSON MEP:            I know that there have been 
moves in other socialist parties to have a different candidate as leader 
of the European socialists.  Personally I wish Robin Cook every success 
but I suspect that again, the government might find this is not the right 
time to be putting forward a UK candidate for the presidency of an organisation 
which is beginning to look extremely federalist.

BUONADONNA:                Last week Belgian Foreign minister 
Louis Michel and Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt had star billing as they 
launched Belgium's programme for its presidency of the European Union. 
They'll be running the show from July and will prepare the ground for a 
new round of institutional reforms. They aim to get agreement on the scale 
of the changes by the end of this year. Together with other founding EU 
nations they want Europe to become a strong political entity on the world 
stage. They say that will require further integration. 

MICHEL:                    The European idea means 
that each country will lose somewhere, a part of its decision, of its own 
decision capacity, that's Europe, that's the idea of Europe. That's the 
magic aspect of Europe in fact.

BUONADONNA:                The Belgian government is voicing 
ambitions which are widespread in continental Europe. More than half of 
all Socialists MEPs here at the European Parliament have signed a controversial 
Manifesto, calling for a 'new federalism' , which they'll present to the 
Berlin conference tomorrow. It will not make pleasant reading for Tony 
Blair and Robin Cook, with its calls for a EU Government and a written 
constitution. And the list of signatures won't cheer them up either. Together 
with former prime ministers and vice-presidents of the Parliament they'll 
find the names of three Labour MEPs. 

DAVID MARTIN MEP:            I haven't been encouraged to, 
to sign the manifesto, but I haven't had anyone coming and saying I should 
remove my name or disassociate myself.  So, again I think that the party 
is recognising these issues have to be debated at some point.  They cannot 
continually be put on the back burner.  

FRANCIS MAUDE MP:            The fact that the three have 
signed it, is very, in itself embarrassing for the government. The fact 
is, we know this is the direction most of them want to go. It's the direction 
much of the government wants to go. It's simply that they won't be honest 
about it, because they know they are so fundamentally out of tune with 
what the main stream majority of the British public want.

BUONADONNA:                Enjoying the limelight at last 
week's parliament session these are the MEPs who initiated the New Federalism 
manifesto. They're known as the "Spinelli Group". They want to build a 
fully federal union as a counterweight to the United States and to defend 
the European welfare state.

ROCARD:                    What we need is a functional 
connection between all ourselves to be efficient where it is better and 
more efficient to act together than to act separately. Federalism is a 
good designation of that.  

MARTIN:                    If we really do want to 
achieve our objectives in a second term of enhancing our environmental 
standards, enhancing our social standards, of continuing to drive down 
unemployment, then that's going to require co-operation at a European level. 
And I equally hope, that the Government would be committed to doing that 
through transparent and democratic means, and that inevitably means strengthening 
the European institutions as well.

BUONADONNA:                Klaus Haensch, the former President 
of the European Parliament, is the most senior German Social Democrat in 
Brussels. He was involved in drafting both the German Chancellor's proposals 
and the New Federalism Manifesto. 

KLAUS HANSCH MEP:            There are a lot of powers given 
to Brussels in the last ten twenty, thirty years, which shouldn't be in 
Brussels. And there are other powers where Brussels should be strengthened. 
For example, we have a common currency. We need a closer co-ordination 
of our fiscal and conjunctual policy.  We are starting a closer co-operation 
in defence matters. This has to strengthen the Brussels powers too. 

BUONADONNA:                The new federalism manifesto 
wants to simplify the European institutions. The MEPs want an EU Government 
instead of the European Commission and an EU Prime Minister rather than 
the European Commission President. A concept both the Government and the 
opposition dislike.

MAUDE:                    The European Commission 
instead of becoming a Government of Europe, should actually become, which 
is what it was always intended to be - a Civil Service -  an impartial 
Civil Service, which should more and more in the future, be there to service 
the Council of Ministers because it's the Council of Ministers who are 
directly accountable, back to their national parliaments and we would want 
to see its role being strengthened. 

MARTIN:                    If you call the European 
Commission the European Government or you call President Prodi the Prime 
Minister of Europe, that of itself doesn't mean we're arguing for more 
powers for those institutions or for that individual but simply saying 
the name should convey better what they happen to do. 

BUONADONNA:                The manifesto also calls for 
a written constitution incorporating the Charter of Fundamental Rights. 
The MEPs say this would enable Europe "to take an additional step on the 
road to integration".   They want to  decentralise decision making to the 
national governments as much as possible, for instance some aspects of 
regional aid.  But at the same time they want the EU to do more in some 
areas - for example in foreign policy and defence.

MARTIN:                    On the one hand the written 
constitution makes it a constraint of the institutions. On the other hand 
it also I think enables certain powers to be transferred to the European 
level where appropriate because it would reassure people that this is not 
a one way process. 

MAUDE:                    I think a written constitution 
in the sense of a final disposition of the powers of the various parts 
of Europe, first as the nation states, isn't going to make sense because 
we're now in a Europe of constant adjustment.

WATSON:                    I've no doubt that the 
Tories and their Euro sceptic friends will present it as a federalist plot. 
But in reality a constitution would actually define which powers need to 
be exercised in Brussels which powers are more rightly the province of 
national governments and I hope which powers should be reserved for local 
government.

BUONADONNA:                At the heart of the new Federalism 
manifesto, conceived here in Brussels, is the call for much more integration 
among the Eurozone countries on social and economic policies, including 
taxation. The introduction of the Euro notes and coins on the first of 
January next year will inject a new momentum in the drive towards further 
political union among the Eurozone countries which could lead to a two-tier 
Europe. What was once considered a philosophical debate is now a pressing 
reality.

MICHEL:                    You cannot have an economic 
policy on European level if you have not a social convergence, so all the 
policies are linked and I think so it is necessary to try to have more 
common policies along those levels.

MAUDE:                    What we actually see happening. 
What people get animated about and actually work for, is further centralisation, 
further integration and that's the direction it's going.  It's the one 
way street towards the European Super State and we need to have something 
different. We need a two-way street with some powers coming back to the 
member states.

BUONADONNA:                The prospect of more power 
for Brussels doesn't just worry the British Government but also Denmark 
and Sweden. They all have a formal veto over constitutional changes. But 
this isn't going to deter the others from trying.  

HANSCH:                    I think what we started 
now is a debate on the future structure and those who started the debate 
really want some results and we want those results with all the member 
states of the European Union. If some or one or two or three exclude themselves 
from this mainstream that is deplorable but it will be a fact.  

MARTIN:                    There's a serious threat 
of a vanguard and I personally would think it very regrettable if Britain 
found itself out with the leaders of Europe.  I do believe our future is 
in a European Union. We have the same problems as every other member state 
of the European Union, the majority of these countries are recognising 
that closer and closer European integration is the way to tackle their 
problems. I don't think we can stand aside from that and if we do, our 
influence in Europe will weaken considerably. 

BUONADONNA:                Three days to go to Europe 
Day but the debate on the future of Europe has already started. The new 
federalism manifesto comes at a rather inconvenient time for the government 
which wants to be seen at the heart of Europe yet is desperate to avoid 
any embarrassment on the eve of a general election.