Tony Blair focuses on Europe's problems

"Tackle the problems that matter"

Blair Warns EU Against Losing Touch With People

The Prime Minister was attending a meeting in the Dutch seaside resort of Noordwijk designed to pave the way for next month's Amsterdam summit on further European integration. Taking advantage of not only the media attention but of a 'honeymoon period' which the other leaders seemed to be giving him, Mr Blair tried to steer discussions onto a more wide-ranging agenda.

Blair close to the heart of Europe

The Prime Minister told the leaders that the most important priority facing them was not internal EU restructuring but job creation. He was reported to have been astonished at how long they spent discussing how many EC Commissioners there should be, when there were 18 million unemployed people across Europe.

Mr Blair said, "It's a new era, a new millennium. It requires a new Europe, a people's Europe, addressing the people's priorities - less obsession with ourselves and our institutions, more focus on the things that matter to people."

Earlier, the Prime Minister said he wanted to be constructive but he also warned that there was "a lot of hard bargaining ahead" before Britain could agree to further integration. Like John Major before him, Mr Blair insisted that some issues of national sovereignty - such as the preservation of border controls and full authority over national defence and foreign policy - were "absolutely sacrosanct".

Blair gets his message cross informally

The new Government has agreed to sign up to the Social Chapter, but Mr Blair said he did not expect to face "great rafts of legislation" as a result. "On our part, it is sensible to be part of the Social Chapter so that we are part of any discussions," he said, "But we have made it very clear that we would not allow other countries' social security systems to be imported into Britain as a result."

Progress on quota hopping