Blair faces showdown over UK’s EU rebate
Tony Blair is preparing for a showdown with French President Jacques Chirac over Britain’s £3 billion EU rebate.
The Prime Minister sets off today on a tour of European capitals, including Paris, ahead of Thursday’s EU summit.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will join two days of negotiations on the future of the European constitution and the EU budget, which begin today in Luxembourg.
Mr Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder want the UK to surrender its annual refund from the EU, secured in 1984 by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, following tough negotiations.
But Mr Blair says Britain’s rebate will only be open to negotiation if there is a full EU spending review and a renegotiation of the generous subsidies given to French farmers.
Ministers reportedly believe that Mr Chirac’s demand is a diversionary tactic following his defeat in the recent French referendum, which rejected the new EU constitution.
Mr Blair could now hold the EU to ransom by threatening to scupper a funding deal at Thursday’s summit, according to Sunday newspaper reports.
It is claimed that the Prime Minister is preparing to abandon talks in Brussels and refuse to sanction long-term increases in the EU budget if France continues to press the issue surrounding Britain’s rebate.
Gordon Brown has also indicated that the Government will use its veto to reject any proposals “not in the British national interest”.
In an interview for ITV’s Dimbleby programme, the Chancellor said: “The idea that the source of problems in the European Union is a rebate that is given to Britain when 40 per cent and more of the European Union budget goes to agriculture is completely unacceptable.”
“I’ve just made it absolutely clear that you cannot remove a rebate or talk about how the rebate is delivered until you’re prepared to talk about how the fundamental reform of the agriculture policy and of the way the budget’s constructed,” he added.
Meanwhile the European Commission President has said that although legitimate British concerns should be considered, the enlargement of the EU to 25 member states had changed conditions within the union.
“We are no longer where we were 20 years ago. Britain is much more rich,” Jose Manuel Barroso told BBC1’s Politics Show.
“There are ten new countries that are poorer, much poorer, and it will not be fair for them to support proportionally more of the burden than Britain,” he said.
