Blair blunt on reform
Tony Blair has brushed aside demands for the UK to give up its rebate from the EU, saying that reforming farm subsidies should be the top priority.
Speaking after talks with French president Jacques Chirac, Mr Blair said that the meeting had been “immensely amicable” – but that there was no prospect of early agreement.
Earlier the Prime Minister formally rejected a request from Luxemburg for the UK to accept a freeze on its rebate between 2007 and 2013.
Mr Blair has repeatedly said that the UK will not consider giving up its rebate unless there is fundamental reform of agricultural subsidies – of which France is the major beneficiary.
Forty per cent of the EU’s budget goes into supporting agriculture, which employs only two per cent of the EU’s workforce.
Mr Blair said that he believed the focus should shift to state subsidy of agriculture.
“I totally understand why countries may want to give their money to support farmers. What I have an objection to is the European Union deciding collectively it is going to give 40 per cent of its budget into an area that has got 4 per cent of its people. It makes no sense. And because it makes no sense people say ‘the EU is not connected with me’.”
He added that: “If people want a reconsideration of the rebate there has to be a reconsideration of the reasons for the rebate,” he said. “This is not some special thing that has been given as a special privilege to Britain. This is a mechanism of correction for something that would otherwise be grossly unfair.”
Even with the rebate, the UK is the second biggest net contributor to the EU.
The other key issue for the Council of Ministers meeting will be the future of the EU Constitution.
With two of the founding nations of the EU – France and the Netherlands – having rejected the treaty its future hangs in the balance.
And Mr Blair gave his clearest signal yet that he believes the treaty should be shelved.
Mr Blair said: “If we want to reconnect people in Europe with the idea of the EU we have got to set a clear political direction.”
He therefore called on leaders to suspend ratifying the controversial constitution and undergo a “period of reflection”.
On his return to Britain, the PM’s official spokesman said Britain had “fought its corner and will continue to fight its corner” on the matter.
Mr Blair’s whirlwind diplomatic tour comes ahead of the European Council meeting later this week and the G8 summit in Scotland next month.
He has spent the last few days meeting Mr Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to push the UK’s G8 agenda on Africa and climate change.
