Patten attacks Blair over euro
European commissioner Chris Patten has denounced the UK government’s cautious stance on the euro ahead of Gordon Brown’s statement on his five economic tests.
Claiming that the tests were a vehicle for the Chancellor’s veto of a referendum, Mr Patten suggested that Tony Blair’s lack of leadership on this issue had allowed the UK to become ‘semi-detached’ from the rest of the European Union.
The last Governor of Hong Kong became one of the UK’s two commissioners when he was controversially appointed by Tony Blair, and now serves as commissioner with responsibility for external relations.
His attack came in an article in the Times newspaper today, and is the latest of several efforts from pro-euro figures to prompt greater support from the Government, and particularly the Prime Minister.
The commissioner criticized the Treasury’s attitude, which he argues appears to be that ‘Europe’s economy is not yet worthy of us’, although this is unlikely to deter Mr Brown from giving a thumbs down for the time being when he announces a decision on the tests – which he has undertaken to do by June 7 at the latest.
More worrying for the Government will be the comments from a man at the heart of the European machine, that the UK will lose influence over the European Union’s development of policy for financial markets.
The issue of influence is more important now than at most times because of negotiations on a new practices and institutions that will see the EU bought under one treaty, rather than remain a collection of treaties.
