EU summit held ‘in good spirit’
European leaders reached “broad agreement” on the where the EU should be going at yesterday’s informal summit, the prime minister said last night.
Tony Blair insisted that despite the last council of ministers meeting ending in acrimony over the EU budget, yesterday’s discussions – which did not cover future financing – were held “in good spirit”.
As holders of the EU presidency, Britain had called on member states to establish the main priorities for the union to meet the global challenge, on issues such as education, migration and energy policy, as well as reforming social and economic models.
This last point was most likely to cause controversy, with some member states keen to hold on to their protectionist policies, but others, including Britain, arguing that such policies prevent the EU from meeting the challenges posed by emerging economies such as China.
And in a press conference after the meeting at Hampton Court, Mr Blair said that agreement had been largely reached on these areas – paving the way for tougher discussions on the budget at the formal summit in December.
“In my view it would be a lot easier to get [the budget] right, with a clear direction, with the priorities established, so that the budget is part of putting Europe on the right track, and not separate from it,” he said.
European Commission president Jose Manual Barroso was similarly enthusiastic, telling reporters: “I believe Europe is on the move again, and now we are moving from analysis to action, with concrete results.
“I think this was an important point around the table – there was not only broad agreement, with differences indeed it is true, but a broad agreement around the priorities, the wish to translate this into action, and the wish to make the case for Europe.”
Mr Blair admitted there were inevitably differences of opinion, but said that there had been, for example, “very strong support” for EU Commission proposals to cut regulation.
Plans to create a globalisation shock fund – that would not stop firms from failing but help their workers find new jobs – would be brought back to the table in December.
“What came out very strongly from the discussion today is not that there aren’t differences of view or differences of emphasis, but that what people really believe is that Europe sometimes need to do more and sometimes needs to do less, but in each case needs to do it better,” Mr Blair said.
Mr Barroso added: “The conclusion was that if we want to keep our models, and indeed there are different models in Europe, we have to modernise, we have to reform, we have to face up to those challenges of globalisation.”
Such agreement brought hope of a deal on the EU budget at the end of the year, he insisted- a deal that was “really crucial” to reach.
“The success of the summit in December will be measured by an agreement on the budget. We need it, we need it for Europe, we need it for the new member states, we need it to go ahead with our European project,” he said.
