June 24, 2005

Blair tells EU to change or fail

The European Union faces a "crisis in political leadership" and must change to win back public support, Prime Minister Tony Blair has told Euro MPs.

Mr Blair, outlining plans for the UK's six-month EU presidency, argued the EU would fail "on a grand scale" if it did not face up to globalisation.

"Only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism" and therefore public support, he said.

EC president Jose Manuel Barroso said consensus was vital to avoid paralysis.
[Don't look now, Barroso, but I can see those "limbs" stiffening as you speak!--Jen]

Pointing to last week's turbulent talks over the EU budget, Mr Barroso said the union faced a "decisive moment".

The EU presidency would be a test of the UK's historic pragmatism during its presidency, he added.
[I think he must be thinking about Scotland and their way to pinch a penny 'til it screams!--Jen]

Last week's summit saw clashes over the UK refusal to give up its £3bn annual refund from the EU budget unless there were reforms to farm subsidies.

Mr Blair said he did not think Europe quite realised the competitive challenge it faced from countries like China and India.

He was met with both heckles and applause when he said he had always been a "passionate pro-European". He insisted he wanted to reinvigorate the EU, not wreck it.

He argued the French and Dutch voters' rejection of the draft European constitution reflected a wide discontent with the EU.
[So why keep pressing it on them, old boy?]

"This is not a time to accuse those who want Europe to change of betraying Europe," he argued.

"Ideals survive through change, they die through inertia in the face of challenge."

Mr Blair denied he had been unwilling to discuss the UK rebate or that he had demanded the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) be renegotiated overnight.

But it would be too late to wait until 2014 to begin to change the fact that 40% of the EU budget was currently spent on agriculture, for example, he said.

Mr Blair hit out at the caricature of an "Anglo-Saxon market philosophy that tramples on the poor and disadvantaged".
[This is the nuanced way the Froggies critique Blair's policies.--Jen]

He argued he did not want to ditch Europe's social model but asked how it could allow 20m to be unemployed and fall behind in research and development.
[What's killing them economically are all the social welfare programs!
Companies can't make enough money with all the EU restrictions and then the high taxes everyone's forced to pay for those welfare programs to either plow back any earnings they make into R&D or to be able to afford to higher more workers.--Jen]

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy later delivered a rebuff to calls for a shake-up of the EU budget, making clear that France was not willing to renegotiate the 2002 deal on farm subsidies.

There you have the current quagmire Tony faces:
He will insist that Britain get her $3 bn. refund and Jacques ChIRAQ will insist that France have her farm subsidies and never the twain shall meet!
I love it! Schadenfreude lives!

[...]
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also attending the G8 talks, said Washington wanted to see a "strong and united" Europe, but she declined to get involved in the current row over its future direction.
[Most wise!--J.T.]

Dr Rice said the US hoped the EU would not turn its back on further enlargement but would continue to hold out the prospect of membership to countries such as Turkey.

Old Europe's current predicament was summed up pretty well by the fabulous Mark Steyn a few days ago in his op ed "An everyday fantasy of farming folk" just so:

[...]
Nevertheless, something has changed. "Europe is faced with a fundamental choice," says Peter Mandelson. "One way, we sink into economic decline, losing the means to pay for our preferred way of life. The other way, we press ahead with painful economic reforms that can make us competitive once again in world markets." The big concession was so slyly done you may have missed it: the European Trade Commissioner is acknowledging that the one thing even Eurosceptics were in favour of - a "common market" - has been a failure.

Read the whole Steyn piece, of course--it's another MS gem!
Ooh, glad I'm an American for so many reasons...the EUropeans have gotten themselves into a hell of a mess...again.
Tony Blair does talk a lot shite, as they say in the UK;
I listened to him utter some of these same platitudes about being "for a social Europe" and being a "passionate pro-European" to his own Parliament and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what in the Sam Hill he was talking about!
To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure Tony knows himself.
I'm also glad he's not my Prime Minister--Blair pushed "Europe" a lot and the welfare of Britain and her citizens very little.
Why do the Brits put up with it?
Just make popcorn: this is going to be a long, hot summer, but it probably won't be boring.
It promises to be rather contentious, though and rather fun!
(It will be crying time for somebody and I strongly suspect that somebody will be our pal Jacques!)