Britain's six-month EU presidency is coming to an end
|
Tony Blair is to lay out his vision for Europe as Britain's six-month presidency of the EU draws to a close.
The UK prime minister is also likely to use his speech
to the European Parliament to convince member states they should accept
an EU budget deal.
Last weekend Mr Blair brokered an agreement between the 25 member states for the EU's next seven-year budget.
He told UK MPs the deal, which will see £1bn a year cut from the UK's rebate, is in the national interest.
Defending presidency
Members of the European Parliament will have to give
their approval to the deal next year, and they have already demanded a
much bigger budget.
Mr Blair will also be keen to assuage critics of the entire British presidency.
BBC Europe correspondent Tim Franks said: "He is likely
to point to the start of membership negotiations with Turkey, despite
vigorous opposition from Austria.
"There has also been movement on the agenda of economic
liberalisation, when it comes to sugar pricing, the services sector and
better regulation."
But critics say Britain's six months in the chair have
failed to deal with the big issues, such as deciding what the EU should
spend its money on.
Failure?
The issue of how the EU should organise itself and what
it is for remains unresolved, following the rejection of the proposed
European constitution in two referendums.
On Monday Mr Blair described the EU budget deal as an "investment in the future prosperity" of eastern Europe.
The deal, reached in Brussels early on Saturday, includes an EU commitment to review farm spending in 2008.
But Tory leader David Cameron said Mr Blair had failed "in every single one" of his objectives in the EU budget negotiations.
Charles Kennedy said the outcome of the summit was disappointing.
'Wealthy paying the poor'
Mr Blair told MPs the UK could be "proud" of the part it played in the enlargement of the EU from 15 member states to 25.
But he argued that there was also a price to pay for the EU's expansion.
"To have championed the cause of these new states; to
have welcomed them into NATO and Europe and then to have refused to
agree a budget that protects their future economic development would
have been a betrayal of everything Britain has rightly stood for in the
past 15 years or more since the fall of the Berlin wall," he said.
"They are our allies. It is our duty to stand by them. But it is also massively in our interest."
The purpose of the budget was to "rightly" transfer cash from the wealthier EU countries to their poorer counterparts, he said.
It would have been "a disaster for this country" and its
relationship with central and eastern European countries if a deal had
not been reached, he said.
|
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
