UK puts Union citizen centre stage

Date: 11/12/1997

Rory Watson reports that Tony Blair's New Labour aims to use its managerial skills at the EU's helm to create a 'new' Europe

RETURNING the European Union to its people will be a persistent underlying theme of the UK government's six-month presidency.

After striking a strong chord with his domestic public by turning Old Labour into New, the British Premier Tony Blair and his ministers are now trying to deploy those same managerial skills on the creation of a New Europe.

“In recent years, the European Union has moved too far from the aspirations and hopes of its peoples; too concerned with institutional changes, too unconcerned with real issues. We need to reconnect the peoples of Europe with the European Union their governments are trying to create. Our mission as president of the EU is to give Europe back to the people,” explained UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as he set out the government's priorities.

The theme is one which the newly-elected Blair had already alluded to at his very first EU summit at Noordwijk in May after sitting through interminable negotiations among fellow Union leaders over institutional reform.

It has also occupied much of the attention in recent months of the staunchly Europhile Minister without Portfolio Peter Mandelson. He wants the government's presentational skills to be used during, and even beyond the presidency to convey three key messages designed to dispel some widely held perceptions.

To the UK public, the Union will be portrayed as offering opportunities rather than presenting threats. To its EU partners, the UK will be projected as motivated by constructive cooperation rather than by stubborn obstructionism. To the wider world, the country will be presented as a committed member of a strong Union.

In line with the government's determination to do away with some of the more anachronistic domestic traditions and to emphasise a modern, vibrant Britain, there will be strong emphasis throughout the presidency on youth, energy and the benefits to society at large of high-technological advances.

Heading the list of real issues of direct concern to individuals that will feature prominently throughout the presidency will be employment, which will be the centrepiece of the Cardiff summit in June as the UK attempts to put flesh on the bones of the job-creation measures agreed by EU leaders last month.

Attention is likely to focus on making Union policies more job-friendly, on learning from examples of best employment practice among member states and on pressing governments to keep to their own targets for reducing unemployment.

To tackle one end of the problem, the presidency will organise two joint meetings of education and social ministers to emphasise the contribution which suitable training can make in the hunt for jobs.

At the other end, the UK will continue efforts to improve the climate for business by loudly beating the competitiveness drum and by pushing forward the action plan drawn up by the trio of Luxembourg, UK and Austrian presidencies to make the single market a firm reality by the end of next year.

In line with the priorities for a 'people's Europe' first laid down by the Irish government during its leadership of the EU a year ago, the fight against organised crime and drugs will be at the heart of the strategy to make the Union more people-friendly.

Indeed, politicians and officials concerned with justice and home affairs issues are likely to be among the most hard-pressed during the coming six months. They will have to examine almost 400 separate subjects ranging from credit card fraud to stolen cars in 150 different working group meetings and come up with a 30-point action plan to tackle organised crime for the Cardiff summit.

Other policy areas of direct concern to individuals - the environment, the fight against fraud, more openness and transparency and less bureaucratic red tape - are also high on the six-month agenda.

As all presidencies do, the UK will inherit a raft of ongoing Union business and London will certainly put its shoulder to the wheel of reform of regional and common agricultural policies.

The UK will have to take the lead in two key policy areas which will fundamentally change the EU's appearance. The first - enlargement - will start a process which will lead to a wider Union, while the second - monetary union - will deepen and strengthen the existing edifice.

Firing the starter's gun on the accession process in London next February will provide a high-profile opportunity for the government to demonstrate its firm commitment to a Union eventually stretching right up to the Russian border.

The actual start of the enlargement negotiations, with EU foreign ministers and a small group of probably six countries, will be an altogether more businesslike affair at the end of March.

While negotiators haggle in the following months over the extent to which the potential members can comply with EU rules, one of the UK's main challenges may be smoothing any ruffled feathers among those countries, including Turkey, which find themselves further back in the queue.

Aware of the possible dangers, Cook has already pledged that the UK will seek to ensure that countries which do not open accession negotiations “remain fully engaged in the enlargement process”.

He added: “We do not want to leave these countries disappointed and disillusioned. The enlargement process must be like a pipeline - all the applicant countries are in it, moving at their own speeds but towards the same goal.”

Chairing single currency decisions may well be a more schizophrenic experience for the UK. Although committed to the euro in principle and ready to embrace it once five key economic conditions are met, the government will not take the monetary plunge in the lifetime of this parliament.

Nor is it prepared to rejoin the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which theoretically would be a relatively straightforward move to make. This is because, to many in the UK, the system conjures up images of chaos and recession.

That detachment may, however, work in the government's favour and reinforce its image as an impartial chairman, provided it can convince its partners of its commitment to be at the heart of Union economic and monetary policy-making when the decision is taken in May on the first euro members.

On the external front, trade liberalisation will be to the fore. The main landmarks will be the traditional EU-US summit, the second Asia-Europe summit in London in April and the finalisation of the Union's negotiating mandate to update its aid and trade links with 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

In purely statistical terms, running a smooth presidency, even with the help of the Council of Ministers' secretariat, is now a major undertaking. In all, the UK is planning to hold four summits, 50 ministerial gatherings and a hefty 1,500 working group meetings.

During the country's last EU presidency, its front man in Brussels was the then ambassador to the Union Sir John Kerr. Now, as head of the UK's Foreign Office back in London, he will draw heavily on those front-line experiences as he marshals his troops for the testing campaign ahead to make the Union more efficient and relevant to its 370 million citizens.