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Hard tasks for Blair EU presidency
RELATEDSPECIAL REPORT
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England -- UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken on the twin challenge of unraveling the crises over Europe's constitution and its stalled budget negotiations as Britain assumed the rotating EU presidency Friday. Blair was marking the start of the UK's six months at the EU helm by holding talks in London with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and the other Brussels commissioners. As Britain took over the presidency, Barroso cast fresh doubt on the future of the bloc's proposed constitution after its rejection by French and Dutch voters, saying the EU would not have one for years. "We will not have the constitution in the next years," Barroso said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. Barroso gave no further comment on what he thought would happen to the treaty, which must be ratified by all 25 EU members to come into force. Blair has already said he will use the six month period to push his campaign for reform of the EU finances and the system of lavish farm subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It is likely to bring him into renewed conflict with French President Jacques Chirac who is determined to protect the generous CAP payouts to farmers, which at present benefits the French. British officials have indicated that they would be ready to bring forward proposals for radical budget reform if they thought an agreement was possible. "We are now sounding out the rest with a view to resolving this problem in a way that suits us all. If we think a deal is do-able then we will bring forward proposals. But we are being deliberately cautious," one official told the UK's Press Association. Barroso has been urging Britain to compromise. Speaking in Dublin on Thursday, he said a budget deal by December "will be difficult, but I think it will be possible". Blair has said that he would be prepared to negotiate over Britain's annual £3 billion ($5.33bn) EU budget rebate as part of an overall deal. However, that may not be enough to placate Chirac following their bruising clash at last month's Brussels summit when talks to settle the budget for 2007-13 collapsed. Blair won support from an unexpected quarter Thursday when Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof said the French refusal to give up the CAP was costing lives in Africa where producers were unable to export to Europe because of the subsidies. "There is some difficulty with France being able to give up the Common Agricultural Policy," said Geldof who was appearing alongside Blair in a studio debate for the MTV satellite station. "It is a distorting mechanism. It is the politics of the playground. The knock-on effect of the Common Agricultural Policy is that people die eight miles south of Europe." PressureThere is pressure from within the EU to reach agreement on the budget in order to restore momentum to the beleaguered European project following the decisive rejection of the new constitution by French and Dutch voters. The 10 new accession states -- who Britain has been keen to woo -- also want to see an early deal so that funding from Brussels can start flowing to them. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the British PM was setting a clear new course for Europe. The rejection of the EU constitution by France and Holland meant the death of a federal Europe, he said. Blair was now making the Union more outward-looking and reforming the CAP was part of that, the Foreign Secretary told the BBC's Today program. "One of the reasons we have argued so strongly for a different direction in the budget between 2007 and 2013 is because, unless you get that different direction in the detail of the budget, Europe will not be able to ensure it does go in a different direction," he said. "It is an uncomfortable situation that all of us are in in Europe at the moment. "But, as the Prime Minister said in his speech last week, out of a crisis can come an opportunity, and in many ways I think this was a crisis, a problem, waiting to happen in Europe. "What we now have to do is use the position we have as president of the European Union to provide leadership and to provide leadership, however, in a conciliatory way." 'Crucial moment'Barroso said Prime Minister Blair was taking over the EU's rotating presidency at a "crucial moment". "There are a lot of anxieties," he told the Guardian. "Those are political anxieties that come when the situation is a difficult one, where we understand that Europe ... has not had the same level of support it had before." He said Blair must adopt an "inclusive" stance to overcome divisions. "Tony Blair has shown great leadership qualities in Britain," Barroso said. "I hope he will show now the same leadership qualities in Europe. For that he needs an approach that is inclusive. Dynamic yes. But inclusive." He told the Today program: "We have to say this to all member states and to all leaders: Look, don't play with the national card, don't come with nationalistic rhetoric. "It gets us nowhere. You have to make some compromises. You cannot get 100 percent satisfaction in agreement. You have to give something also. This is the right approach. "Those who are saying to their respective public `I won, I won, I'm the best, I'm most beautiful in Brussels', it is complete nonsense. That is not the way to things in Europe." 
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