EU: Blair to woo wary Brits

2004-06-20 14:22

London - Taking on an emboldened anti-European Union campaign, Prime Minister Tony Blair started his fight on Sunday to persuade wary Britons that the proposed EU constitution would bolster their power in the continent-wide club, not steal Britain's sovereignty.

He said British negotiators had won everything they insisted on in the newly agreed pact and argued that the deal would be good for the country. Opponents of the union were spreading myths about the constitution to scare voters into rejecting it when it comes to a referendum, he told the British Broadcasting Corp's Breakfast with Frost programme.

"This treaty gives us the chance to play a vital part in decision-making at the heart of the European Union while it protects completely our right to set our taxes, run our foreign policy and defence and do the things that people want us to do," he said.

"This is going to be a fascinating political battle because it will be a battle between reality and myth," he said. "The fact is, we have kept control of taxes, of our policy on immigration, of defence, of foreign policy.

"On all those key areas that go to make up Britain as a nation state ... we have won every single thing we wanted to secure."

Blair declined to say when he would call a promised referendum on the treaty, but noted that Britain did not have to ratify it until the end of 2006.

"There's no need to rush it," he said. "The reason why obviously I think it's important to have a long debate is because these are the myths."

He said anti-EU campaigners were trying to scare Britons into thinking the constitution would steal some of their country's sovereignty when in fact it bolsters the power of national governments.

"It is going to be a tough battle," he conceded.

A new poll suggested he was right about that.

Majority would vote no

Fifty-seven percent of respondents to a survey published in The Sunday Express newspaper said they would vote no to the constitution; 28% said they would vote yes and 14% were undecided.

Pollster ICM interviewed 580 voters by telephone on Friday and Saturday. The margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points.

Scepticism of closer integration with the union got a big boost a week ago when the once-fringe United Kingdom Independence Party, demanding withdrawal from the continent-wide bloc, grabbed 16% of the British vote in elections for the European legislature.

Pressure from the Conservative Party and other opponents had earlier forced Blair to announce he'd put the proposed constitution to a national referendum.

He said withdrawing from the EU or backing off full involvement would be a disaster.

Many of the group's new members, particularly those in eastern Europe, support Britain's view of the EU as a collection of sovereign nations, not a federal superstate, Blair argued.

"At this moment in time, when Europe is actually changing, when there's growing support for Britain's position in Europe, to get out of the European Union or marginalise ourselves in decision-making, would just be an extraordinary act of foolishness," he said.

- AP