Summary
TONY BLAIR is not the only European leader playing a difficult political game at the negotiations on the EU Constitution today. He is pro-EU, and in favour of at least the principle of a Constitution, his diplomats having worked on it for two years.
Like the other leaders, he is also faced with a mixture of hostility and apathy to the EU at home, as evidenced by last week's European Parliament elections. But for Mr Blair, domestic Eurosceptic opinion is far more troublesome than it is elsewhere. While the British Government is in favour of greater EU integration and reform in some areas - especially liberalisation of markets - it has tried again and again to dig in its heels over so-called "red line" issues including taxation, immigration and labour laws. To give ground on any of these would be politically dangerous - and indeed the draft constitution now under negotiation has conceded most of these points to Britain. Yet even this position is nowhere near enough for many British voters - notably the 16 per cent who voted for UKIP last week.See the full content of this document
Extract
Bogged Down Over Europe Again
Having committed himself to a referendum on the Constitution, a short-term political fix to spike Tory guns, Mr Blair now finds that this wheeze has, at best, simply stored up ele...
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