23 June 2007
Tony Blair has given a press conference at the conclusion of the EU summit in Brussels. He said that the "four essential things" the UK needed to protect its position in the new EU treaty "have all been obtained".
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Prime Minister:
Good Morning. Well first of all I would like to congratulate the German Presidency on having brought what was a very difficult negotiation to a successful conclusion. The most important thing here is that the constitutional treaty was put to one side, we went back to a conventional treaty. The four essential things that we in the UK required in order to protect our position have all been obtained. Those were: first of all to make it absolutely clear that the Charter on Fundamental Rights was not going to be justiciable in British courts or alter British law, that has been secured by specific protocol for the UK; the second is that the common foreign and security policy should remain separate, should remain intergovernmental and there should be no question of that common foreign and security policy leading to the loss of Britain’s ability to run its own foreign policy in the way that it wants; thirdly, we have secured the same procedure which allows us to opt into individual measures at our will, the same procedure in relation to judicial and police cooperation as we have got in respect of asylum and immigration and that again will be set out in a specific set of provisions; and finally in respect of social security law we have got the existing provisions changed in order to make it clear that where there is an issue to do with tax benefit or spending we are entitled to have it decided at unanimity.
So in respect of all those four areas, I could go through many others as well, the positions are completely secure. Incidentally let me just point out in respect of the issues to do with competition, it is correct that the words in the constitutional treaty were taken out of the objectives section, however there is a specific protocol, which will of course have legal effect, which makes it clear that it is the purpose of the internal market not to distort competition and that the European Commission has its full powers in order to make sure that that is the case, in other words the legal basis of the internal market has not altered at all.
Finally let me just make this point. I think the most important thing about this, and it explains why myself and many of the other leaders were so anxious to get the deal done at this June summit, the truth is we have been arguing now for many years about these institutional questions. This deal gives us a chance to move on, it gives us a chance to concentrate on the issues to do with the economy, organised crime, terrorism, immigration, defence, climate change, the environment, energy, the problems that really concern citizens in Europe. And this is why it was important to get out of this bind into which we had got with the constitutional treaty, to go back to making simple changes in our rules that allow us to operate more effectively now we are in an enlarged European Union, but most of all allow us to work effectively for the betterment of people inside the European Union. That is what we have set out to do and that is what this deal allows us to do.
So again let me give my thanks to the German Presidency for the work that they have done and I think, as I say, the most important thing about this is that it now allows us to move on to things that are ultimately far more important.
Question:
Prime Minister, since this is I think, we think, your last news conference and on the basis of what you have just said to us, does that mean that you would accept now that your decision to agree the original treaty was one of the mistakes of your premiership?
Prime Minister:
No, I have never accepted that because I think that actually Britain won most of its points in the course of that negotiation. But the fact is things moved on with the French and Dutch decisions to vote no, but the most important thing that we have done in the course of the 10 years is this: when I first became British Prime Minister and we attended the Amsterdam negotiation, Britain was completely isolated in Europe, it had been years since we had put forward anything positive and in the 10 years that have followed we have led the way on economic reform, on defence policy, on enlargement, on the changes necessary to create an effective European Union for the future, and Britain has been at the centre of all those debates. And that is the real lesson. It is in Britain’s interest to be at the centre of Europe, to keep its alliance with Europe strong and to understand that in the early 21st century for a country like Britain it needs strong alliances to make its weight and influence count. And therefore my position throughout the course of my time as Prime Minister has been to get out of this sort of endless and destructive negativity and realise that actually Britain has a lot to offer Europe and Europe has a lot to offer Britain, and that we have done.
Question:
One of the criticisms of you here in Brussels is that whilst you have been here for 47 summits or something like that you have been involved in three and a half treaties and you have got all these kind of deals, but you ducked the euro, you ducked the debate over the euro, you were lucky with the constitution and now you have managed to avoid another referendum. And one of the arguments here is that you have never managed to win the argument for Europe with voters back in Britain. How do you address that criticism of your legacy?
Prime Minister:
Are you from the Daily Telegraph?
Question:
I am with the Daily Telegraph.
Prime Minister:
Yeah, yeah. Well thank you for your help in winning this argument over the years! No, look, I have always believed myself that the debate about Europe in Britain is more nuanced than people think. My own view of this is that yes if you take opinion polls people are very Eurosceptic; on the other hand, I actually think when people really reflect on it and think on it they understand that for a country of Britain’s size at this moment, the early 21st century, it is important we are players in the European Union. And really what has happened over the past 10 years is that we have continually set the agenda and one of the great British achievements has been an enlarged European Union, which has made a huge difference to Europe. As for the euro, I have always said that the politics are very clear but the economics have got to be right, and the economics have not been right in the UK. But I think the interesting thing is that I have not noticed any diminution of our influence in respect of Europe as a result of the euro decision, except obviously in respect of the euro area. But I don’t know, obviously you mix with people here in Brussels a lot, but I think most people when they look back for example to the budget deal that we did, which was very difficult, to the Hampton Court agenda which I think in many ways is the future agenda of the European Union, I think Britain round that table today would be regarded as a constructive player in Europe.
Question:
I think it was after Nice that it was said we can’t go on doing things like this. It is now 4.55 in the morning, you are giving your final press conference after a European Council, are we going to go on doing things like this, can we go on doing things like this?
Prime Minister:
I think you know you will always have difficult negotiations and it doesn’t become easier incidentally when you have got 27 countries sitting round the table. On the other hand, I mean we have got a basis to move on now. And the one thing I think that is quite interesting about this process, now not everyone in Europe would agree with what I am about to say, but I think that in the last couple of years there has been an increasing impatience within Europe for endless debating of institutional questions and a real desire to get on to what I would call the solid policy agenda - the economy, crime, immigration, energy, the environment, defence. And I think one of the reasons why we have got this deal here is because people don’t at least want to be you know staying up until quarter to five in the morning debating the intricacies of institutional points any more, they actually want to get on and debate the things that really are shaping the lives of people in Europe. And so yes it would be nice to think that no-one is ever going to do a late night sitting in the European Council any more, I think that would be somewhat brave as a prediction, but I do think that this summit and the determination to reach agreement on what are really tricky issues for many European countries, is an indication of the desire of Europe to move on.
Question:
Prime Minister, the agreement tonight, does that mean that the deal in December when the new treaty is going to be agreed is in the bag, do we for example have any guarantees that your successor will sign up to a deal, and is there anything in your opinion that could derail the process from now to December?
Prime Minister:
Frankly no, I don’t think there is anything that will derail the process now. I mean the whole purpose of this was to get agreement on all the key elements, those agreements are now there, the rest is drafting. I think the drafting will be relatively easy, all the key things, the really tricky things actually have even been drafted, so I don’t anticipate a great deal of difficulty now.
Question:
And Mr Brown is behind the deal 100%?
Prime Minister:
Absolutely. And you know as I kept saying to people beforehand, I mean I have been involved in this now for the last two years, but all the way through of course it has been necessary for the government to keep in very close contact with members of the governments of each other and to make sure, of course, with my successor that the ground is properly protected.
Question:
Given what you have said about your European ambitions, isn’t there a certain irony that at your final press conference you are celebrating not what you have got into the treaty but what you have kept out of it?
Prime Minister:
Well I suspect there would be a slightly different line of questioning if I had not managed to keep the things out of … here. But no I have always taken the view that it is important to protect Britain’s national interest, and I have. You know the single greatest irony of the last 20 years of treaty making is if you look at the two treaties that really transferred major power and competencies from member states to the European Union, it is the Single European Act, signed by Mrs Thatcher, and the Maastricht Treaty. Amsterdam and Nice, and indeed this treaty, transfer nothing like the power of those two treaties. So I have always been anxious to protect the British national interest but I have always seen the British national interest as in part satisfied by being a key and leading player in Europe. And the important thing for Britain to understand today, and this really is a strong plea to my own country now that, you know, Europe has changed. We have a Commission President who is a reformer, we have got an enlarged European Union with real allies of Britain today, we have got a German Chancellor, a French President who are in favour of the transatlantic alliance, there is a fantastic opportunity for this country today. And you know I will always end up protecting our interests and that is why I had to get these things sorted out for the treaty, but I did so in a way that didn’t trample on the sensitivities of other people in Europe, tried to keep the show together and make sure that Europe also got a good conclusion out of this. Because I think that a stronger European Union is in Britain’s interest, but it should be a union of sovereign states and not a federal union, and that is the difference, but I would say that that is accepted by most people inside the European Union today.
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