Downing Street Says

Asked for a reaction to Mr Borroso’s comparison of the EU to a boxing championship, the PMOS said that all he could talk about was our approach. Our approach to the summit had been to set out what we believed was not just our national interest, in terms of the rebate, but also Europe’s interest in terms of getting a budget which more accurately reflected the needs of Europe as it was today rather than as it was 40 years ago. The reception that the Prime Minister’s speech received throughout Europe indicated that there was a consensus in Europe about the need for e proper debate on those issues. We were not claiming that everyone agreed with our position on the rebate. What people did recognise was that we were right to say that there needed to be a debate and that the Prime Minister’s speech was an important contribution to starting that debate. What we wanted to do in the Presidency was take that debate forwards and that we would do. He did not see anything in President Borroso’s comments that argued against that, indeed quite the reverse. Asked what the President’s intentions might have been in making such comments, the PMOS said that Mr Borroso would speak for himself. However it was clear that he was a strong supporter of reform. He had to reflect the reviews and he did reflect the views of Europe as a whole. Equally as he had clearly stated there was a need for Europe to reform to meet the objective that Europe had set itself of becoming a truly competitive economy in the era of globalisation. We supported those views.

Put to him that the possibility of concluding the EU budget negotiations during the UK presidency was fairly slim, the PMOS said that we should not try to call the odds at this stage but actually get on with the work. That was what we would do. The Prime Minister had already said and might add to the position this afternoon, that he believed that we needed to get down to the work and try and do a deal and consult other people. Questioned further the PMOS said that some people might be trying to suggest that we were putting this on the back burner or were soft peddling this, but that was not our position at all. Asked about the neutrality of the presidency, the PMOS said that in UK terms there had been the precedent of the 1991 negotiations. Of course you had to recognise and be explicit about your national interest, but the deal that Luxembourg put forward dealt with Luxembourg. It was a mistake to think that any presidency did not have national interest whilst at the same time trying to reconcile the different demands of Europe as a whole.

Asked if we hoped to have a review of the EU budget by 2008, the PMOS said that President Borroso himself had talked about the possibility of a report round about 2008. The detail however was a matter for discussion, we should not get hung up on process. We needed first of all to discuss how we tried to get a broad outline agreement on what priorities the budget needed to reflect.

Asked about a comment in a European newspaper that through holding the presidencies of the EU and the G8 the Prime Minister was "King of the World" the PMOS said while he was grateful for the question, he hoped no one would be insulted if he refused to even dignify it with a response.

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» Friday, July 1, 2005

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