"Press the pause button," said Peter Mandelson after the Dutch and French rejected the EU constitution. OK, Peter, we've pressed it. What now? The EU's trade commissioner is delivering a rare speech at the Fabian Society tonight and will argue that New Labour's mix of social justice and economic reform is the only way forward for the EU. But he will warn his old boss that the essence of Blairism is not getting across in Brussels.
"In Brussels, Britain has sounded neo-Thatcherite as though nothing has changed from the 1980s," Mandelson will tell the Fabians. "Both tone and substance need now to change if the British government is to command attention and win the backing it seeks on the continent. A greater effort must be made to get this right during the UK presidency."
What does that mean for Britain's EU rebate? It means, he says, that Britain will eventually have to compromise. "It is surely wrong to ask the poorer new accession states to pay for any part of the rebate." The UK risks "playing into the hands" of Jacques Chirac if it rules out reform altogether: "Disengagement from Europe at this time would be a total betrayal of Britain's national interest. ... Britain would walk naked into the world of globalisation."
Blairisme has its admirers in France. But the suggestion that New Labour has the answer to the EU's problems - if Tony could only make the Europeans grasp it - is cheekily Mandelsonian. And it sets the bar very high for Britain's presidency in July. Expect a fierce fight for the remote control.
