In Edinburgh last night there was a celebration of Britain's presidency of the European Union. In Brussels yesterday Mr Wim Duisenberg, the prospective head of the European Central Bank, gave reasons why the celebrations should be muted. Mr Tony Blair is not wholly responsible for the ridiculous political mess into which Mr Duisenberg's appointment evolved. The full credit for petty-minded selfishness wrapped up in a nationalist blanket goes to the French and to Mr Jacques Chirac in particular. Nevertheless, Mr Blair must bear some responsibility for he was in charge, nominally at least. The Germans, and in particular the supporters of the flagging Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, are intent on piling all the blame on Mr Blair, but they are doing this in order to protect Mr Kohl who is falling far behind in the opinion polls for the German election in September and who, if his performance at the
Franco-German summit in Avignon yesterday is any guide, appears to be content to slide gently towards the door. Mr Duisenberg, thank
heaven, appears to be made of resolute material and heartened MEPs yesterday by his evident determination to maintain his own independence and that of the European Central Bank. Nevertheless, the shambles at the weekend left a ''bad taste'', he said, and the deal brokered by Mr Blair was ''slightly absurd''.
None of this appears to have featured heavily in the Edinburgh celebrations, which is just as well. To be honest, the British presidency has remarkably few achievements of which to boast. The European Union faces many points of difficulty and throughout the latter half of last year we heard much about how the British presid-ency would tackle them. Well, it has helped at the birth of the euro, even if the event subsided into a political fist-fight. On all the other great issues, such as reform of the CAP, multilateral trade, defence issues, the reform of finances, and the problems of enlargement, there has hardly been a cheep (far less leadership) from Britain. It
doesn't help being semi-detached, of course, but detachment was taken to absurd levels during the Gulf crisis when European allies were ignored in favour of our role as America's lieutenant.
The point of all this is that Europe is changing and at its core the Franco-German axis is also changing. Britain may edge closer to the euro, thereby playing a larger EU role, but the fact remains that France and Germany have a different philosophical approach to EU matters and the opportunity for Britain to mediate and influence has not been enhanced by the presidency so heartily celebrated in Edinburgh.
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