Warning for Britain over EU expansion

Frustrated Germans vent anger on antics of the `Little Englanders'

Germany has warned Britain that the European Union will not be enlarged if the Government continues to block political integration.

The warnings, by officials close to Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor, suggest Bonn is preparing for the possibility of an indefinite delay in enlargement the union to the east. It is also using the threat to turn the tables on Britain, which has backed inclusion of new members as a means of diluting the organisation. For Germany, enlargement can only succeed if it follows greater integration. Bonn's message is that Britain will have to agree to more power-sharing in foreign policy, defence and criminal justice as well as an increase in majority voting if enlargement is to have any chance of going ahead.

This week a German official accused Britain of fighting a "flag-waving" battle with Europe which would leave a country of "Little Englanders more isolated than ever". Britain was also accused of fuelling Euro-scepticism in other member-states: "The British attitude ...is now seriously endangering enlargement. If enlargement does not happen, it will be the UK which will be responsible. We have given up all hope of the UK in the immediate future."

Privately, German officials are predicting the Dublin summit in December, when an EU draft treaty is to be presented, will achieve nothing.

Last week Germany and Paris proposed a "flexible" approach under which a core of countries would integrate, leaving unwilling ones behind. Yesterday, Werner Hoyer, the German state secretary, said the plan was not intended to isolate Britain, which would be welcome in the new "co-operation" procedures. But his comments failed to hide frustration at the lack of progress at the Intergovernmental Conference, and the plan is clearly an attempt to counter British blocking tactics.

The warnings echo a speech by Mr Kohl in Louvain earlier this year, when he said that if Europe missed this chance to deepen integration, it might slide back to war in the next millennium. Since then Germany has tempered its anger with Britain, but now appears to be shaping up for more confrontation as British anti-European and anti-German sentiment flares in the run-up to the general election.

"There must always be a battle - a battle of Britain - even though the battle of Britain is over. We had the battle for the Falklands and now we have the battle for Britain to remain British. You are just islanders, dreaming of past glories," a German diplomat said.

r Strasbourg - the European Commission President, Jacques Santer, called for abolition of the national veto in EU decision-making, writes Katherine Butler.

He said that failure to reform the present voting system when the bloc expanded to take in new members would lead to "paralysis".

"I cannot actually see how we can continue with unanimous voting in a union with 20 or more members" Mr Santer told the European Parliament. Reform of EU institutions was "overdue in any case; enlargement made it even more vital".