Citizens' charter for Europe is drafted

Britain gave the first signal yesterday that it may accept a new European Union charter of fundamental rights, by welcoming a pledge that the document will not extend Europe's powers.

Britain gave the first signal yesterday that it may accept a new European Union charter of fundamental rights, by welcoming a pledge that the document will not extend Europe's powers.

The Foreign Office described the latest draft of the charter as an "improvement", although it said "work still needs to be done to make it acceptable". That contrasted sharply with the reception from British business, which said the present proposals were not acceptable.

The charter, a German-inspired idea for spelling out rights to EU citizens, has been greeted with suspicion by the Government because of Euro-sceptic claims that it could develop into a constitution.

Tony Blair has led the campaign to insist that the charter should list only existing rights, and contain no new social or economic clauses. At a recent summit in Feira, Mr Blair won support from Spain, Ireland, Finland and Sweden when he called for the document to have no legal status. In what is seen as an attempt to placate fears about the document, its drafters have made explicit that it "does not establish any new power or task to the Community or the Union".

However, the battle over the content continued to rage, with business leaders still opposing the social provisions. The latest version argues that "employers and workers have the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements and, in cases of conflicts of interest, to take collective action to defend their interests, in accordance with Community law and national laws and practices".

Business leaders argue that this could open the door to wider union recognition, and to secondary action of the type which is illegal in Britain.

Dominic Johnson, head of employee relations at the Confederation of British Industry, said that "the breadth of social rights is disturbing" and that, if implemented, the charter would force significant changes to UK industrial relations and "have a damaging impact on market flexibility".