Hain urges British public to 'wake up' to EU expansion

Peter Hain, the minister for Europe, will issue a "wake-up call" to the British public this week on the European Union's plans to admit 10 new member states in January 2004.

Concern over the timetable for enlargement is growing in Europe amid a series of increasingly bitter disputes on nationality, sovereignty and the cash that new countries hope to gain.

But in an interview with The Independent, Mr Hain insisted the ambitious expansion plan was on track and said Britain would be denied new jobs and trade unless business took swift action.

With one in three people in Britain knowing nothing about enlargement, ministers in all departments have been ordered to spell out the implications in their areas. Mr Hain said: "Nobody has kept it a secret; it's just that people haven't cottoned on to it. Businessmen, politicians, informed people all seem unaware of it."

In a speech to businessmen tomorrow, he will launch a campaign to highlight the importance of the EU's plans to take in eight central and eastern European nations plus Malta and Cyprus.

"There are great opportunities for Britain," he said yesterday. "My message to British business is: get out there and grab hold of these fantastic opportunities."

On recent visits to candidate countries, Mr Hain was alarmed at the lack of activity by British industry. Although inter-governmental links are strong, companies are lagging a long way behind. "It will have a huge impact, as big as if we joined the euro," he said.

The expansion will create the biggest single market in the industrialised world, bigger than America and Japan combined, with more than 500 million consumers. Economists calculate it could create 300,000 jobs in the 15 current member states and boost Britain's gross domestic product by £1.75bn – the equivalent of an extra £100 for every household.

"The candidate countries are no longer the deadweights of Europe; they will add to competitiveness, trade and jobs," Mr Hain said. "Bled in Slovenia has the best small- business school in Europe and eight out of 10 Czech people will have mobile internet access by 2005.

"Enlargement is very good news for Europe; it will make it stronger, more secure, more able to fight terror and crime and be good for trade, jobs and our environment," he added.

"It is a historic reunification of Europe. For me, that is the most exciting thing about it after the bitter divisions of the Cold War and the aftermath of the Second World War."

When other EU members wobbled about the expansion, Britain stood firm. "We are seen as the best friend of the candidate countries; we are the champion of enlargement," Mr Hain said.

The Government hopes this will pay dividends when the new members join the convention that will agree a new governing treaty for the EU, and the hyperactive Mr Hain has been networking hard among the 10 nations.

He said: "Most of them have only won independent nationhood in the last 10 years; they are not about to subvert it into the nightmare of a federal superstate ... Enlargement will help build our kind of Europe rather than a superstate."

Mr Hain fears the lack of public knowledge about the expansion could widen a gulf between the EU's governing elite and its citizens, epitomised by Ireland's rejection of the Treaty of Nice in a referendum in June of last year. Hence the Government's drive to talk up the opportunities.

The EU's expansion could also influence the debate in the Cabinet about whether to call a referendum on the euro before the next general election. Although the 10 countries will not join the euro immediately, they will have an automatic entry ticket, potentially leaving Britain the only one of 25 members outside the eurozone.

Despite signs of jitters in some candidate countries, Mr Hain was confident EU leaders would give final approval for the 10 nations to join in January 2004 at their Copenhagen summit in December.

He predicted the expansion would finally force the EU to grasp the nettle of Common Agricultural Policy reform, but admitted that would not be agreed in Copenhagen. "The CAP will not bear the weight of enlargement; everybody is going to have to go along with reform," he said. "It has got to happen; it will happen."