MacShane hits the road to test public mood for euro vote

Denis MacShane, the new minister for Europe, will embark on a "meet the people" tour of the country today. Officially, it is to mark the 30th anniversary in January of Britain joining the Common Market. Unofficially, the mission will test the nation's mood on the single currency.

As Tony Blair and Gordon Brown prepare to make their decision on whether to call a euro referendum next year, Philip Gould, the Prime Minister's pollster, is using focus groups to roadtest the arguments. But Mr Blair will also study closely Mr MacShane's report on whether – and when – the British people might be ready to take the plunge.

Mr MacShane told The Independent that one of his messages on his tour would be that "there is more to Europe than the euro".

He said: "Too many people simply want to make this a penalty shoot-out on the question of the euro. I think Europe is a much longer game and a bigger game." He added: "Reducing the whole question of Britain's membership of the EU to the question of the single currency is a mistake that stops effective factual discussion on Europe."

After criticism that the Government has been slow to make the pro-European case, Mr MacShane wants ministers in all government departments to join him in giving "facts not fiction" about Europe. "Every minister in a sense should be a minister for Europe," he said.

Eyebrows were raised at Westminster when the Rotherham MP landed the Europe job because he is an unashamed advocate of euro membership. While admitting he is a "passionate European", he is anxious not to stray from the Government's mantra. "The five economic tests are there and decisions will be taken in the course of time. I am quite happy with that," he said.

Mr MacShane conceded: "Thirty years on, some British people are still not entirely at ease with Europe. Most people want more information on Europe. That's why I'm embarking on this tour – to start public debate." He insisted that he wanted to "engage in a discussion, not to preach" and that his roadshow would not go in for gimmicks ( even though he labelled it his "tour de Britain").

"I want to talk about Europe, warts and all. Not everything that Brussels does is perfect. But I will argue that we get a lot more out of Europe than the alternative, which is to revert to the days when all the Europeans were at odds with each other," he said. Another message is that the EU is not, and will not become, a superstate. "There is not a single entity called Europe. What the EU does is to add value to all our countries," he said.

Mr MacShane admitted some Britons were "hostile" to the EU while others merely found it "a bit difficult, a bit complicated". He added: "Europe is very technical. But at the same time it has a very simple story: we either construct an EU that allows independent nations to live in harmony with each other, or we go back to a Europe in which we squabble all the time."

What about the squabble between Mr Blair and Jacques Chirac, the French President, which erupted at last month's Brussels summit? Mr MacShane is "a bit baffled" by the row, emphasising that Britain and France are working closely together on defence, economic policy and the Convention, chaired by Valery Giscard D'Estaing, drawing up a new EU blueprint. "All our grandchildren will still be squabbling over aspects of the EU," he said. "We are not going to create a single European superstate in which our national interests and identities are dissolved. If you treat Europe as a zero sum game, we will all be losers."

Despite jitters in the Foreign Office on the revived Franco-German axis, Mr MacShane insisted that Paris, Berlin and London could be the "triangle" that shaped the EU – even if Britain remained outside the euro. "We have immense influence in the EU already. We are the country that other countries look to for ideas on economic reforms, job creation, building bridges to the United States."

Mr MacShane, whose father was Polish, said the 10 countries due to join the EU in 2004, including Poland, looked to Britain as "their number one partner and ally in the new Europe we are creating".

In his first few weeks in his job, he has already visited three applicant countries as well as Paris and Brussels.

"My job is also to be the minister for British policy, values and ideas in Europe. In Europe, you only win by getting stuck in. Never again must Britain be reduced, as it was under the last government, to sniping from the sidelines and whinging from the fringe," he said.