EU leaders forced into reform to halt advance of far right

Seville: The European Union is fighting to reclaim ground recently lost to extremists even though its meetings are often stormy affairs

European Union leaders will agree on major reform of how the EU works next week in an attempt to halt the advance of the far right seen in recent elections in member states.

Amid mounting concern about the rise in support for the extreme right in France and the Netherlands, an EU leaders' summit in Seville will approve a package of measures designed to "reconnect" the EU with its citizens.

British sources admitted yesterday that the EU's remoteness and "navel-gazing" had helped right-wing politicians exploit public disaffection with the European project.

The three-point plan for the summit will involve streamlining the work of the EU; a crackdown on illegal immigration; and pressing ahead firmly with plans for 10 new members to join the Union.

Tony Blair will urge the Seville summit to "hold its nerve" on expansion, warning that delaying the end of talks beyond December this year would play into the hands of extremists who oppose enlargement. "It would be dancing to the far right's tune," a Foreign Office source said yesterday. "The big theme at Seville will be to take away the excuses for people switching to the far right."

Officials admit the warning signs were there before recent events. They point to the Danish referendum that rejected joining the euro, the Irish people's "no" to the Nice Treaty and the low turn-out in European Parliament elections. "The threat from the far right gives this a new and greater impetus," one minister said.

Proposals include allowing television cameras into meetings of EU ministers when they make laws jointly with the European Parliament.

Meetings would also be open to the public and the press at two points: when a proposal for a new law is made and at the final vote.

At present, all ministerial meetings take place behind closed doors. "We are the only legislative body apart from North Korea which doesn't let the cameras in," one source said. "People have no image of the EU, except ministers getting in and out of limousines. How can they support it, if they never see what it does?"

The leaders are expected to agree to draw up more detailed long-term plans, such as the economic reform blueprint that was agreed two years ago to create 20 million jobs over 10 years. Target dates could now be set in other policy areas and the EU is expected to agree an annual plan.

Future summits of leaders would be cut from two or more days to a single day through a "precise and binding" set of rules.

Foreign ministers would do more of the preparatory work to stop the leaders' summits descending into chaotic, late-night horse-trading sessions. They would hold a final, preparatory meeting on the eve of such summits to clear the way for final agreement.

The Seville summit will agree closer co-operation between EU states to combat illegal immigration in an attempt to prevent right-wing parties playing "the race card." On Monday, foreign ministers will draw up plans to be approved in Seville to boost international co-operation on policing borders to create multi-nation teams of frontier guards, and to increase surveillance at sea.

Spain and Britain are backing a controversial plan to link development aid with the cooperation of nations in accepting back their nationals who are denied asylum.

Britain has argued that poor countries would not be punished but that those which are co-operative would also be given additional rewards.

Summits becoming all mouth and no action

By Stephen Castle

Leaders of European Union countries argued for so many days at Nice that the caterers ran out of food. At Laeken outside Brussels the Italian premier, Silvio Berlusconi, bellowed at his fellow leaders about his nation's culinary traditions.

In recent years, EU summits have become so fractious and unwieldy that almost all heads of government are agreed that there must be a better way to do business.

The EU is due to enlarge in two years' time when it might welcome as many as 10 new countries into its fold, increasing the number of chairs around the table to 25.

The meetings of the European Council, which usually convenes four times a year, are vital. That is where all the most difficult decisions have to be taken, or ducked. When issues prove too difficult or politically sensitive for junior ministers, they are kicked upstairs to their bosses to decide at the summit.

But, as nations have become more assertive and less willing to compromise, more and more decisions have been referred to summits. Small teams of advisers have been swollen by experts on specialist subjects, and any meeting of heads of government can expect to attract at least 1,000 journalists.

What were once informal brainstorming sessions have fallen victim to the bureaucracy. Leaders, therefore, end up discussing the precise proportion of the EU's market that should be opened up, or the location of the EU's maritime safety agency.

At Nice in December 2000, for example, vital issues were at stake because the French presidency of the EU was drawing up reforms of the way the Union was run, designed to pave the way for enlargement. But leaders were left, calculators in hand, negotiating the voting strengths of each of the applicant countries in the European institutions.

At one point, David O'Sullivan, the most senior aide to the European Commission president, Romano Prodi, approached his boss to whisper some advice. Jacques Chirac, the French President, already in mid-tirade, shouted at the official: "Get away, you will tell Mr Prodi what to reply when he has learnt what I have to ask him." An angry Mr Prodi yelled back straight away.

At Laeken a year later, the Belgian presidency managed to gain agreement on a forum to discuss the future of Europe. But making a deal on where the EU should site a series of agencies proved impossible. At the suggestion that the EU's new food safety authority should go to Finland, rather than his native land, Mr Berlusconi, exploded. "Parma," he shouted at fellow leaders, "is synonymous with good cuisine. The Finns don't even know what prosciutto is. I cannot accept this."

Not to be outdone, Mr Chirac, who was unhappy with the four smaller agencies he was offered, poured scorn on their quality in his own inimitable way. Turning to Göran Persson, the Swedish premier, he said: "How would it be if Sweden got an agency for training models, since you have such pretty women?"