Mr Blair tried to put Britain at the heart of Europe, but missed

The Prime Minister's attempt to present himself as the swashbuckling new kid on the European block came a cropper at the weekend. As recently as last Thursday's new-style televised briefing in Number 10, he led off with a little spiel about how the likely enlargement of the European Union in two years' time would transform everything and how he would be there, in the thick of it, leading, shaping and generally being looked up to.

The widening of the EU across central Europe could be, genuinely, a historic moment – provided that the Irish people can be persuaded to give the right answer when the treaty is put to them again in a referendum. But that was not the issue which dominated the Seville summit; instead it was immigration and asylum.

The ball should have dropped in front of Tony Blair for a forehand smash. He had cultivated the summit host, Jose Maria Aznar, the centre-right Prime Minister of Spain, at the price of some centre-left grief at home. He had seized the initiative on immigration, trying to use his credibility on the left as cover for an attempt to steal some of the far-right's ground. He said it was important to "tackle the underlying issues that the extremists are exploiting", while adding that "we need, and indeed should value, migrants who add to our economic well-being". But the focus of his efforts at Seville was on the first part rather than the second – strengthening Fortress Europe rather than welcoming limited and fair economic migration.

By Thursday, however, he was already in scuttering retreat from what Clare Short rightly called the "morally repugnant" plan to tie aid for poor countries to their willingness to take back those refused refugee status in the EU.

The substance of what was agreed at Seville was as inconclusive and as confusing as any EU summit. What is clear, however, is that, in trying to set himself up for a triumph of rhetoric, Mr Blair misjudged the mood of Europe and hit the ball too far to the right. Things have come to something when high principle and common sense in the EU have to be defended by that cynical old showman, Jacques Chirac.