Blair yields on EU blueprint as Giscard steps up pressure

Tony Blair offered to make concessions over the new blueprint for the European Union yesterday but demanded changes to a controversial Franco-German plan for the EU to have "two presidents".

The Prime Minister held talks over lunch at Downing Street with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president who chairs the European Convention, which is drawing up proposals for a new governing treaty for the EU. British officials described the third meeting between the two as "positive and constructive" and said there was "much common ground".

Mr Blair signalled that Britain would accept moves to extend qualified majority voting – including in the sensitive area of foreign policy. To safeguard the national interest, all 15 EU members would have to agree to switch to majority voting on each issue as it arose.

The Prime Minister stopped short of endorsing the detailed plan outlined this month by France and Germany for the EU to have "two presidents" – the president of the European Commission and a new president of the European Council, made up of the 15 heads of government, to drive through the EU's agenda and represent Europe on the world stage.

Britain is prepared to see the Commission president elected by members of the European Parliament but wants safeguards to prevent the majority party in the Strasbourg Parliament selecting someone who does not command widespread support. Britain wants the president to enjoy 80 per cent backing among MEPs and for the appointment to be ratified by the 15 EU leaders.

Peter Hain, the cabinet minister who represents Britain on the convention, said after yesterday's talks: "We have made significant achievements. There are areas where in order to get final agreement, with our national interests protected, everyone has to give a little bit."

Mr Hain, the Secretary of State for Wales, added: "The idea that you could just go into the convention like Margaret Thatcher waving a handbag and splatting everyone is just fantasy."

Britain would support the idea of a powerful EU foreign policy supremo but would insist he or she worked to the European Council to ensure accountability to governments. "We are not having foreign policy run by the commission or the European Parliament," he said.

The role is split between Chris Patten, the European commissioner responsible for external relations, and Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs.

While Britain will support a new charter of fundamental rights for EU citizens, including the right to strike, it wants it to be a declaration of goals that would not be enforceable in the UK courts.

Other measures won by Britain include an "early warning system" to allow national parliaments to block EU legislation on the basis that decisions should be taken at a national rather than a European level. Britain also says it has blocked calls to extend majority voting to social security and employment policy.

With the EU's machinery already creaking under the strain of operating with 15 member states, M. Giscard's job is to produce a draft constitution, allowing the EU to accommodate the 10 new countries that will join next year.

The convention, which is made up of 105 politicians from existing and future EU member states, has to draw up a blueprint for the enlarged EU this summer. That will be sent to EU heads of government, who must agree the final package.

The work of the convention is delicately poised with divisions emerging, presenting M. Giscard with a formidable task. Last week the Franco-German plan for a twin presidency was backed by the EU's big governments but was attacked by the smaller member states and MEPs.

The former French president refused to give his opinion on the Franco-German proposal. He knows the need to forge a consensus that can be backed by a majority of the convention but which will also win the backing of EU member states who have the final say.

Italy, which takes over the EU presidency in July, will launch – and possibly conclude – final negotiations on the EU's new treaty in Rome later this year.