EU president should have power to lead foreign policy, says Hain

A President of the European Union should have sweeping powers to whip Europe's leaders into line, preside at summits and oversee foreign policy, according to a British government document circulating in Brussels.

The paper is the first to outline a job description for the post, which the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany want to create, but which has provoked a bitter row with smaller countries.

Under the plan EU leaders would appoint a president of the European Council, the body where governments of the member states are represented, to bring more focus to its work. Tony Blair has been tipped as a possible candidate for the job, although several others, including the Spanish premier, Jose Maria Aznar, are thought to be interested.

The document is circulating at the convention on the future of Europe, chaired by the former French president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. With the EU due to expand to 25 member states next year the convention aimsto streamline the EU and draw up a draft constitution for EU leaders to approve.

The paper was drafted by Britain's government representative at the convention, the Welsh Secretary, Peter Hain, andis likely to dispel charges that the presidency would be a non-job. However it may not satisfy critics who believe that a presidency would cause duplication and overlap, creating new turf wars and weakening the European Commission.

The document suggests that the chosen person would preside over EU leaders' summits, controlling agendas and conclusions, and could call emergency meetings of heads of government. They would also undertake pre-summit negotiations with all EU leaders. The president would have the right to attend meetings of the European Commission.

The president would also sit on the G8 as the EU's representative, liaising with EU leaders and taking responsibility for strategic relations with world powers, including the US, Russia, China and Japan.

The paper makes it clear that the president would be above the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, currently Javier Solana. At the convention there has been a growing consensus on the need to combine his functions with those of the European Commissioner for external relations, currently Chris Patten.

Supporters of the proposal are now softening their language, describing the job as a "chairman". Although the plan was central to a Franco-German plan launched last week, there is deep opposition within the convention, attended by 105 national and European politicians. The Belgian Foreign Minister, Louis Michel, described the proposal as "unacceptable" and critics included the Dutch government representative, Gijs De Vries, and the former Italian premier, Guiliano Amato.

Andrew Duff, a pro-federalist Liberal Democrat member of the convention, said yesterday that the British paper was evidence of "a plot to create and executive presidency of the European Council which, in the end, will kill the European Commission". He added: "Fortunately, people are beginning to see through the British plot."