Major attacked for brushing aside EU plan

THE author of a controversial German paper on the future of Europe yesterday hit back at John Major's statement that he 'recoiled' from the proposals.

Karl Lamers, foreign affairs spokesman of the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), responded sharply to those who thought it might relegate Britain to the sidelines in Europe. 'I can't believe that anybody who has read the paper can with a clear conscience say that we want to form an exclusive club. It's explicit that anyone can participate, if he wants to.'

This was in reply to the speech by Mr Major in the Netherlands this week, in which he said that he 'recoiled' from the German proposals, including the idea of a 'hard core' group at the centre of the EU.

Mr Lamers suggested in an interview with the Independent that the Prime Minister had either failed to read the paper, or had failed to understand it. On Mr Lamers' proposals, which argued in favour of a 'core Europe', Mr Major had warned, in his 'William and Mary' speech in Leiden on Wednesday night, against Britain being 'excluded' from areas in which it wants to participate.

Mr Lamers said it was 'foolish and unfair' to present the paper - which he put forward jointly with the leader of the CDU parliamentary group, Wolfgang Schauble - in this way. '(John Major) said he has read the paper carefully. That's fine. I don't want a confrontation, especially not with him. I know he's in a difficult position. But it's all explicitly in there.' Mr Lamers emphasised a phrase from his paper, which declares: 'The core is not a goal in itself, it's a means.'

Mr Lamers said that he was not surprised by the fuss that the paper has caused. 'I expected a violent reaction, although this is perhaps even more violent than I thought. But the response means that one has hit a raw nerve. Clearly, something needs to be discussed.'

Mr Lamers insisted that Britain 'will be ready' for monetary union and argued: 'If there is monetary union, Britain's participation is fundamentally in Britain's interest. I think that every responsible politician in Britain knows that.'

He implied that Mr Major's rejection was merely a matter of internal party politics. 'If one is caught between the factual necessities and the 'internal circumstances' then the solution is just to say: 'It won't work'.'

The Lamers paper has also been criticised within Germany. Even Chancellor Kohl's office was initially critical of the timing of the paper's release, which had not been approved by Mr Kohl, the CDU leader, although, as Mr Lamers was quick to point out yesterday, the Chancellor's office (and Mr Kohl personally) have subsequently pulled back on the criticism.

Criticism from the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) left Mr Lamers unmoved. He suggested that this was 'just a pseudo-quarrel, which is affected of course by the election campaign' (Germany holds elections in a month's time).

The nub of the SPD criticism has been that others in Europe may be offended by the German presentation of the problem. In general terms, the SPD is as enthusiastic as the CDU about pressing on with further European union.

Of the partly hostile reception in Germany and abroad, Mr Lamers says: 'I was aware of the problem and the risk. But the much greater risk would be that things just rumble on and we all say nice words, and then we suddenly wake up in 1996 (when a conference is held which will decide on the direction the EU should take). If our analysis is correct, and nobody has argued with it, nobody, - it's not as though we discovered something completely new - then something has to change. For that to happen, we need to have a discussion. And if we can't even have a discussion, the situation is worse than I thought.'

Mr Lamers insisted that closer political and economic union is as essential for Britain as it is for other EU countries. 'None of us can solve the internal and external problems alone and our basic interests are identical,' he added.