Leading Article: Never too soon for clear thinking

FROM Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union in Bonn comes a cogently argued document about the future of the European Union, aimed at the Inter-Governmental Conference scheduled for 1996. In Paris, the Prime Minister, Edouard Balladur, endorses the concept of a multi-speed Europe, making it clear that France and Germany - sans Britain - will constitute the EU's 'homogeneous central core'.

The future of Europe is again floating towards the top of the political agenda, and once more the Franco-German alliance is ahead of London. To recover lost ground, the British government must set out its own agenda with some of the clarity and intellectual vigour found in the German proposals.

Not all of these conflict with established British policies. With Mr Balladur, the Germans endorse the multi-speed concept embraced by Douglas Hurd and John Major as a means of uniting the Conservative Party in the European election campaign. So in this respect Paris and Bonn could be said to be moving towards British views.

That might be convenient in the short term. But the medium-term dangers are clear. Although Labour's own European policies remain studiously vague, Tony Blair could appeal to national pride by arguing that Labour alone would prevent Britain from being relegated to the second division.

On such issues as institutional reform and the use of the veto, the German ideas are unequivocally 'federalist'. These are questions that the Government, because of its own deep divisions over Europe, prefers to duck. Yet it makes no sense to advocate the EU's enlargement without facing up to the resulting need to overhaul institutions designed originally for six rather than 16 or even 20 members.

Britain might seem to be under little pressure to clarify its ideas for the 1996 conference. Germany now holds the presidency of the EU, which passes to France next January; and Mr Kohl's party intends to win next month's general election. Mr Balladur himself may be the centre-right's candidate for next May's presidential elections. If so, he may trim his line for an electorate that only endorsed the Maastricht treaty by a whisker.

It is also true that the CDU's proposals come from a party rather than a government; and that over the past 18 months popular sentiment in Germany appears to have become increasingly suspicious of monetary union in particular. But one of the lessons of the Maastricht negotiations was that it is never too soon for clear thinking and alliance- forming. If the Government wishes to avoid being perpetually on the defensive, it must engage in the 1996 debate. Mr Major will have a chance to outline his ideas when he gives the William and Mary lecture in the Netherlands on 7 September. It is an opportunity he must not miss.