By Bruno Waterfield - 16th June 2004
Britain is entitled to an “opinion” on Guy Verhofstadt’s bid to be Brussels chief - but Tony Blair has no veto, insists Belgium’s foreign minister.
The Belgian prime minister is rumoured to be the Dublin EU presidency’s favoured candidate for European Commission president.
Irish leader Bertie Ahern is expected to name Verhofstadt as a successor to Romano Prodi at the Thursday dinner session of a Brussels summit of Europe’s heads of government.
Blair will tell other leaders that Britain will oppose the youthful Belgian liberal. “The UK does not support Verhofstadt,” said a senior official on Wednesday.
Some diplomats believe the UK’s ‘no’ has knocked the Belgian leader out of the race.
But Verhofstadt’s foreign minister Louis Michel is reminding London that no country has a national veto on the question of commission president.
“Europe is, in fact, 25 countries and each country has the right to give its opinion,” he said.
“I respect the opinion of the British, but I think, one country can not decide.”
Verhofstadt is regarded with suspicion in London because of his ‘federalist’ EU stance and perceived anti-Americanism.
The Belgian leader alienated European supporters of US policy on Iraq – predominantly Britain and Italy – by organising a defence summit in March 2003.
His attempt to rally France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg into a new European defence coalition as the EU was plunged into deep divisions over Iraq has not been forgotten – or forgiven.
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