The Brussels summit – Mr Blair’s final swansong on the diplomatic stage – draged on into the early hours with British officials launching a desperate attempt to salvage the free trade commitment with a hastily cobbled-together amendment.TONY Blair was today accused of caving in to France over free trade as he reached a bungled deal on the EU treaty. European leaders finally agreed on wording for the document at 5am this morning.But as part of the reform package - which hands control of 51 more policy areas to Brussels - the outgoing Prime Minister cut a deal with the French to wipe the Common Market’s founding principle from the European Union’s aims. His surprise climbdown came after all-night wrangling from European leaders over the wide-ranging treaty, which is expected to massively extend Euro meddling. In a final dash to secure his European legacy, the outgoing Prime Minister caved in to a demand by France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy to remove the 50-year-old commitment to “undistorted competition” from the document’s main statement. Critics claimed the move will allow Britain’s continental rivals to erect trade barriers, impose more red tape and pour subsidies into their failing industries. But Chancellor Gordon Brown, the Prime-Minister-in-waiting, was understood to be furious when it emerged that Mr Blair had agreed to ditch the competition pledge. In angry phone calls to Brussels he urged Mr Blair to win a guarantee that free market rules will not be undermined.The exchanges led to a desperate scramble by British officials to set up the legal protocol enforcing an EU free market.(Daily Express)
The Brussels summit – Mr Blair’s final swansong on the diplomatic stage – draged on into the early hours with British officials launching a desperate attempt to salvage the free trade commitment with a hastily cobbled-together amendment.