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New leadership needed to give EU key global role, says Mandelson

Business secretary says personalities as well as politics will have key role in giving union 'meaningful' status on world stage

• Paul Owen and agencies
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 14.18 GMT
• Article history

Lord Mandelson says personalities as well as politics will make a difference to the EU's world role. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Lord Mandelson today called for new leadership in Europe to give the EU a key role in the world.

In a speech in Brussels, the business secretary said that personalities, as well as policies, would make the difference between a "meaningful" union on the international stage or one with just a "walk-on role".

EU leaders are preparing to choose a president under the terms of the newly-ratified Lisbon treaty; Tony Blair is one of the main candidates.

However, Mandelson avoided naming any particular "personality" in his speech to the Bruegel thinktank today. He instead emphasised that establishing the EU's global brand did not come down to one individual.

Asked before the speech whether Blair was the man to offer Europe leadership, Mandelson said the former prime minister's track record spoke for itself.

"He reformed the Labour party and built up the case for New Labour," the business secretary said. "I saw him do the same in Northern Ireland. That is not an advertisement for his candidacy – he can, and will, argue for himself if he wants this role".

Blair's chances have dwindled, however, with many EU leaders pressing for a more low-key political figure – such as the prime minister of Belgium or of Luxembourg – to take the job.

The other new role created by the Lisbon treaty is a high representative for foreign affairs. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, has been linked with the role but says he is "not available".

Britons could not fill both posts, but Mandelson was less positive about Miliband's prospects than Blair's.

"I believe that David Miliband will be playing a very meaningful and effective role in Europe as Britain's foreign secretary," he said.

"I can see absolutely no sign in anything that he has said or done to indicate that he wants another job. Indeed, I detect quite the opposite."

In his speech, Mandelson said the EU was facing a "what kind of Europe do we want?" moment.

Speaking 48 hours after David Cameron redefined Tory policy on the EU, the business secretary told his audience that a totally reordered global economy was on the way, requiring serious new thinking in Europe.

"We will either step into a meaningful economic and political role in a multipolar world, or we will have merely a walk-on role, forced to follow others' lead," he said.

"In other words, will we drive the agenda, or become a subsidiary of a process driven and shaped elsewhere, but above all by the G2 – meaning the US and China?"

With new emerging powers and economic forces in the world, Europe was the "essential force multiplier" for all of its member states, he said.

But he said he believed leadership was one of the EU's key deficits, explaining: "It is personalities and policies that will make the difference.

"We have a problem of leadership in Europe and [a problem of] political willingness to drive change.

"This does not boil down to a single individual and his ideas, however relevant. It is about an entire attitude of mind."

He described the EU as an "incredible historical innovation", but warned that it did not drive innovation in the way that was needed.

"The EU is a tapdancer with 27 feet. Our challenge is getting that strange animal to dance," he told the thinktank.

Mandelson praised core EU policies such as the single market and its competition and trade policies, but urged better spending of the "misaligned" EU budget – representing about 1% of EU-wide GDP.

He said the ideas he was setting out represented a positive and constructive initiative benefiting Britain and the EU, unlike the negative "wrecking" plans being put forward by the Tories.

Meanwhile, Cameron was urged to expel the two MEPs who stood down from his frontbench over his refusal to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty.

Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer resigned as their party's EU spokesmen on legal affairs and employment respectively in the wake of the Tory leader's rewriting of his Europe policy, which is now based around an attempt to repatriate powers from Brussels.

Edward McMillan-Scott, a former leader of Tory MEPs, called for the two to be expelled from the Conservative party.

"David Cameron is right to stand firm against those in the Conservative party who want Britain to withdraw from the European Union," he said. "He must act swiftly to restore order and ensure that he remains in control of his new European agenda."

McMillan-Scott had the Tory whip removed earlier this year after he objected to Cameron's leaving the mainstream centre-right European People's party in the European parliament to form a new group with eastern European allies who have proved controversial for the Tories.

McMillan-Scott added: "The MEPs should be expelled for their serial disloyalty and provocative behaviour. If they are not expelled – as I was for no stated reason – Cameron may be accused of double-standards."

A spokesman for the Tory party said the two MEPs would not be sacked.