THE European public is losing confidence in the European Union and has low expectations of this weekend's summit, according to the President of the European Parliament, Mr Klaus Hansch.
Mr Hansch, who was invited to make the opening address to the EU heads of state and government yesterday, warned that to win back public support for the EU the summit must agree on effective action against unemployment and crime.
On unemployment, he told them: "The European Parliament is looking to you here to put your fine words into practice." He also said the deadlocked discussions at the Inter Governmental Conference on the Union's future must be given added impetus.
"It must restore confidence in the principle that public health is not a subject for negotiation."
He strongly criticised Britain's policy of obstruction over the beef ban. The solution to the dispute proposed by the European Commission is "not negotiable," he said, and "blackmail" tactics must not be allowed to succeed.
Mr Hansch said at a press briefing afterwards that he had received explicit and strong support from several heads of state and government when he said this. The German Chancellor and the Belgian and Greek Prime Ministers had indicated their agreement.
"I couldn't see Mr Major, I don't know what face he pulled, but he didn't bang his fist on the table or stand up in a huff," he said, adding: "Any so called political solution would destroy... public confidence in beef."
On unemployment, he said it was time to take decisions which have long been prepared, "and to bring into force at national level measures which have long been agreed on by the Community." The Council must endorse the Confidence Pact put forward by the Commission.
Many pieces of internal market legislation had not yet been implemented by two thirds of the member states, he said.
On the delay in the establishment of Europol, the proposed body for European police co operation, he said that if Britain continued to object to its work being monitored by the European Court of Justice, "then it is better to take a decision binding on 14 member states than to delay the launch of Europol further."