Recrimination among European Union leaders over their failure to agree on a long-term budget for the bloc escalated today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair under fire just before he takes the EU chair.
Outgoing EU president Jean-Claude Juncker squarely blamed Mr Blair for the failure of last week's acrimonious summit and urged supporters of European political union to resist what he called attempts to degrade it to a mere free trade zone.
“Our generation does not have the right to undo what previous generations built,” Mr Juncker told the European Parliament, earning a standing ovation.
“Future generations will need a political Europe because if it isn't politically united, it will drift away.“
French President Jacques Chirac told his cabinet in Paris that “British intransigence” had sunk a compromise at the Brussels summit, plunging Europe into crisis.
Britain made clear it would use its presidency from July 1 to change Europe's agenda by pushing continental partners to emulate its economic reforms and move away from farm subsidies.
In a withering account of the final hours of the summit he chaired, Juncker accused Blair of distorting his compromise proposals, spurning a chance for a review of all EU spending, and using disingenuous arguments on the scale of farm subsidies.
He was repeatedly applauded by the EU legislature on the eve of Mr Blair's appearance in the same chamber to set out the priorities of the incoming British presidency.