Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: European Constitution/European Council and PM Health.
European Constitution/European Council
Asked whether the Italian Presidency’s proposals yesterday on security and defence were enough to allay the UK’s concerns about these matters, the PMOS said that he had absolutely no intention of providing a blow-by-blow narrative of ongoing discussions because he did not think it would be helpful to do so. People were still putting forward ideas in the run up to the IGC at the end of this week, as you would expect them to do. Overall, we felt that we had made some progress, but clearly there was still a lot of work to do. The Foreign Secretary would be in the Commons this afternoon to participate in a debate on European affairs. No doubt he would take the opportunity to give an assessment of the UK’s position at this stage of the process.
Asked to confirm reports that the Prime Minister would be meeting Prime Minister Berlusconi, the PMOS said that the plan was for the two Prime Ministers to have dinner together in Brussels on Thursday night. Questioned about the Prime Minister’s meeting with Chancellor Schroeder and President Chirac on Friday, the PMOS said that this wasn’t the first time the three had met prior to a European Council. For example, they had met up before the Ghent Summit in October 2001 and had also met in Berlin in September 2003. Bilateral and trilateral meetings were obviously common practice for national leaders. As we approached the last days of the IGC, the Prime Minister, Chancellor Schroeder and President Chirac would take the opportunity to compare notes and talk through where we were likely to end up. Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to any other European leaders in the run-up to the Summit, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had spoken to various leaders both on the phone and face-to-face in the last few weeks. The Prime Minister was obviously very aware of their positions as well.
Put to him that the trilateral meeting on Friday was actually more bilateral in nature inasmuch as Germany and France appeared to have a united view on the European Constitution, the PMOS said that he wasn’t a spokesman for Germany or France. That said, he thought it was a generalisation too far to suggest that the two countries had adopted exactly the same position on every single issue. They hadn’t. There were differences in nuance between their positions just as much as there were differences between the positions of other countries. It was important for people to recognise that it was necessary to secure the agreement of all twenty-five EU members in order to move forward. Equally, it would be of benefit if some of the differences between countries as significant as the UK, Germany and France could be ironed out in advance. That was the purpose of the meeting on Friday.
PM Health
Asked if the Prime Minister was ‘aggrieved’ to find himself working eighteen days in a row in December, including back-to-back foreign trips, and whether he was feeling tired, the PMOS said that if he was being asked about the Prime Minister’s energy levels, he would simply point out that he hadn’t seen too many of the travelling press party at the Prime Minister’s 7am sports breakfast in Nigeria, or indeed the next morning when he had been up early to do an interview for Sky. The Prime Minister did the work he needed to do. It had been necessary for him to be at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Abuja, as the outcome underlined. He also needed to attend the European Council and the IGC at the end of this week. Needless to say, however, he - no doubt like the rest of us, including journalists - was looking forward to a good break over Christmas and the New Year without any disturbances.
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