In an interview with the Guardian of 1 December, the European Commissioner for External Relations, British Conservative Chris Patten, commented on the climate dominating part of the British media before the Summit of Nice. Here are some passages:

"As we come towards Nice, the whole thing is debated in this frenzied atmosphere of a superstate just around the corner. Anyone who knows anything about what is happening in Europe knows that this is unutterable bilge. The French are never going to be Massachusetts, the Germans are never going to be Iowa. We're never going to be California, and not just because of the climate".

"The prime minister, unlike me, is elected, and the prime minister or any head of government in the EU has to be able to carry public opinion. But public opinion is whipped up into hysteria by parts of the media."

"The concept of ever closer Union is consistently referred to by anti-Europeans (…) as an escalator to that hoary old myth, the superstate (…) I see no reason at all why we shouldn't write into the Treaty the notion that ever closer political union does not necessarily mean ever dwindling nation states (…) We need to define once and for all what is done at European level and what at national level. We have banged on about subsidiarity all these years. Now I think there is a real argument for making it a reality.