Brussels, 30/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - Answering questions put to him by the press on Tuesday on the criticism voiced by the British press to his speech on Monday in Oxford (in which he regretted London's defensive attitude in European matters: see yesterday's EUROPE, p.5), President Prodi simply said that "some papers", such as The Times, "have always had this attitude". His analysis, he said, remains that "we need the United Kingdom with us, and I believe that it needs us". It is "strange", he added, that the press reproaches me for having spoken of all that in a public speech rather than "whispering in the ear of governments".
British Liberal Chris Huhne, MEP, commented on Mr Prodi's speech saying that Prodi had said "in a gentle way" what a growing number of our partners are thinking, that is, "How can we take Britain seriously as a European player if a government with a majority of 167 are pussyfoots on the Euro, the central project of the European Union?" In his view, the remarks made by Romano Prodi show that there is no fence on which Britain can sit whereby it remains a member of the EU but outside the euro zone. He continued saying that it is bizarre that the UK takes great risks such as sending troops to fight in Afghanistan but that it is not willing to join the main project of our EU partners.