Brussels, 12/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he will be backing the President of the European Council, Tony Blair, both in terms of reflection on the future of Europe after the French and Dutch No votes, and on the Financial Perspectives 2007-2013. In an interview with Wednesday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (a German newspaper), Rasmussen called for the debate on the future of Europe to put more emphasis on content and matters of substance, like job creation, competitiveness, counter-terrorism, immigration and the foreign and security policy, and less on the institutions and treaties. The most important issue, for the Danish pm, is boosting European competitiveness, where most responsibility is at national level, but that does not stop the EU from doing what it can, through greater investment in R&D and innovation, for example, or education. Rasmussen said the EU should develop a Common Market for research and education and double EU spending on research and education. He called for a European Research Fund to be set up, funded from cuts in both farm spending and the EU's Structural Funds. Rasmussen argued the Structural Funds should be restricted to only aid the EU's poorest countries and regions. The Common Agricultural Policy has been a great success, said the Danish pm, but it now had to be reformed because other challenges were facing Europe. I agree here with Tony Blair, he said. Some first stops in rehashing the EU's budget could be made in the 2007-2013 framework, said Rasmussen, noting that the October 2002 agreements on maximum farm spending clearly had to be respected, but there was room for manoeuvre, below this upper limit, to make reforms.
The European Constitution is neither dead nor alive, but somewhere between the two, said Rasmussen. Nobody knows exactly where it is in this no-man's land, which is why it was important to have a reflection period. We will then have to get down to politics and concentrate on content, he warned, stating that while the EU could clearly work without a Constitution, the Constitution would have the advantage of providing a better framework for the enlarged EU since it needs new rules of the game.
The Franco-German engine is vital to get the European project moving, but it is too small for the enlarged EU, warned Rasmussen. Another big country has to join France and Germany, he said, adding that it would certainly be useful for that big country to be the United Kingdom. But the Danish prime minister stressed that the group of leading countries must always take account of the interests of small Member States.