Big Three anger EU also-rans

By CATHERINE FIELD Herald correspondent

PARIS - A three-way summit in Berlin suggests the European Union is likely to be driven by a small core of powerful countries after its membership expands in May, bringing its decision-making capacity to the brink of paralysis.

The meeting yesterday saw British Prime Minister Tony Blair get the seat he has always craved in the cab of the EU's political locomotive, alongside German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.

The Big Three leaders, who a year ago were deeply split by the Iraq war, oozed buddiness.

They unveiled a proposal to stimulate the EU's stagnating economy; forged a cosy deal on a tax change; discussed the EU's troubled draft constitution and single defence policy; and aired Iraq, Afghanistan and the other big foreign issues of the moment.

The trio faced down the EU's smaller countries, which are worried about getting stitched up.

The "smalls" fear decision-making will shift from an EU-wide consensus to a tiered structure, with a mighty triumvirate at the apex using bribes and arm-twisting to get their way.

"We're not trying to dominate anyone, let alone Europe," Schroeder said bluntly.

"What we are doing is for the people of our countries, and thus Europe, and is not directed against anyone."

Chirac said he could not understand such criticism, and Blair said: "I don't think we need to be apologetic."

A German official said: "People are going to have to get used to this format."

The EU's big expansion takes place on May 1, when 10 nations, most of them from the former Soviet bloc, join the 15-nation club.

The EU is already a notoriously cumbersome institution - and finding agreement when there are 25 countries around the table, each of them with a wide-ranging veto, could prove a nightmare.

Efforts to agree on a draft charter that would cut back the right of veto and introduce a majority voting system have stalled.

That has left the Big Three - who account for more than half of the EU's population and wealth - worried that the future EU faces gridlock at the hands of Lithuania, Luxembourg, Cyprus and other pygmies.

Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain loudly voiced their concern as Blair, Chirac and Schroeder huddled together.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi - widely criticised for his disastrous handling of the rotating EU presidency last year - seemed incensed that he had not been invited to the top table.

He described the summit as a "mess" and contended that this opinion was shared "by almost all the other European countries apart from the three concerned".

His Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, derided the summit as being born from "national interests ... We want a Europe which grows with the agreement of all, not with triumvirates which damage the construction of Europe".

He warned: "If things are decided at a three-way table that are to the likings of London, Paris and Berlin, then we will start to look out for the things that are to our liking, as well."

Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio warned the summIt participants not to "cement positions which, one way or another, are then strongly recommended, if not imposed, on others".

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said: "These three countries, the large countries, have to be aware of the fact that they have to co-operate with other countries."

Top tier

* Britain, France and Germany account for more than half the GDP and defence spending of the whole enlarged EU of 25 member states.

* When 10 new members join on May 1 the EU population will increase by 20 per cent but the GDP by only 5 per cent.