The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, yesterday delivered a powerful broadside at the Tories over "wasted European opportunities", nailing his colours firmly to a strategy based on Britain "at Europe's heart". But in a speech that was a little short on specifics, he failed to make clear what policies that strategy demanded for Britain on controversial issues such as the euro.
"I believe Britain's hesitation over Europe was one of my country's greatest miscalculations of the post-war years," he told a seminar in Ghent City Hall two days after the "Britain in Europe" campaign launched a cross-party initiative to reverse growing hostility to the EU.
Regarding the euro, however, Mr Blair would only say again that "in principle we are in favour of joining a successful single currency. In practice we have to get the economic conditions right."
Mr Blair described the EU as one of the "outstanding political achievements of the 20th century".
It had transformed the age-old rivalry between France and Germany into a powerful engine for unity, he said, and had provided both the framework for prosperity and a clear path for those emerging from dictatorship, whether of the right or left.
In an oblique reference to Austria, he argued that the Union's success strengthened the hand of those who believed in democracy "against those who would exploit the fear of change to play the card of nationalism and protectionism".
Mr Blair clearly had Tory divisions in his sights. Mrs Thatcher's 1988 Bruges speech had been the source of that party's "isolationist and hostile" view of the EU, he said, and "began the opt-out mentality that characterised Britain's relations with Europe - despite the best efforts of Mr Major - for the best part of a decade".
He attacked the old myth that close relations with the EU meant turning one's back on the US. "America wants Britain to be a strong ally in a strong Europe," he said. "The stronger we are in Europe, the stronger our American relationship."
Turning to the issue of the Lisbon Summit next month, Mr Blair spoke of the need to strengthen Europe's social and economic model by modernising it. That meant extending the single market to the Internet, to innovation, telecoms and venture capital.
