Blair's EU presidential ambition

Blair's EU presidential ambition

Nick Assinder BBC News Online political correspondent

Tony Blair is attending the Euro summit in Athens determined to rebuild bridges weakened by the deep splits over Iraq.

But the question fascinating many in Westminster is whether, once built, he will use them to cross the English Channel straight into the job as President of Europe.

All smiles - but tough talking lies ahead

Ever since the idea of a single EU president was floated there has been speculation that the prime minister had his eye on the job.

All ex-prime ministers need something to fill the yawning emptiness created by sudden loss of power.

That explains why so many of them continue to behave as though they are still in the job long after they have been removed - Margaret Thatcher is the most recent example of that tendency.

And no one believes that Tony Blair, the most calculating of prime ministers, has not given long and detailed thought to both when and how he will vacate Downing Street, but also to where he will go next.

Role and influence

It is said he wants to be the man the US president can "pick up the phone to" in future crises like Iraq.

The prime minister has always carefully attempted to stop any such speculation in its tracks.

If, as widely expected, he finally rules out joining the euro this side of the general election, he will need something else to demonstrate his commitment to the EU

And many have seen the idea as hugely fanciful. But they are starting to have second thoughts.

The war has raised some serious questions over the role and influence of the EU.

And pro-Europeans like the prime minister are more convinced than ever that the institution needs some radical reform.

They argue that it lacks genuine democratic legitimacy - the European Parliament is the only directly elected body, but major decisions are taken not by MEPs but by meetings of ministers and leaders from each member country.

Common defence policy

What it needs to give it that legitimacy is a more recognisable shape, based on a constitution and a single presidency rather than the current rotating presidency seen by many as a recipe for inaction and confusion.

And those are just the ideas being mapped out in Athens by Valery Giscard d'Estaing who heads the EU's constitutional convention.

EU leaders meeting in Athens

Critics, of course, insist that the deep internal divisions created by the war have simply proved the impossibility of the EU countries ever speaking with one voice - even if that was a desirable ambition.

Plans for common foreign and defence policies and a Euro army have been dealt a serious blow, they argue.

It is certainly the case that the war, and Tony Blair's leading part in it, has opened up serious new questions over the EU's future.

With the accession of new countries there was always the fear that a huge new EU would lose focus and its ability to take decisions or speak with a single voice would drastically diminish.

Euro decision

It is the old deepening-versus-widening argument which has traditionally seen those wanting a weaker EU backing plans to allow more and more countries to join.

Mr Blair may not want to see the creation of a European superstate with ambitions to rival the US, but he most definitely wants to see a more united Europe.

The creation of a president able to speak on behalf of the entire EU would certainly promote that cause.

What has probably added to his enthusiasm for the idea, however, is the urgent need to rebuild relations between the UK and the EU after the war.

If, as widely expected, he finally rules out joining the euro this side of the general election, he will need something else to demonstrate his commitment to the EU.

And what better than supporting the idea of a new figurehead - particularly if he might be it.