GROUPEMENT D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES NOTRE EUROPE President : Jacques Delors CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN REFORM Director : Charles Grant BRITAIN AND THE NEW EUROPEAN AGENDA Lionel Barber Research and Policy Paper n°4 April 1998 (Originally published by the Centre For Reform, January 1998 Text updated by Lionel Barber and published by Notre Europe, April 1998) 44, Rue Notre-Dame des Victoires F-75002 Paris Tel : 01 53 00 94 40 e-mail :
[email protected] http://www.notre-europe.asso.fr/ Study avalaible in French, English, German and Italian © Notre Europe, April 1998. 2 Lionel Barber Lionel Barber has been Brussels correspondent of the Financial Times since 1992. He has also worked as the FT's Washington correspondent. He has lectured widely in the US and Europe on the EU, transatlantic relations and US foreign policy. Author's acknowledgement I would like to thank Yves Mény, head of the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute in Fiesole, who was kind enough to offer me a visiting fellowship in April-May 1996. Some of the ideas in this paper have their origin in many pleasant and stimulating exchanges at the Schuman centre. Notre Europe “Notre Europe” is an independent research and policy unit whose objective is the study of Europe – its history and civilisations, path to integration and future prospects. The association has started work in January 1997. It has a small, multi-national team of six in-house researchers (French, German, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese and British), chaired by Jacques Delors. “Notre Europe” participates in public debate in two ways.