When the new Labour government was elected, we promised to make Britain a leading player in Europe. We now go to Brussels united, committed to Europe, and determined to play our part in shaping the future of the Union.
We have no pretensions to being the paramount leader or the crowned prince in Brussels. But we do want our voice to be a constructive and influential one.
The British Presidency offers us the chance to affirm the new reality. It will give us six months in which we can help to give new direction to Europe. It is an opportunity that we will make the most of.
During the British Presidency, the EU will be taking its first crucial steps in two of its most important projects, EMU and enlargement. We will give both the best start we can.
We have already said that Britain will not be joining Stage 3 of EMU in 1999, when many of our partners will be locking their currencies together. We believe that British membership of a single currency would in principle be good for Britain and good for Europe. But the timing is wrong for us.
We will be in the chair when the decisions are made, though. I have given my assurance that we will discharge this responsibility fairly and objectively, and facilitate the historic decisions to be made. We want the single currency to be a success.
We are also determined to make enlargement a success. Bringing the central and east Europeans into the EU will fulfil the challenge set when the Iron Curtain came down eight years ago, to create a Europe that is whole and free.
An enlarged EU will mean a bigger single market, a strengthened European voice in the world, a prosperous and peaceful Europe in which war is unthinkable. It is a historic goal. But it is also a goal that requires a lot of work.
The applicant countries have made impressive progress since the dead hand of communism was lifted. But they all have some way to go before they are ready to take on the commitments of EU membership, and before their enterprises are ready to stand confidently in the EU's single market. The process will take several years. But we will take the first steps during our Presidency.
Of course it is not just the applicant countries that need to reform. The EU itself must modernise. The Common Agricultural Policy is a prime example. It made sense 40 years ago when there were real worries about food shortages. Now it needs reform.
It cannot be right to spend 50 per cent of the EU's budget on a sector that employs 4 per cent of the EU's population. We need a new policy that costs less, gives a better deal to consumers, provides security and flexibility to farmers, and protects the environment. Our partners have strong opinions about the CAP, and reform will not be simple or easy. But we will use our Presidency to make the best possible start.
We will also use it to focus the EU more closely on the things that matter to people. I believe we need to reconnect the people of Europe to the European Union that their governments are trying to create.
At the moment, it seems too obscure to have a real impact on their lives; too much talk about theory and institutions, and not enough about the things which people actually care about. We will try to change this, and to get the EU to focus on jobs, crime and the environment, three areas which really matter.
We want the EU to help Europe get back to work. The Jobs Summit in Luxembourg set an agenda for this, which we will pursue enthusiastically, not least because it is so close to New Labour's own employment strategy.
We want to see the EU helping Europe's police forces fight crime and the drugs trade. International criminals now co-ordinate better than any governments. If we want to catch them, we will have to match them with better co-operation of our own. And we want to see environmental considerations at the heart of everything the EU does, from transport policy to agricultural policy.
Finally, we want Europe to speak with a clear and influential voice in the world. That means coordinating our foreign policies effectively. During the British Presidency we want to see progress on an EU Code of Conduct for Arms Exports. We want to make sure that EU policies give sufficient weight to human rights. We want the EU to play a constructive role in the Middle East peace process.
The possibilities for the EU are immense. We will use our Presidency to help realise them.
Our agenda is an ambitious one. In some areas we will only be able to make a start. In others we will be building on work done by our predecessors. But we are determined to use the British Presidency to make progress in all these areas. And we will be able to do so because Britain is no longer on the sidelines, but back as a leading player in Europe.