BRITAIN, in a concession to France and Germany, said yesterday it favoured appointing a single senior diplomat to represent the EU to the world and creating a task force to help plan a common foreign policy.
But the Foreign Secretary Mr Malcolm Rifkind, objected to Franco German proposals to bring the Western European Union defence grouping eventually under EU control. He also cast doubt on their idea of "constructive abstention" to enable member states to opt out of a joint policy without blocking it.
In an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, Mr Rifkind said Britain would back practical steps to enable the EU to conduct a more effective common foreign policy when the Inter Governmental Conference (IGC) opens in Turin this month.
But he stressed that member states would continue to have national interests that could not always be harmonised and said "We must rid ourselves of the idea that if the 15 are not unanimous on one problem or another, it is a failure."
He welcomed the fact that France and Germany, in proposals adopted last week, had acknowledged it was not realistic to take foreign and defence policy decisions by majority voting.
Mr Rifkind added that the EU and the WEU should co operate more closely, but appeared to rule out bringing the defence body under the control of the Union, pointing out that the EU now had four members which were neutral and not members of Nato Ireland, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
"It is no more acceptable for the French than for the British that a European Council including neutral governments who have no intention of involving their armed forces should be able to take decisions on how other countries deploy theirs," he said.
EU Commissioner Mr Hans van den Broek said yesterday the division of Cyprus would not be an obstacle to the island's future membership. Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in 1974.
Mr van den Broek was answering MEPs' questions at a two day parliamentary conference with Cypriot deputies in Nicosia.