New Euro-friendly Labour accentuates the positive

As the final credits roll in LA Confidential, a brilliantly-crafted tale of cynicism and corruption in the Los Angeles police, we hear that old 1930s classic Accentuate the Positive. It is a nice piece of gentle irony - the most unpalatable story can be sold if you just accentuate the positive.

The song could be the theme tune for the British EU presidency. Having seen the country's relations with its EU partners laid waste by the Tories, New Labour is now both rebuilding bridges to Europe and reselling Europe to its people. The message in a nutshell is "New Labour will bring Britain back into Europe, and Europe back to its people."

"Has Britain not removed itself from the real leadership of the EU because of its decision to stay out of the launch of the single currency?" the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, was asked by visiting Brussels-based journalists. Not at all, Mr Cook assured us, accentuating the positive. Those hoping to participate in the euro were grateful to have a country which was not parti pris to chair the debate on who would be in and out.

But if his protestations on that score were not altogether convincing, both he and his Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, did a good job persuading the group that a sea change in Britain's attitude has occurred even if he cannot yet be as explicit as he would like because of the rottweilers in the British press corps and a lag in public attitudes.

At the top of Downing Street's yellow staircase the photo of Baroness Thatcher seemed to frown down at us. Two steps down Ted Heath might have chuckled.

"We have already transformed that relationship," Mr Cook told us, "they all know they can do business with us."

Both he and Blair refuse to be drawn into a discussion or definition of the final destination of the European train. "Federalism" has different connotations here, Mr Blair tells a German journalist. But he accepts the treaty's commitment to "ever closer Union", speaking of "enhanced and greater co-operation over time" as the Union can be shown to respond to challenges set to it by the citizen. It is a careful language, almost coded, but a clear signal that he rejects the Tories' insistence in the treaty negotiations last year of "not another inch".

"When we look back at its achievements," Mr Blair says, "they are enormous . . . I am intensely British and patriotic, but feel myself as part of Europe. There is no contradiction."

On the single currency, Mr Blair does not dodge the sovereignty argument. "Where it is our interests to pool sovereignty, we should do so," he says. "We do so to a very considerable extent in NATO and the single market."

The presidency will undoubtedly be dominated by preparations for the key May Day meeting which will agree on the first euro participants - one year to the day since the British electorate put Labour in No 10. Both Mr Blair and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, make clear their determination to see the process succeed.

Success, they both insist, will be in both Britain and Europe's interest.

On Britain's eventual participation, all were upbeat, positive and reassuring to Ireland. The Minister without Portfolio, the master of spin, Peter Mandelson, bluntly distinguished Labour's position from that of the Tories: "We are not on `wait and see' but `prepare and decide'." That decision, few of us were left in any doubt, would be for participation from early in the next Parliament.

But the British term will also see the founding on March 12th of the "European Conference", a gathering comprising applicants for membership and current member-states. Britain will need to demonstrate all its diplomatic skills if the conference, largely intended as a forum for rapprochement with Turkey, is not to end up a damp squib and one that provokes an unholy internal row.

The conference will allow the process of negotiations on accession with six countries to begin.

The British are determined to push for speedier work on the completion of the single market. They also hope to have in place for preliminary approval at the Cardiff summit in June the first fruits of the unemployment summit, in the form of national action plans for reform of the labour market. A delicate balancing act will be required in advancing the debate on Agenda 2000 and the next budget. Specific Commission proposals on CAP and the use of structural funds are due to be published shortly, but the detailed debate may have to wait until after this summer's German elections.

The British are also determined to see Europol up and running, and are planning an initiative on illegal immigration.

It is a long and heavy agenda, a challenge which they appear to relish, and largely reflects the EU's own priorities - British diplomats acknowledge the danger of trying to use the presidency as a vehicle for national ambitions or projects, a temptation to which larger member-states are particularly prone. Mr Blair wants above all to show he is a team player - "not the leader of Europe, but a leader", he insists.