Britain Blocks Dehaene as EU Commissioner

BRUSSELS -- Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene hinted Monday he might withdraw as a candidate for the presidency of the European Commission after being vetoed by Britain at the EU summit on Corfu. As the acrimonious standoff between Britain and its European Union partners persisted, incoming EU president Germany said it saw no reason to begin searching for other compromise candidates. Dehaene said he remained available, but acknowledged that for now the British stance meant he could not achieve the unanimity required to succeed Jacques Delors next January. "I realize very well that for now, it will be difficult to reach a consensus after the position which Major has taken," he told Belgian RTBF radio, referring to the British prime minister. "I continue to hope and to do everything so that we might arrive at a consensus before July 15. In that regard, my position is secondary," he added. Germany, which takes over the EU's rotating presidency from Greece on Friday, has already called an emergency summit for July 15 in Brussels so that a nomination can be made before the newly elected European Parliament meets for the first time. Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, whose government was Dehaene's strongest supporter, said there was no need to look further for new names. "There is no reason to bring compromise candidates into the discussion," Kinkel said in an interview Monday with the newspaper Bild. But Britain has made clear that it will not back down. Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, calling the Belgian leader an unacceptable interventionist keen to centralize power, said on television Sunday: "We will stick to this. There is no question of accepting Mr. Dehaene."Dehaene, like most other EU leaders, believes Major is acting under domestic political pressure from the rebellious anti-EU right wing of the ruling Conservative party. He forecast that Britain's continued guerrilla warfare with its partners over the pace of European integration would have wider consequences. "They are blocked by a country that has a totally different conception from the others. In the long run it is not tenable and Britain will be the cause of a multi-speed Europe if it persists in not playing by the rules of the European institutions," Dehaene said. Hurd said he hoped Germany would try to resolve the impasse as soon as possible and "in a way that enables us to do so."He was referring to the manner in which Dehaene's candidacy was floated by France and Germany in press leaks and sustained through a covert campaign, while the Belgian leader himself declined all comment until a few days before the Corfu summit. Diplomats predicted a new name would have to be found if Delors rejected a suggestion to stay on for a year. They said the final choice would, like Dehaene, come from the mainstream of EU opinion about the virtues of deeper European integration. Several names were mentioned in press speculation, including Portuguese Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, the former Danish foreign minister Uffe Elleman-Jensen, the Danish EU commissioner Henning Christophersen, former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato and former Italian trade minister Renato Ruggiero.