Time to deliver

In one aspect of European Union development, Britain is seen by its European partners as the innovator and driving force. The European Defence Policy is widely known as the Blair Initiative. No one believes that the enthusiastic adoption of EU defence goals at the Helsinki Summit last December would have been possible without the crucial effort by the British government over the preceding year. However, there are signs that the process is in danger, and with hey decisions to be made before the end of the year, imaginative new proposals are needed to save it. Britain seems surprisingly reluctant to take the lead again.