There are worries about the turmoil in France and Paris’s ability to meet the criteria for monetary union, and suspicions linger about French commitment to co-operation in the fight against terrorism and crime.For these reasons, presenting a united front against London’s foot-draggers will be difficult. On many issues, member states already vote by majority.Bonn is adamant that the abolition of the right of veto in other key policy areas is essential if Europe is to have a coherent voice. “In the long term, it is impossible that one country should prevent others from doing what’s needed to be done,” Mr Lamers said. “Again and again, British representatives, including Tony Blair, say only the common will matters, not the decision-making system.”But German efforts to recruit other states to this cause have not been entirely successful, with France still holding out against qualified majority voting on foreign policy. One of the main areas of conflict at today’s summit and next year’s inter-governmental conference will be the question of qualified majority voting on important community matters. “That will no longer be possible.”But even the wildest optimists in Bonn accept that this state of affairs is a long way away, not least because Britain resists the “federalist slide” at every step. They want the euro, ecu, or whatever it is to be called, to cement member states together in perpetuity.”Currency union is part of political union – a central part of political union,” Mr Lamers conceded.

Once that Rubicon is crossed, no country will be able to resist closer integration. “If – I should say when – Britain joins, I think it will be the end of the British position, which is half in and half out,” Mr Lamers predicted. A common market needs a common currency, and the rising hegemony of the Deutschmark is putting strains on Europe’s economies and fuelling resentment against German power across the continent. But the motives of those pushing the common currency are far removed from economics. “It’s only for political reasons that Britain is unable to say this now openly.”The economic arguments in favour of monetary union are well rehearsed. “I am greatly convinced that Britain will join,” Mr Lamers said. Germany goes into today’s European summit armed with modest proposals for streamlining the community, but behind the conciliatory rhetoric lurks a vision untainted by recent rows over the future of the continent.

In an interview on the eve of the summit, Karl Lamers, a prominent foreign policy strategist in the governing Christian Democratic Union, predicted that Britain would not be able to resist closer integration – a process that inevitably will lead to the creation of a federal government of Europe.
Mr Lamers, who whipped up a storm in Britain last year with proposals for the creation of a hard-core Europe excluding Euro-sceptic states, has seen some elements of his blueprint elevated to official policy in the past week. Mr Major is expected to voice fears about the effect that a hard-core, voting as bloc inside the EU, would have on a range of political decisions. If such a voting bloc were to form, one senior official said, it would raise questions about whether the EU could still be called the EU.Also on the table at Madrid will be the report of a six-month study into reform options for next year’s Inter-Governmental Conference. Britain’s isolation on the veto question is certain to be exposed as leaders discuss plans for taking in new members from Eastern and Central Europe.Leading article, page 18. The date is likely to be set for early 1998, based on economic results for 1997.Mr Major will renew his calls for a far-reaching study into the destabilising effects of creating a two-speed Europe, in which a group of countries, led by France and Germany, join monetary union without properly assessing their relationship with countries outside. British concerns have been heightened by Franco-German insistence that their progress towards integration will not be held up by slower member-states.At Madrid the Government is expected to speak about the danger of a new hard-core voting block within the EU, which British officials warned this week could have a “dramatic” effect on all policy-making.