A EUROPEAN single currency would be a major step towards the end of Britain as an independent nation, Malcolm Rifkind, the foreign Secretary, said last night in his most sceptical speech.
Speaking to French policy-makers in Paris, he said that the agenda for European integration now under discussion raised "fundamental challenges" to the future role of the nation-state and he cautioned against "needless innovation".
On the third leg of a tour of European capitals designed to win support for Britain's vision of the EU, Mr Rifkind sought to counsel the French about the dangers in the drive towards closer union.
He imagined Europe in 2025 with one currency and interest rate and in which "all the centralising measures" now demanded by many states had been taken.
"Suppose that is followed over time by harmonised fiscal policies and perhaps common employment and social policies and European control over justice and home affairs.
"In such a Europe what role will be left for the nation-state? It is no exaggeration to say that under this scenario the areas where national governments and parliaments still retained a decisive influence would be few indeed."
Mr Rifkind's efforts to gain support for Britain won unexpected backing before his arrival from Michel Barnier, the Gaullist and pro-Maastricht minister for European affairs. Interviewed by the conservative daily Le Figaro, M Barnier said: "The British, who often ask good questions, are now putting the question ΓÇÿwhere are we going?'
"Are we not stripping state institutions of their principal prerogatives and entrusting them to European institutions that have little legitimacy?"
In his speech, Mr Rifkind said that the federalist future he had outlined would result from decisions made this year. "Our choices in 1997 will help to determine the kind of Europe our children and grandchildren live in.
"Decisions in 1998 on a single currency will affect us all for years ahead. Short-term answers will have long-term results. We must be sure we are comfortable with them.
"For many people in Britain the process of European construction seems to be one in which the bricks are removed from national institutions and added to the growing centralised structures of the EU."
Mr Rifkind expressed surpise that France and Britain, two countries with such a strong national identity, should be on different sides of the argument over European development. France, should remember, he said, that as the EU expanded it would become increasingly difficult for even a major European player to make its voice heard.
He accepted moves towards a common foreign policy because the EU had the same basic goals.
However, putting Britain's case against majority voting on foreign policy, he said he did not believe that Britain, "or perhaps France, would ever be able to accept being over-ruled by a majority vote on a question where they had national interests at stake".
He could no more imagine France accepting EU directives "on a question of nuclear testing or policy toward Africa any more than we would over, say Hong Kong or the Falklands".
A significant minority of French politicians agree with at least some of his views. Over the weekend, Charles Pasqua, the former Guallist interior minister, chaired a seminar of politicians opposed to the introduction of a single currency.
He brought together members of the ruling conservative coalition, the renegade Socialist former defence minister, Jean-Pierre Chevenement, and some Communist dissidents.
Even among pro-EU politicians, there are differences about how France should approach the creation of the euro, with former President Giscard d'Estaing calling for French devaluation.
