Blair and Schroeder Hold Talks Ahead of EU SummitBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks with visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Thursday as part of his serial talks with other European country leaders before the European Union (EU) Summit.A Downing Street spokeswoman told Xinhua that the talks, held late Thursday during three hours of dinner, were "detailed and very positive" and covered the full range of issues scheduled to be decided at the next EU Summit in Nice, France, December 7-8. Blair and Schroeder spent some time looking ahead to "the big challenges facing the EU," including plans to expand the bloc to take in some countries in eastern Europe, the spokeswoman said. "They also spoke about European defense, Russia and the Middle East," she said, declining to give any further details of the two leader's discussion. In the upcoming EU Summit, Britain is expected to find itself isolated and face a bruising battle with its EU partners over plans to ax the right of individual countries to veto Union-wide measures in such areas as tax and social security. Over the past few weeks, Blair has held a series of one-to-one meetings with his counterparts in other European countries, in a bid to set out Britain's position ahead of the Nice summit. He met with Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen on Tuesday and talked with French President Jacques Chirac by video link on Monday. Last month, he also visited Spain for discussions with Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. |
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