Mandelson on shortlist for EU development body

Peter Mandelson is on a shortlist of names being drawn up by the Government to represent Britain on a powerful new body that will shape the future of the European Union.

The former Cabinet minister, who has a strong interest in the EU and remains a close ally of Tony Blair, is being considered for a seat at a convention of European politicians which European leaders agreed to set up at their summit in Laeken, Brussels, at the weekend.

The 15 EU governments will have one representative at the convention and each national parliament will send two delegates. Mr Blair has decided that Britain's Government representative will not be a serving minister. Other MPs on the shortlist being compiled by Downing Street and the Foreign Office include Joyce Quin, a former Minister for Europe; Graham Allen, a former Labour whip, and David Miliband, the former head of the Number 10 policy unit. Mr Miliband served on an EU working group before the Laeken summit.

Alternatively, the MPs could be chosen as one of the UK Parliament's two representatives on the EU body. Mr Blair, who will make a final decision in the New Year, may be attracted by the idea of recruiting a pro-European Tory such as Kenneth Clarke or Lord Heseltine.

The appointment of Mr Mandelson might be seen as a high-risk option by some Blair aides after his two resignations from the Cabinet. But Mr Blair may feel able to bring the Hartlepool MP back into the fold on the grounds that he was cleared of wrongdoing by the inquiry into the Hinduja brothers' relationship with the Government, the affair which forced him out of office earlier this year.

Today Mr Mandelson will map out his thinking on Europe's future, calling for Britain to agree to more majority voting in the Council of Ministers, the EU's main decision-making body. In a speech to the Policy Network think-tank, Mr Mandelson will say that EU leaders should be able to fast-track decisions by dropping the need for unanimous agreement.

He will cite the need for a common asylum system and new anti-terrorist laws. "Without qualified majority voting, it may take forever to reach a decision that satisfies the demands of the majority for action," he will say.

Mr Mandelson will reject the proposal, included in the statement agreed by the Laeken summit, for the European Commission President to be elected, possibly by the European Parliament. He said this would "polarise into a left-right fight" and politicise the Commission.

The convention, to be chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French President, will draw up proposals to reform decision-making during a review of the EU's governing treaties in 2004.

Yesterday Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, claimed the Laeken summit represented "a very significant advance" for Britain's position of having "a Europe of nation states rather than a federal superstate".

He said Europe had to modernise and rebalance its power from the centre to member states.