Row brews over Delors succession

THE GOVERNMENT reacted coolly yesterday - and right-wing backbenchers with outright anger - to the prospect of the federalist Prime Minister of Belgium, Jean- Luc Dehaene, becoming President of the European Commission.

The move by France and Germany to press Mr Dehaene as the successor to Jacques Delors threatened to cast a shadow over today's Anglo-German summit at Chequers, and further inflame Euro- rebels in the wake of the row over qualified majority voting.

The socialist Belgian premier, described by one irritated Tory right- winger as 'an ultra-ultra federalist', has emerged as a strong candidate in Franco-German discussions, amid signs that opinion in Bonn and Paris may be cooling towards Ruud Lubbers, the Dutch Christian Democrat Prime Minister.

With ministers strongly preferring Sir Leon Brittan, the former Conservative Cabinet minister and current European Union Commissioner for competition, Downing Street said yesterday that it did not know if Chancellor Kohl would raise the issue at today's summit.

William Cash, MP for Stafford, said that the accession of Mr Dehaene would be an unmitigated disaster. 'His track record as a centralising federalist is beyond doubt.' If this was the direction in which European governments wanted to go, 'God help us at the inter-governmental conference (to review European institutions) in 1996,' he added.

Another senior Maastricht Euro- rebel said that Mr Dehaene's candidacy showed that Chancellor Kohl and President Mitterrand of France had learnt nothing from the wave of opposition through Europe to the Maastricht Treaty. But another backbencher on the Tory right suggested that if Mr Dehaene became Commission president it would be 'helpful' because it would help to polarise the Conservative Party more strongly against Brussels.

The Government is being careful not to promote Sir Leon as the 'British candidate' for the presidency, not least because of a political judgement that it would not help him, particularly after Britain's row with her partners over whether the blocking minority in European votes should be 23 or 27. Downing Street would only say that Sir Leon would make 'an excellent president of the Commission'.