Andrew Grice: While Brown basks in plaudits, Sarkozy seethes

Gordon Brown used to infuriate his European Union counterparts by turning up late for meetings, lecturing them on Britain's economic miracle, switching off his headphones when others spoke in foreign tongues and then leaving early.

How times have changed. Mr Brown is being hailed as a hero throughout Europe for inventing the banks rescue plan which is being copied by the EU and the United States.

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Yesterday, the man who turned up three hours late to sign the Lisbon Treaty last December, pleading an engagement in Parliament, missed Prime Minister's Questions to arrive in Brussels seven hours before an EU summit began. Officially, it was for meetings to discuss his next grand plan: to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis he helped to avert.

It also gave him time to collect the plaudits. "He is a hero," said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European Socialists, who toasted Mr Brown over lunch.

The adulation is not universal. He has eclipsed Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, whose initial Europe-wide plan to tackle the crisis didn't fly. He hoped to get the glory because France holds the EU's rotating presidency, but found himself following in Mr Brown's wake.

Before the 15 members of the eurozone agreed their rescue plan on Sunday, they were briefed by Mr Brown, who seems to have invited himself. The man who thwarted Tony Blair's attempts to join the euro relished his seat at the EU's top table.

M. Sarkozy is said to be "furious" that the media has portrayed the EU proposals as a British blueprint. He is even reported to have told several people: "The British plan is something that we worked out for them."

One French official said yesterday: "We find it pretty astounding that Brown is now basking in all the glory. The truth is that it was in the pipeline all the time." That doesn't really fit the facts, however.

Some Labour Europhiles and British diplomats hope a new,pro-European Brown has been born. There is even brave talk that he might take Britain into the euro if he wins the next election. They will be disappointed.

Mr Brown is not in favour of taking on EU regulations over the finance industry. The crisis was not a good advert for the EU, as member states went their own way, and Mr Brown is now taking his campaign on to the global stage.

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