Ministers looking to EC future

WHILE Tory MPs are still engaged in trench warfare over the Maastricht treaty, the Government is already planning ahead for the next crucial summit on the future of Europe.

Dominic Morris, a policy high-flyer formerly in the private office at No 10, has been moved from the Department of Trade and Industry to the Downing Street policy unit to advise the Prime Minister on the way ahead after Maastricht.

Officials in the Foreign Office have been given a similar task for the intergovernmental conference in 1996, which Graham Mather, president of the European Policy Forum, said was the 'key battle'.

Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary, and Michael Howard, the Secretary of State for the Environment, have also recognised the importance of 1996. Ministers privately say they are determined that Britain will play a decisive role in shaping further changes to the European

Community.

Mr Mather said the political climate after Maastricht, and the pressures of enlargement of the Community, would mean the tide would be running against federalist plans by Jacques Delors, president of the EC Commission.

He believes that 1996 should separate the Commission's powers to initiate proposals, to act as the administrators for the EC, and to act in a quasi-judicial role.