You know it must be serious when Tony Blair pops up with a keynote speech. And it is serious: the European parliament results across the European Union were, in Blair-speak, a ‘wake-up call’ for European’s leaders as extreme parties of right and left gained ground and most people did not bother to vote at all. Those who did vote did not exactly speak with one voice: compare the United Kingdom Independence party and the Front National successes in the UK and France with Italy where a pro-reform, pro-Europe socialist party won 40 per cent of the vote. But the results as a whole certainly do not represent a ringing endorsement of the EU and its creaking institutions.

Blair was right to point to the central paradox in the European debate. In a world increasingly dominated by the United States, China and India and the next wave of powers in Asia, Africa and the Americas, the case for Europe is stronger than ever, but at the same time the workings of the present EU are coming under sustained attack and criticism from across Europe and even, in the UK’s case, the prospect of complete rejection.

Business for New Europe has been setting out the case for reform for almost a decade so it is good to see that there is consensus across the British political spectrum, and increasingly across the European capitals, on the pressing need for change. Blair’s suggested reforms: completion of the single market, the ‘TTIP’ free market agreement with the US, energy reform, job creation, infrastructure and greater competitiveness are all eminently sensible and echo what BNE has been calling for. Similarly Douglas Alexander set out five reforms in the Telegraph this weekend covering the economy, welfare benefits, the EU budget and, critically, on the way that EU power is exercised at EU level – code for more power for the member states.

This call is consistent with the most interesting aspect of Blair’s speech: his call to give the European council the job of setting the course for EU reform, and for it to give the commission a clear and firm set of priorities for what it should – and should not – do over the coming five years, within the existing Treaty framework, rather than embarking on a long, distracting and destabilising debate about Treaty renegotiations. We agree. For a whole host of reasons Europeans, even Blair, are not feeling very European just now; they remain German, French, British and Cypriot. To reflect this reality the council, representing the heads of 28 governments, should have the job of leading reform. Of course the parliament does have a vital role to play in scrutinising and debating proposed laws, and in many areas participating in the decision-making process.

Here is the opportunity. Labour under Ed Miliband is in many ways better placed to lead the case for reform than the Conservatives under David Cameron. More naturally pro-European, and seen as such by potential allies on the continent, Miliband and Alexander do not have anywhere near the same problem of appeasing the various factions within the wider party that Cameron has with his. Building on Blair’s and Alexander’s helpful interventions this week it is time to set out what Labour wants and how it will achieve it. Last week’s election results make this already important task urgent.

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Will Tanner is vice-chair of Business for New Europe. He tweets @WillTanner1

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Photo: European Parliament