Tony Blair took his bow from the European stage with a plea to his fellow-countrymen to see the EU not as a threat but an opportunity.
Mr Blair was speaking after sealing a deal which he said would end years of wrangling over the EU's institutional arrangements and allow it to focus on the issues which matter to ordinary Europeans.
He said that the agreement sealed at the end of his last European Council summit in Brussels secured all of Britain's key demands and meant the treaty would not require a referendum in the UK.
And he said: "The important thing for Britain to understand - and this really is a strong plea to my own country now - is that Europe has changed.
"We have a Commission president who is a reformer, we have got an enlarged EU with real allies for Britain now, we have got a German Chancellor and French President in favour of the trans-Atlantic alliance.
"There is a fantastic opportunity for this country today... Because I think a stronger EU is in Britain's interest, but it should be a union of sovereign states and not a federal union.
"I would say that that is accepted by most people inside the European Union today." Blair’s final plea to Britons on Europe (more)
THE TELEGRAPH:
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Mark Alexander
