WE can look back and see that 2007 was a year of Government incompetence and inertia, when Britain failed to make its mark in any area of foreign policy - whether in Europe or more widely.

Geoffrey Van Orden MEP

WE can look back and see that 2007 was a year of Government incompetence and inertia, when Britain failed to make its mark in any area of foreign policy - whether in Europe or more widely. As the Labour Government didn't seem to know what it wanted or where it was going it was hardly surprising that it failed to persuade anyone else to join us.

I suspect that, quite rightly, there is no appetite for “more Europe” among the citizens of most European countries, not least our own. And even by its own yardstick, there is no evidence that the enlarged EU of 27 states could not function. On the contrary there has been no let up in the tide of legislation. These two implausible fictions - popular demand and institutional necessity - along with the eurocrats' ambition for the EU to play a global role, were the main justification for the EU Constitution, the so-called Treaty of Lisbon.

The British Government should have refused such a Treaty. It should have called instead for a new direction for the EU. If it had done its job I feel sure other governments would have welcomed our lead.

Instead, Mr. Brown could barely persuade even himself to sign a Treaty that had nothing of value for the United Kingdom. Given the fact that the UK is the second largest net contributor to the EU's coffers, our voice should have been heard.

A few days before, the illegal presence of Mugabe at the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon represented another massive failure of British diplomacy. While it was right that the British Prime Minister did not put himself in the position of having to rub shoulders with Zimbabwe's destroyer, the empty chair should have been Mugabe's. We couldn't persuade our African Commonwealth partners or even one other European government to do the right thing.

Contrast French energy and clarity of objective to the vacillation and invisibility of Britain. The French government is determined to promote its industries and make its mark internationally. And with a similar-sized economy to our own it gets away with paying peanuts to the EU while using that organization for its own purposes. In recent months we have seen France getting the credit for the release of the Bulgarian nurses from Libya, at the same time striking a nuclear energy deal with Gaddafy. It was to Paris that 68 governments and organizations came for the Middle East Donors Conference. Most gallingly perhaps, the French Foreign Minister is now tripping around India of all places - arranging cooperative nuclear energy deals, establishing a joint Defence Commission, and mobilizing greater Indian support for the conflict in Afghanistan. On 26 January, President Sarkozy will be the guest of honour at India's prestigious Republic Day parade.

Britain now has no clout with Russia, Africa takes little heed of us, we are detested across much of the Middle East, and we are even upstaged in India. Nevertheless, the British government has been active on the international scene - it has secured the release to the United Kingdom of three suspected terrorists; an Algerian, a Jordanian and a Libyan! At the same time, thousands of foreign criminals that should be deported are being released into our community.

Geoffrey Van Orden is Conservative MEP for the East of England focusing on Essex and Suffolk. He can be contacted at 88 Rectory Lane, Chelmsford CM1 1RF or email: gvanorden@europarl.eu.int