THESE are testing times for Europe.

For the first time in more than 50 years there is armed conflict on the continent; the commissioners recently resigned en masse following the "wise men's" devastating report on their performances; the newly-launched euro currency is still being assessed and the whole European structure faces a rejig.

Prime Minister Tony Blair emerged bleary-eyed from 20 hours of what he described as "immensely difficult" negotiations at the Berlin summit claiming that he had saved Britain's EU rebate.

His most important victory was keeping the 15-year-old £2 billion-a-year rebate, originally negotiated by Margaret Thatcher, intact.

But was it total victory? To break the deadlock he had to make concessions which will ultimately cost the Treasury £154 million a year in additional refunds it could have claimed once the EU expands into Eastern Europe.

It could be argued that what you have never had, you never miss.

To be fair to Mr Blair, he achieved what many cynics said would not happen, given the fierce opposition to the rebate, particularly from France, Germany and Italy.

The summit, overshadowed by the fighting a few hundred miles away, was surprisingly decisive. But it still smacked of an overriding desire by individual members, including Britain, to keep what they already have. France, home of the mini-farm, successfully took apart a package of agricultural measures to get a better deal for its thousands of farmers. And Spain, one of the EU's cash-strapped nations, stubbornly dug in its heels to get more funds for its poorest regions.

Most other nations did their share of haggling and protesting to make sure they were not the ones who made concessions for the benefit of others.

Mr Blair claimed that the EU accord had paved the way for enlargement and that Community spending had been put far more firmly under control than ever before.

Let's hope he is right. Enlargement means looking east and that means countries financially drained by more than half a century of Communist chaos.

They are an economist's nightmare.

And the controls on spending he mentioned would be tested as never before.

But a new-look EU, with the determination and relative accord displayed in the last few weeks, may be capable of successfully bringing eastern Europe into the fold.

Testing times indeed. But there is a far stiffer examination to come in the east.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.