Oil-rich states should use the trillions of dollars they are making from soaring prices to finance new nuclear power plants in Britain, Gordon Brown said yesterday.
Speaking after a fractious summit of EU leaders in Brussels, the prime minister insisted that huge sums of cash needed to be “recycled” from regions such as the Middle East for the sake of the world economy.
He also said that Britain’s final ratification of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty will not take place until after the High Court rules on a legal bid to force a referendum.
Mr Brown dismissed concerns over allowing sovereign wealth funds run by authoritarian foreign governments to buy up key assets — insisting the domestic nuclear market should be “open for people to invest in”.
“We want the oil countries to invest their revenue in energy outside oil, in oil consuming countries,” Mr Brown said. “One of the powerful messages I take that we discussed round the table at the European Council is that there is a market for investment outside oil that can recycle some of the three trillion of revenue that the oil companies have made.”
Mr Brown went on: “Our nuclear market is open. Of course you have got to bear in mind all the security considerations and the regulatory requirements, but it is open for people to invest in.”
The prime minister’s plea for measures to ease the pressure on western economies came as EU leaders attempted to show they were helping ordinary people cope with rising prices rather than just rowing over the treaty.
Recriminations spilled into the open yesterday, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy initiating public hostilities by laying the blame squarely on Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Mr Sarkozy said the issues that contributed to the setback included the world trade talks — adding bluntly: “Mandelson.”
“A child dies of starvation every 30 seconds and the commission wanted to reduce European agriculture production by 21% during the talks,” said Mr Sarkozy.
Mr Mandelson hit back by wryly suggesting that Mr Sarkozy’s comments had actually been “tactful and diplomatic”.
In another sign of tensions with the French, Mr Brown also played down Mr Sarkozy’s suggestions for tax breaks on fuel — stressing only that the commission should “look at all the proposals” for easing people’s financial strain that had been put forward by member states.