EU reacts to Blair bowing out

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, standing in the same room in Trimdon Labour Club where he launched his campaign to be Labour leader in 1994, said of his ten years in power: "I think that's long enough for me and more especially for the country. Sometimes the only way you can conquer the pull of power is to set it down."

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said: "Tony Blair has taken Britain from the fringes to the mainstream of the European Union. He has done this by engagement, not by vetoes. He has brought to Europe energy, engagement and ideas and leaves an impressive legacy including his commitment to enlargement, energy policy, his promotion of action against climate change, and for fighting poverty in Africa. Above all, he has shared in our determination to create an open, reforming and strong Europe. I greatly value our friendship and I wish him success for the future."

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "Britain has been under Tony Blair's leadership one of Denmark's closest international partners ... working together in the EU or in international operations in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan."

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said of Blair: "He greatly contributed to the transformation of Britain, that Britain today is again competitive, a country with a significant influence, and at the same time he left an indelible mark on the British Left."

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that with Blair's departure "a prominent leader disappears from the European and world stage. During tense moments, Blair was the binding force. Blair did not shrink from rowing against the current if he thought it was necessary."

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said: "Tony Blair leaves office with an honored place in our history assured. From his first days as prime minister he devoted unprecedented time and attention to bringing the appalling conflict in Northern Ireland to an end."

MEP Andrew Duff, leader of the Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Party, said: "Tony Blair's departure from the European scene, like that of Jacques Chirac, will be met with great relief. He has failed to live up to his early promise on Europe. He was undermined by Gordon Brown on the euro. Worst of all, Tony Blair and his ministers have sought to blunt Europe's Constitutional development into a mature transnational parliamentary democracy. They have resisted the strengthening of the EU's own fundamental rights regime...The tragedy is that Blair has wanted to be a good European, but has never known how to be one."

UK Independence leader Nigel Farage was similarly critical: "The timing of his departure is a piece of vintage Blair. The fact that he will still be prime minister during the Brussels Summit in June will allow him to sign up to the new version of the Constitution, but when the hard work needs to be done to convince the British people that the new formula is not a Constitution, like Macavity, he will not be there."

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone: "I think that in the same way that perhaps one of the biggest long-term successes is bringing peace to Ireland, the most catastrophic error is the war in Iraq. It has, in a sense, created a whole new generation of terrorists."

Tony Benn, veteran UK Labour politician, was withering in his assessment: "The people who have done best in Britain in the last ten years are the rich ... I think it is not surprising that [former prime minister] Margaret Thatcher, when asked her greatest achievement, said 'New Labour'."