With the support of smaller countries such as Greece and Portugal, Britain and France are likely to try to block the directive or at least to water it down.

ECONOMIST: Europe��s last post

Mr Dalli, a former Maltese cabinet minister, has argued that he is the victim of a tobacco lobbying campaign to block tough new legislation - the Tobacco Directive - to make smoking less attractive.

BBC: EU's Dalli insists on innocence in tobacco scandal

Mr Brown is fond of trumpeting the virtues of Britain's flexible labour markets to his more rigid European colleagues, and it was his government that helped to block the passage of the Agency Workers' Directive last year.

ECONOMIST: A row pits Labour against labour unions