At last December's summit, shortly before the talks collapsed, Mr Blair won acceptance of his demand that member countries keep their vetoes on such issues as tax, social security and judicial co-operation.

ECONOMIST: Revived to die another day? | The

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, who chaired the summit, accepted Mr Blair's insistence that member countries keep their vetoes on such issues as tax, social security and judicial co-operation, instead of introducing majority voting as the draft constitution had proposed.

ECONOMIST: A constitution in tatters

In June, 2008 he signed a set of judicial reforms to improve national security.

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