QUENTIN Peel, international affairs editor of the Financial Times discussed the fall-out from the events on September 11 and the implications for Britain and the European Union when he spoke at the annual dinner of the European Network of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (ENBO).

"September 11 mattered. The world won't be the same again," Mr Peel told guests at the Compleat Angler hotel, Marlow last Friday.

"September 11 was a terrible psychological shock to the ordinary people of America.

"The perception that some people out there hated America was a very traumatic moment."

The upsurge in patriotism in America which resulted from the events of September 11 was heightened more recently by President George W Bush's 'axis of evil' State of the Union address which named Iran, Iraq and North Korea as serious threats to overcoming terrorism. Mr Peel believed that despite Britain's full support for America's actions after September 11 its future role lay very much in Europe.

If Britain wanted to be taken as a serious player, it needed to be part of a more powerful Europe Mr Peel emphasised.

That way it could play an important role in influencing George W Bush and restraining American policy in the future.

ENBO, a non-political organisation, was formed as a successor The 1992 Club founded by MEP James Elles to help and advise businessmen on the single market.

February 14, 2002 13:38