"The Europe of the 21st century takes its inspiration in many ways from Britain," said José Manuel Barroso yesterday, in London for talks with Tony Blair ahead of a key European Union summit. "Britain has this global approach, the approach that I am trying to push forward," added the President of the European Commission.

Almost everything Mr Barroso said, talking to The Times, could have been designed to allay British fears that the EU will fashion itself into an overbearing superstate. He went out of his way to say that Europe, to stay competitive in a globalising world, needed to take its cue from Britain.

Yet Mr Barroso, halfway through his first term, has taken on the helm of the club of 27 countries at a point when failure to agree its own rules threatens to choke off its decisions and prevent it accepting more members.

"We need Britain in Europe for many reasons," he said. One of the reasons is climate change, a passion that Mr Barroso shares with Mr Blair. Next week's meeting of the European Council is "one of the most important summits" in its history, he says. "The world will be watching, from the US to Russia, to see whether we are serious about climate change and energy security."

He is backing proposals to set targets on EU countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 30 per cent by 2020. "We have set targets which would have been impossible five years ago," he said. The choice of such targets owed much to Mr Blair, he said.