UK govt aims to talk up Europe, split opposition

LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) Britain's new Europe Minister Geoff Hoon began a campaign today to convince Britons of the benefits of the European Union, hoping to expose divisions in the resurgent opposition.

Hoon said public support for membership of the EU had plummeted since the early 1990s and vowed to persuade the nation of its advantages from cheaper mobile telephone rates to holiday homes to effective measures to combat climate change.

''My aim is to restart the debate in this country and in particular to rekindle interest in the European Union,'' Hoon said on the eve of a two-day European Council in Brussels.

''Britain is winning the argument on the continent. Now we must win it at home,'' he added.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will hope that putting Europe high on the political agenda will split the Conservative Party and cause its revival under new leader David Cameron to falter.

Hoon called Cameron a fervent eurosceptic and said his pledge to pull his party out of the European Parliament's biggest political grouping would isolate Britain.

Europe has caused huge divisions in the Conservative Party, as well as in Labour, in the past.

Some Conservative lawmakers oppose Cameron's plans to withdraw from the European People's Party (EPP), which comprises Christian Democratic and conservative lawmakers from Europe.

''All of David Cameron's predecessors judged that leaving the EPP was a eurosceptic leap too far to the right,'' Hoon said.

Blair has repeatedly pledged to put Britain at the heart of the EU but many in Europe question his pro-European credentials given Britain's failure to join the European single currency.

Blair has also made little headway in reversing Britons' entrenched euroscepticism.

William Hague, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman, said Blair had repeatedly talked about starting the debate on Europe but failed to follow up with action or effective leadership.

Hoon said polls showed only 37 per cent of Britons say they recognise the benefits of Europe.

REUTERS SY BD2309