By Adrian Croft
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown has secured a high-profile European Union foreign policy job for Britain, but may have to cede to France an important role in overhauling financial regulation.
Brown lobbied hard for his predecessor, Tony Blair, to become Europe's first president under the new Lisbon treaty.
But, in a flurry of last-minute horse-trading on Thursday, Brown had to accept that Blair, once the front-runner for the job, could not muster enough support.
Instead, Brown secured the post of EU foreign policy chief for a Briton, Catherine Ashton, who has a low profile in Britain. Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who is little known abroad, was named as the 27-nation bloc's first president.
Brown said Ashton's appointment would "ensure that Britain's voice is very loud and clear. It will ensure that we will remain -- as I want Britain to be -- at the heart of Europe."
The foreign policy role plays to Britain's strengths as the country is one of the most influential of EU states, taking an active international role on issues such as Iran and the Middle East, climate change and nuclear non-proliferation, and on deploying the second-largest foreign force to Afghanistan.
But, since the new high representative will also be a vice-president of the European Commission and each state can only have one commissioner, the move leaves Britain out of the running for important economic roles.
Financial services are crucial to the British economy and London's financial centre is a major global player, so those jobs would also be important to Britain.
GIVING UP TRADE POST
Ashton will vacate her job as EU trade chief, leaving Britain less well placed to exercise its traditional role of promoting liberal economic policies and open trade in the EU.
"Now that Britain will no longer have an EU commissioner with a major economic brief it will be vital that the British government, whichever party is in power, engages closely with the EU Commission to ensure that it keeps to a pro-growth agenda," William Hague, the opposition Conservatives' foreign policy spokesman, said in a statement.
EU diplomats said it was now all but certain that former French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier would be commissioner for the EU's internal market, giving him an influential role in drawing up the new regulatory landscape after the global financial crisis.
The appointment of a Frenchman to take charge of financial services would receive a cool welcome in Britain, where many see French zeal for tighter regulation of banks and financial markets as endangering London's leading position.
Britain, the EU's main hedge fund and private equity centre, has mounted a strong campaign, for example, to water down some aspects of a draft EU law to tighten regulation of hedge funds. But it faces stiff opposition from France, Spain and Germany, which all back strong regulation of the sector.
Brown rejected the argument that Britain's interest would have been better served by securing a big economic post in the Commission, pointing out that Ashton would be number two to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
"I think you underestimate Cathy Ashton," he said.
Brown's failure to secure the presidency for Blair will help provide smoother relations between Britain and Europe if, as expected, the Eurosceptic opposition Conservatives win a British parliamentary election that Brown must call by next June.
Blair has been a thorn in the Conservatives' side for years and they strongly opposed him getting Europe's top job.
Hague said the Conservatives would work with Ashton and Van Rompuy in Britain's national interest.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
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