But, in several recent speeches, Mr Balls, now Economic Secretary and City Minister, has signalled a marked change of tone. Take this, from a speech at a City of London Corporation dinner last week: “With enlargement from 15 to 25 member states and a European Commission led by President Barroso, I believe the EU is taking significant strides towards a more open and global view of the world.”

He challenged the sceptic view that “London’s success depends on other European financial centres lagging behind”, which he described as a “defeatist underestimation of the City’s strengths and future opportunity”. Peter Mandelson could not have been more enthusiastic.

Last night, in a wide-ranging lecture to the Fabian Society, Mr Balls went farther in arguing that Europe will be “a central dividing line in British politics in the coming decade, because greater co-operation with our European partners will be at the centre of a progressive response to globalisation”. He claimed that David Cameron was the most anti- European Tory leader ever, so “he will not be able to broker the agreements that Britain and the world need if we are to achieve a pro-growth solution to climate change”.

Mr Balls, like David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, regards the environment as a crucial area where EU co-operation is vital and where Labour can challenge Mr Cameron’s green aspirations.

The Brown camp would argue that the Chancellor has always been pro-European, but that is not how it has been seen in the Foreign Office or in many EU capitals. He has never been regarded as “communitaire” in his dealings with fellow finance ministers. He has been seen as treating meetings of finance ministers, when he does attend, as an awkward necessity to be cut short rather than as a chance to create alliances.

More significantly, Mr Brown’s speeches have treated the EU as a secondary in the overall response to globalisation and the competitive challenge of China and India. He has discussed the EU as being almost part of the problem, and an obstacle, rather than as part of the solution. Despite the comments by Mr Balls, many sceptics will doubt how far Mr Brown’s view has really changed. What, in practice, is meant by the talk by Mr Balls of “hard-headed pro-Europeanism, which puts our national interest first but understands that we are stronger by co-operating with our Euroepan patners”? Will Mr Brown be active in forming alliances with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and the new French President?

Whatever the caveats, what Mr Balls says matters because he provides one of the few reliable pointers to the style of a Brown administration. In the current mood of “waiting for Gordon”, any comments by the Brown team take on an oracular significance. And the Conservatives are going to have to develop a more coherent policy than Mr Cameron’s apparent preference for benign neglect, and talking about anything else. We are as far away as ever from agreement on Britain’s place in Europe.

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