AS Tony Blair returned to Britain after a bruising European Union summit, the French were revelling in what they saw as a victory for their farmers.

Blair had agreed to give up £1 billion a year of Britain’s rebate for seven years with only a muted promise of the reform of agricultural subsidies he had sought.

Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French foreign minister, indicated that Jacques Chirac, his president, had got what he wanted: no reform of the EU’s £30 billion farm handouts for at least eight years. “We won’t touch this budget before December 31, 2013,” Douste-Blazy said. “That was one of the objectives of France.”

In words likely to provide fuel for the government’s critics at home, he went on to praise Blair for preferring to “wage a domestic battle at home for the idea of the European Union rather than calmly doing his job simply as a British prime minister”.

It also emerged that a final deal had been done only after the British proposal was modified under French pressure to remove the mention of possible “adjustments” of the 2007- 2013 budget after the review.

Commentators elsewhere in Europe were in little doubt that Blair had been outsmarted by Chirac, who raised eyebrows at the summit by claiming Blair had shown courage in the face of domestic pressures.

Alan Posener, chief leader writer for Germany’s influential Welt am Sonntag newspaper, said the prime minister had gone away virtually empty handed after being outmanoeuvred by the French president.

“Chirac’s praise for Blair is the kiss of death because Blair couldn’t get anything he wanted,” Posener said. “He was so desperate for a deal that he was willing to settle for a vague promise that France would some day review its farm subsidies. That is worthless.

“It is a black day for Europe and a black day for Tony Blair because France was unwilling to move.”

Blair repeatedly insisted in the run-up to the summit that Britain would stand firm. Last month, at a conference organised by the Confederation of British Industry, the prime minister reiterated that he would give up Britain’s budget rebate “only” if France agreed to “a commensurate and equal giving up” of its farm subsides.

But it was clear from the start of talks on Thursday that Blair, chairing the meeting, would have to give ground or walk away empty-handed amid accusations that Britain’s EU presidency had ended in failure.

The other 24 EU members were united in their determination that Britain should give up some, if not all, of the rebate. Chirac made clear he would not sign anything that called into question a deal forced though by him and Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, in 2002 that secured farm spending until 2014.

Britain’s efforts to kick-start the talks with a banquet of traditional Scottish haddock soup and Northern Irish lamb, washed down by finest Tintern Parva Welsh wine, failed to impress its negotiating partners.

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