UK's Mandelson urges EU to boost single market

LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - European Union countries should cooperate more closely to rebuild their economies in the wake of the global financial crisis and not pursue national solutions, British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said on Thursday.

"No matter how badly a downturn might tempt us to think and act in national silos, the next five years will in fact demand an even greater Europeanism from us," Mandelson said, according to advance excerpts of a speech he will deliver in Berlin.

Mandelson said EU states should not use the recession as an excuse to "renationalise" parts of the EU single market.

"This crisis should not become a pretext for resurrecting the protectionist and state interventionist arguments that decades of experience has discredited in Europe," the former European Trade Commissioner added.

Mandelson repeated British backing for a second term for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The other European Union members are together Britain's largest trading partner, accounting for almost 60 percent of its exports. But there is a strong streak of scepticism about Europe among Britons.

The UK Independence Party, which campaigns for Britain to pull out of the European Union, came second in European elections last week, beating the ruling Labour Party.

Mandelson will discuss UK carmaker Vauxhall with German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in Berlin.

A consortium led by Canadian car parts group Magna MGa.TO has agreed in principle to buy the European operations of Vauxhall's parent General Motors Corp, largely made up of Germany's Opel. GMGMQ.PK

British unions fear thousands of jobs are at risk at Vauxhall's two British plants. [ID:nL3521811] (Editing by Tim Pearce)