(LONDON) - Britain has been "permanently antagonistic" towards Europe and should have a "special status" to let it opt out of further EU integration moves, former French president Valery Giscard said Monday.

Giscard, the architect of the European Union's failed constitution, also accused Britain of playing to nationalist public sentiment in its dealings with the bloc.

"Differences of opinion can be handled from the basis of a permanently antagonistic standpoint, some wanting to advance integration ... others trying to slow it down by complicating negotiations, by flattering nationalisms or by deploying very smart manoeuvrings towards a new enlargement," he said.

Those were "the sort of things that British diplomacy is awfully good at", he told a conference in London on Britain's future ties with Europe, hosted by euro-sceptic campaign group Global Vision and the Daily Telegraph.

"This current approach is exhausting for all concerned and it is disappointing... because public opinion is only presented with negative outcomes."

Britain, which has a strongly eurosceptic press, has long had a testy relationship with its European partners.

Its backing for the bloc's enlargement into central Europe in recent years was widely seen as a strategy to dilute the traditional dominance of the EU by founder members like France and Germany.

Giscard said: "European integration can continue while remaining compatible with the involvement of Great Britain provided it does not have to be party to progress which it deems incompatible with national prerogatives.

"The recognition of all these exemptions would amount to granting Great Britain a special status whose operational arrangements would have to be carefully tuned."

He stressed he was "not talking about a two-speed Europe ... On the contrary, already united Europe should continue its integration at a realistic pace while respecting the identity and jurisdiction of member states".

"This approach... would be open to all but could include... opt out clauses. In the case of Great Britain and because of its insular situation... these opt-out clauses should take the form of (a) special status," he said.

Giscard chaired the convention which drew up the EU's constitution, designed to prevent institutional gridlock in the expanding bloc. The blueprint was rejected by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005.

After a period of reflection EU leaders decided to shelve the constitution and agreed instead on a new treaty, signed in Lisbon last year -- but again torpedoed by voters, this time in an Irish referendum in June.

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