The European Commission is also strongly opposed to a U-turn. "It must and will go ahead," said one Commission official.Mr Blair is worried that up to 30,000 British jobs could be at risk, including almost 11,000 in ferry companies and inshore jobs around ports. "We know that other countries feel the same as us," said Mr Blair's spokesman "We just have to keep plugging away at it It was a decision taken by the last government. We have tried manfully to reverse it but it is very difficult.". THE VIDEO installation was declared the artists' tool of the hour by the Turner Prize jury yesterday when it revealed the four nominees for this year's prize, three of whom use videos to show their work. The shortlist for the pounds 20,000 prize contains some of the biggest names in the young BritArt scene, and comprises works that the jury believes should be accessible to the public. Indeed, one of the films was said to be "hilarious" by a jury member. The four nominees are: Tracey Emin, who was one of the hits of last year's Sensation exhibition with her embroidered tent Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995; Steve McQueen, the sculptor and minimalist film-maker; Steven Pippin, who films himself with washing machines turned into cameras; and Jane and Louise Wilson, identical twins who create multi-screen video installations.The art critic Sacha Craddock, who sits on the Turner jury, said video had become the primary medium for contemporary artists because it was so malleable: "It is dominant at the moment because people have realised that it is not the medium that is important, it's what it says that counts.

And there is such a range of things you can do on or with film and video."There is a rekindling of interest in painting and drawing among members of the contemporary art world, but Ms Craddock defended the lack of painters on this year's Turner shortlist."There has been a lot of very strong exhibitions of painting this year, but we did feel that these four on the shortlist are the most special artists of the year and to have added a painter in any kind of token way would have been belittling the work of some really good painters," she said.The works for which the four artists have been nominated will go on show from 30 October at the Tate Gallery in London, with the winner to be announced a month later.Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Gallery and chairman of the jury, said interest in the Turner was just one sign of an interest in new artists."There were 120,000 visitors to the Turner shortlist exhibition last year compared with 80,000 the year before and 60,000 in 1996. To have doubled the number of visitors in two years is an indication of a great growth in contemporary Brit-ish art. The Turner is just afocus for that interest, but there's lots going on," he said.The Contenders For pounds 20,000 PrizeTracey Emin, 35Nominated for Sobasex show in Japan and Every Part of Me is Bleeding in New York. Works with embroidery, installations, paintings, live performances and photography Emin's art is most often based on herself.

An embroidered tent was called Everyone I Ever Slept With 1963-1995 and text, Exploration of the Soul, detailed her sexual history.Steve McQueen, 29Nominated for Drumroll, a film of him rolling an oil drum through New York. Has exhibited in the US and Europe.Works mainly in film, making references to directors such as Orson Welles and Buster Keaton, but using repetition, editing and close-ups to produce enigmatic films.Turned down a nomination two years ago. Too busy working.Steve Pippin, 38Nominated for Laundromat- Locomation. Pippin has turned objects such as bathtubs, a train toilet and washing machines into cameras.

In his nominated piece he filmed himself turning all the machines in a launderette into cameras, which then took photos of him naked and a horse walking through the launderette.Jane (below) and Louise Wilson, 32Nominated for Gamma, a film of them returning to the abandoned air force base at Greenham Common. The Wilsons, identical twins who produced the same degree shows in separate art colleges, they specialise in haunting films made in abandoned spaces. They filmed the empty corridors of the East German police headquarters for Stasi City.. THOUSANDS OF works of art that were looted by the Nazis could be given back to their owners after the decision to return a pounds 3m Van Gogh painting to a British widow. The German Foundation for Prussian Cultural Heritage is expected today to approve the return of the painting, L'Olivette, to Gerta Silberberg, whose family had been forced to sell it at auction before the Second World War. If, as seems likely, the painting, now in the National Gallery in Berlin, is handed back, it will set a precedent in German law that could be applied to several hundred works of art held in the country's galleries and museums.It could also lead to hundreds of similar cases throughout Europe.Anne Webber, the co- chairwoman of the European Commission on Looted Art, which was set up last March, described it as a landmark decision."It will enable the return of many hundreds of works of art held in Germany, and it is a precedent which will have a knock-on effect throughout Europe," she said."Restitution is an issue which the British will now have to deal with."The Nazis carried out the greatest art robbery in history.

They stole a fifth of all the art in Europe, and much of it is now kept in galleries or private collections."The Holocaust Educational Trust said that today's expected move could be influential in Jews' efforts to repossess their valuables."If the museum is going to agree to return the property in this clear- cut case, this will be a turning-point in the restitution procedure and will set a precedent for Europe and the rest of the world," said a spokesman.The National Gallery in London has already opened an investigation into the provenance of 120 paintings to determine whether they were looted by the Nazis, and similar inquiries are expected to be carried out at other collections - the Courtauld Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery and British Museum.Mrs Silberberg, 85, who lives in Leicester, said that her father-in-law, Max, was made to sell the painting, with 143 others, at a series of auctions in Berlin.The Silberberg collection reportedly included works by Cezanne, Manet, Renoir and Degas. Mr Silberberg was later sent to a concentration camp, where he died.If the painting is returned, Mrs Silberberg will be the first British relative of Holocaust victims to reclaim works that were sold at forced auctions, where property was identified as "non-Aryan".John Simon, Mrs Silberberg's solicitor, said she had no sense of joy from the prospect of the work's return "Gerta is (Max Silberberg's) last surviving relative. She came to this country with her husband immediately before the outbreak of the war."The search has been going on for some time. The whole issue brings back many disturbing memories for my client and she has no wish to receive the pictures herself.". A CARE worker yesterday described her hopeless struggle to rescue four people as they drowned on a canal boat that got caught in a lock. The three men and a woman, who all had learning difficulties, were with four carers on a canal holiday at Gargrave, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, last August when their narrow boat snagged on a lock gate and sank. Carer Pamela Cain told an inquest she was at the controls of the boat Drum Major, in Stegneck Lock, on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, when she noticed it was tilting and taking on water She ran into the galley to help the four inside.