New conservative group to rock next Parliament

See also:

Tory decision to quit group irks business
By Jean Eaglesham and Joshua Chaffin
Financial Times, 3 June 2009

Business groups yesterday criticised David Cameron's decision to pull the Conservative party out of the mainstream centre-right European parliament group after tomorrow's elections.

The EEF manufacturers' body warned that the withdrawal of the Tories from the European People's party to form a new non-federalist group in the European parliament could leave Britain "on the fringes of the debate" at a time when the global downturn required close co-operation across the continent.

"The Conservatives taking a decision that is bound to reduce our influence in Europe is not helpful to business," the EEF told the Financial Times.

Mr Cameron yesterday defended his move to pull out of the EPP, while again refusing to be drawn on what he would do as prime minister if the Lisbon treaty had already been ratified. The Tory leader reiterated his formula that a Conservative government would "not let matters rest" if the treaty was in force, saying that would mean too many powers had been transferred to Brussels.

But he refused to say how the Tories would seek to renegotiate the treaty, beyond rejecting a suggestion that such talks could jeopardise Britain's membership of the European Union. In contrast to the platform of the UK Independence party, expected to win seats tomorrow on an anti-European manifesto, Mr Cameron said the UK would remain a member of the EU.

"I don't think [a referendum on withdrawal] is right. I don't want us to leave the EU," Mr Cameron told the BBC. "Every treaty is an effective renegotiation and if we had a Conservative government we'd be going into those sorts of negotiations with a list of powers we'd want to have returned to the UK."

Pulling Britain out of the social chapter would be top of a Conservative government's wish-list for such negotiations, William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, suggested yesterday.

"The most important issue for Britain is social and employment legislation," Mr Hague told the ConservativeHome website for activists. "That is why it will be a major goal of the next Conservative government to restore national control over this area."

The Tories rejected an accusation by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, that leaving the EPP would leave them with "crackpots" as colleagues in the European parliament.

The new group Mr Cameron seeks to form will require at least 25 MEPs from seven different states to gain official parliamentary recognition, under recently passed rules at the legislature. Failure to reach this quorum would reduce a range of parliamentary privileges enjoyed by the Tories under the EPP umbrella, ranging from speaking time to office space and funding.

The Tories would also stand to lose their seniority on various committees. Brussels observers yesterday warned of the risk that the Conservative MEPs elected tomorrow would be marginalised in the new parliament.

The dilemma for Mr Cameron is to find right-ofcentre parties from six countries willing to join the group whose views on other issues will not cause him significant political embarrassment. The Tories have publicly identified only the Czech Civic Democrats and Poland's Law and Justice party as potential partners for the group, due to be unveiled next month. Speculation about other allies has included the Movement for France.

"Negotiations with other parties are still continuing so we are not giving a running commentary on their progress. However, we have made plain before that we will not work with extremist parties," Mark Francois, the shadow Europe minister, told the FT.

"Depending on the results of the elections, the new group, which might well be led by a British Conservative MEP, could emerge as the fourth largest group in the parliament."

This should give the new group a number of committee chairmanships, Mr Francois said.

But such influence could carry a domestic political price for Mr Cameron, depending on the composition of the new group. Labour has been assiduous in highlighting embarrassing comments from potential allies that clash with Mr Cameron's modernising message. A Tory insider reflected the awareness of this risk by telling the FT: "We won't be joining up with any nutters or racists or homophobes. But there might be the occasional odd individual we would expect our partners to do something about."

Additional reporting by Alex Barker

Cameron's potential partners

Law and Justice party, Poland The Kaczynski twins - Jaroslaw and Lech - founded Poland's Law and Justice party (PiS) in 2001 in order to consolidate the country's right wing.

The Kaczynskis are suspicious of Poland's historic enemies, Germany and Russia, and wary of Poland losing its identity in the European Union. Lech Kaczynski, currently Poland's president, has refused to sign the Lisbon treaty until the forthcoming Irish referendum.

Like the Conservatives, the party does not want to withdraw from the Union, but is sceptical of moves towards closer integration.

"We are a party of Euro-realists, not Eurosceptics," said Adam Bielan, a PiS candidate for the European parliament. "We want more economic freedom in the EU and less political integration, and we are looking for partners in the EU who share our views."

Currently, the party's MEPs sit with the "Europe for a Union of Nations" group.

Civic Democrats, Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus, Czech president, founded the conservative Civic Democrats (ODS) in 1991. It has since become the Czech Republic's leading centre-right party.

Europe has been a flashpoint of conflict within the ODS. Mr Klaus, who refuses to fly the blue EU flag over his residence at Prague's Hradcany Castle, is a vociferous critic of the EU and especially the Lisbon treaty, which he, like Mr Kaczynski, has not signed. Mr Klaus has even compared the EU to the Soviet empire.

However, the party's current leader, Mirek Topolanek, who took over in 2002, takes a more pro-European stance, and pushed the Lisbon treaty through the Czech parliament earlier this year.

In the European parliament the ODS is a member of the European People's party. It plans to leave the grouping after the current elections, however, to form a new alliance together with the Conservatives and PiS.

Movement for France The Movement for France (MPF) is the party of Philippe de Villiers, a veteran Eurosceptic and populist, who is fighting the European elections under the banner of Libertas.

The MPF wants to roll back European integration, in line with Mr Cameron's Conservatives. But on other issues the MPF appears profoundly at odds with the Tory vision of the EU. The MPF advocates "European protectionism", including a "labour tax" on cheap non-EU imports to stop European companies from shifting jobs overseas.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Report of a EurActiv interview with Geoffrey Van Orden, a UK Conservative Member of the European Parliament, June 2009. he discusses the project whereby approximately 60 MEPs from the European Parliament's EPP-ED Group are set to join a new formation following the 2009 European Parliament elections, including MEPs from the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Poland.

ESO: Background information: Tories ready to quit EU alliance http://www.europeansources.info/record/tories-ready-to-quit-eu-alliance/

---