‘Tory split should not be marginal’

By Tim King

Date: 02/02/06

Leading Eurosceptic MEP Jan Zahradil has said British-led attempts to form a new centre-right group in the European Parliament would have to achieve significant mass in order to be worth a split from the existing EPP-ED group.

The head of the Czech delegation in the EPP-ED was speaking after talks with William Hague, the UK Conservative Party's foreign affairs spokesman, about the feasibility of creating a new group. Zahradil is a strong supporter of the idea. But, he warned, "the group must not be as marginal as the UEN or the Greens".

The Union for Europe of the Nations (UEN) has 30 members and the Greens have 42 MEPs.

Hague, who visited Brussels on Monday and Tuesday (30-31 January), said he had made "encouraging progress" in talks with other parties. He said it would be "months not weeks" but "months not years" before his party broke away from the EPP-ED group - a move that was promised by the new party leader David Cameron.

Zahradil said he wanted to see a new alignment of parties that were "centre-right, democratic and non-federalist".

Hague has faced some criticism in the UK for talking with Poland's Law and Justice Party, particularly because the party had banned gay-rights marches.

Zahradil said that it was for the UK Conservatives to put forward possible allies. But he said he would have no difficulty with being in the same group as the Law and Justice party.

Potential allies should, he said, be "in no sense described or labelled as extremist".

Comments by leading Eurosceptic MEP Jan Zahradil, head of the Czech delegation in the EPP-ED at the European Parliament. Zahradil took part in talks with Britain's Conservative shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, on 30-31 January 2006, over the formation of a new centre-right group in the European Parliament. The new leader of the UK's Conservative Party, David Cameron, had promised that his party's MEPs would split from the existing EPP-ED group.

European Parliament: Political Groups: EPP-ED Group: Website http://www.epp-ed.org/home/en/default.asp

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