Federalists in threat to split from EPP after Euro election

By Dana Spinant

Date: 12/02/04

FEDERALIST forces in the European Parliament committed to deepening EU integration are in talks about launching a new political group after June's elections - a step that could totally change the balance of power in the assembly.

If the breakaway group wins enough support from Christian Democrats and Liberals, it could threaten the position of the European People's Party (EPP-ED) as the largest group in the assembly.

This, in turn, could have a huge impact on the nomination of the next president of the European Commission, which the EPP insists should come from the ranks of the largest Parliamentary party.

The core of the federalist group could be Romano Prodi's Margarita coalition, currently split in the Parliament between the EPP-ED and the Liberal Democrats, and the French centre-right UDF (Union pour la Democratie Française).

The new group would be "a genuinely European party", according to UDF MEP Jean-Louis Bourlanges, who is holding talks with like-minded politicians.

"We want a federal Europe, with a Commission evolving into a government and a Parliament enjoying full co-legislative and budgetary powers," he explained.

The primary reason for the split is the "increasing discontent with the heterogeneous character of the EPP, which gathers parties profoundly divided over European issues", said Bourlanges.

"It will be very uncomfortable for us to be in the EPP. The EPP has exceeded the limits of what we can call a coherent extension. It is profoundly divided over crucial issues, with the UK Conservatives campaigning against the constitution, [Silvio] Berlusconi campaigning against the euro and the party deeply split over the accession of Turkey to the EU.

"When we see all this, we ask ourselves on what [platform] the EPP can campaign,"he added, referring to the European Parliament elections on 10-13 June.

Bourlanges dismissed the conclusions of last week's EPP Congress in Brussels, describing the adopted texts as "a mere vague declaration of good intentions".

He singled out the EPP leadership for strong criticism, accusing it of a "policy of expansion" aimed at placating Italian, Spanish and UK conservatives.

"This makes it very frustrating for us to be in the EPP," Bourlanges said.

The Italian Popular Party (one branch of Margarita) and the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) have already been approached by UDF to discuss a common platform for the group. Other possible participants are the Democratic Union of Catalunya (UDC), which currently has one deputy in the EPP, and Belgium's Centre Démocrate Humaniste (CdH).

Bourlanges hopes the group would be the third-biggest in the assembly, gathering "significantly more MEPs than the Liberals", who currently have 53 members.

Guido Bodrato, an Italian Popular Party MEP, confirmed his interest in "a new European party with the objective of creating a political Europe".

He, too, voiced frustration at the EPP's efforts to be all things to everyone, saying that its traditional federalist policies were incompatible with the Eurosceptic attitudes held by Forza Italia and UK Conservatives.

Although he expects the new group to be small at first, Bodrato predicts that other national delegations "would later admit that we were right to split" and sign up.

Andrew Duff, the federalist UK Liberal MEP, confirmed he had been invited to join the new group, but doubts it would see the light of day after June's elections.

"It is an attractive thought, to create a federal pole in the Parliament, but I would insist on those creating the notion of such a group that they can prove that their priority is European politics, and not some domestic political interests.

"I am interested in strengthening European Parliament democracy," Duff said. But rather than launching a new group, his preference "would be for [UDF chief François] Bayrou and the Prodi-ites to join the ELDR".

Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the EPP-ED, told this paper that he knew nothing official about the creation of a federalist group, but had "heard the rumours.

"I can only hope this will not happen," the German said, insisting that the EPP encouraged "all parties in our group to freely express their views".