Tories launch new EU grouping
By Ian Dunt
The Tories have succeeded in setting up a new European parliamentary grouping, called the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
It currently constitutes 55 MEPs from eight different member states, and is the fourth biggest group in the parliament
The Conservatives are by far the largest part in the grouping with 26 MEPs.
The Polish Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc) is the second biggest player, while the Czech Civic Democracy party (Obcanská demokratická strana) contributes nine MEPs.
More support comes from Belgium, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Latvia.
Foreign secretary David Miliband said David Cameron had dragged ther Conservatives “from euroscepticism to euro-extremism”.
“By removing the Conservatives from other mainstream centre-right parties in Europe, David Cameron has isolated his party and potentially this country when we need influence to deliver on the issues that matter for Britain today,” he added.
Mr Cameron promised he would separate the Conservatives from the mainstream centre-right party in the parliament, the European Peoples party (EPP), to set up a new anti-federalist group.
But concerns have been raised about the extremist nature of the parties he has entered into negotiations with, especially the Polish PiS party, headed by the nation’s president Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, which banned gay pride marches.
The Latvian For Fatherland and Freedom party, which has one MEP in Mr Cameron’s grouping, is coming under the spotlight for its celebrations of its country’s Waffen SS veterans.
William Hague said the criticisms were “outdated”.
“The Law and Justice Party in Poland is a party that is committed to be against discrimination, for equality under the law,” he said.
“Its president has been praised for actually promoting greater tolerance in Polish society, so that is actually the true position.”
Andrew Duff, leader of the British Liberal Democrat MEPs in the parliament, said: “It is indeed strange for British Conservatives to find themselves trapped in a bizarre cabal of ultra catholics from Poland and ultra calvinists from the Netherlands.
“It is certainly not in the British interest for the Tories to be moving from the political mainstream to the political margins.”
But the Bruges Group, a eurosceptic think tank, welcomed the move.
“The Conservative party’s federalist rump, both at Westminster and Brussels, should now recognise that the tide has turned and any future Conservative government must deliver a real change in Britain’s relationship with the EU,” said Robert Oulds, the think tank’s director.
