Cllr. Gavin Ayling

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[Technorati: David Cameron, Tory, Conservative]

The European Union has been a contentious point in Conservative politics since Thatcher and before (Heath particularly).

Now David Davis is eurosceptic - we know that; and David Cameron has some strange policy statements in his past about Maastricht. But the EPP is the thing that worries me now.

The Conservative Party, like all parties in the European Parliament, is aligned with a pan-European political party. In the case of the Labour Party that means affiliation with the Party of European Socialists (official site).

In the case of the Conservative Party that means affiliation with EPP-ED (the European People’s Party - European Democrats). This is a ‘party’ of EU loving Christian Democrats and a non-party eurosceptic subgroup, the European Democrats. The European Democrats consist of a Conservative Czech party’s members and the British Conservatives and, being outnumbered, they have no say in EPP policy.

The EPP is pro-Christian, which doesn’t suit Britain’s defacto secular Conservative Party. This suggests policies on abortion and homosexuality that Britain is not happy with. The EPP is also strongly pro-EU. It is the largest EU group of parties and yet we do not see a slow down in parliamentary approval for EU Commission proposals.

In July 2004 Michael Howard helped organise the creation of the European Democrats as Daniel Hannan eloquently explains:

Then, on Tuesday, Michael Howard announced the formation of a newly autonomous European Democrats group, comprised of British Tories and conservative parties from Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic.

The ED is expressly committed to free enterprise, the nation-state and the Atlantic alliance. We hope to be joined by Eurosceptic parties from Poland, the Baltic countries and possibly Denmark.

The ED will be in a technical alliance with the EPP for certain administrative purposes, such as the allocation of committee posts, but will have its own officers, manifesto and whip, and sufficient resources to pursue its programme - beginning with a series of rallies to oppose the constitution.

SOURCE: The end of the affair for Tories and federalists By Daniel Hannan (Sunday Telegraph: 18/07/2004)

This link shows all the political groups in the European Parliament: European Parliament Groups

David Cameron has pledged to remove the Conservatives from the EPP. This is a great move towards genuine euroscepticism for while the ED is separate and anti-EU by policy, its inclusion in the EPP sends the wrong message to the EU, Tony Blair and the electorate.

Further info
This table shows the split of membership of political parties in the European Union.