E.U. EPP leaders pile pressure on UK Conservative Party to stay in EPP group 24.02.2006 | http://euobserver.com/?aid=20985&rk=1 UK conservatives are under spotlight for plans to leave the biggest group in the European Parliament (Photo: European Parliament) Eleven EU prime ministers in a letter in December urged UK conservative leader David Cameron to refrain from withdrawing his MEPs from the biggest centre-right group in the European Parliament, it has emerged.
UK conservative plans to break away from the biggest faction in the European Parliament, the centre-right EPP-ED group, are being watched with concern by leading European politicians, according to the Telegraph. The French daily Le Monde on Thursday (23 February) published a letter by 11 prime ministers dating back to last December, urging urging Mr Cameron to drop the plan. The letter was signed by the German chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as the leading personalities behind the initiative, joined by the leaders of the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Malta, Slovenia, and Latvia, as well as the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. The initiative came at the peak of the heated debate among the British conservatives about their potential separation from the federalist-oriented European People's Party. Currently, the UK conservatives form the lion's share of the European Democracy (ED) fraction in the EPP-ED. But during his campaign to become conservative leader, David Cameron vowed to press for a breakaway of his MEPs from the group which he sees as too federalist for the eurosceptic tories. A majority of UK tory MEPs is still said to be unconvinced by the initiative, however, despite London's pressure. While a minority of the 26 UK conservative MEPs are strongly resisting the move, a larger number of parliamentarians are sceptical about the possibilities of finding potential partner parties in a new grouping. The issue is set to come under the spostlight again at the EPP congress in late March, to be attended by top centre-right European leaders such as Ms Merkel and Mr Berlusconi. *** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 2% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.doilasuta.ro *** Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romania_eu_list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
