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		Why Conservative MEPs should not sit with the EPP November 10 2005 It is wrong to talk a good euro-sceptic story at home, then cosy-up to the federalists in Brussels The EPP is not a centre-right party. It angrily rejects the terms right-wing, or centre-right, or conservative. It insists that it is a centre party. On employment and social issues it is often to the left of New Labour, and to the left of the Liberal Group in the European parliament. The EPP calls itself "the motor of European integration". It wants an EU army, an EU justice system, an EU "FBI". It wants an end to the British rebate, and to the UK's permanent seat on the UN Security Council. It wants the euro and the EU Constitution. Just which part of this agenda are we Conservatives supposed to support? It destroys the credibility of Conservative EU policies, and gives credence to the accusations of fringe rejectionist parties, when we say one thing at home and do another in Brussels. Membership of the EPP actually reduces our influence in Brussels It is often argued that we gain influence by sitting with the largest group in the parliament. This would be true only if we generally agreed with them. As it is, membership reduces our influence and prevents us from promoting a clear Conservative alternative in Europe. The EPP wants us in, not only because of the funding we bring them, and because we help them in the Brussels "numbers game", but primarily because within the group they can keep us quiet. In many debates, only group leaders speak, so no Conservative speaks at all, and German Christian Democrat Hans-Gert Poettering speaks on our behalf. In a recent debate, speaking on behalf of the whole group including inter alia the British Conservatives, he said "No one, but no one, can be permitted to stand in the way of European integration". To rub salt in the wound, UKIP MEP Nigel Farage has done a deal with his group leader to share speaking time, so often he speaks when no Conservative speaks. Outside the EPP, we should have a Conservative MEP on the "Conference of Presidents". The "Conference of Presidents" is a key committee of group leaders where we are currently represented by Poettering. It sets the agenda for parliamentary business. If we leave the EPP, and before we even form a new group, we will have a Conservative representative on this vital committee for the first time in living memory. Membership of the EPP costs us £½ million a year The EPP top-slices nearly half of the annual €68,000 per capita parliamentary funding that MEPs attract -- a total of well over £½ million across our 27 MEPs. They spend this on pro-integration projects, when we could and should spend it on Conservative priorities. We can form a new conservative group that would have real influence Other national delegations committed to free markets, nation-states and an Atlanticist approach are desperate to join us (and this absolutely excludes any hard-right or extremist parties). We believe we could rapidly become the third largest group in the parliament after the EPP and the socialists. Then we could set a genuinely conservative agenda. We should also have more influence with the EPP than we have today, as a despised and trouble¬some minority (we could hardly have less influence than we have today!). They would have to negotiate our support in key areas, and pay for it with real concessions. My own experience as a "non-inscrit" member demonstrates the point Since I was expelled from the EPP in June, I have had nearly four times the parliamentary "information funding" than I had before (€38k a year against €10k previously), more speaking time (several times as the first Conservative speaker in debates, ahead of delegation leader Timothy Kirkhope), more staff support, and more access to parliamentary facilities. Best of all, I am no longer "sleeping with the enemy", or living a lie as a committed euro-sceptic in a passionately federalist group. David Cameron is right. It is time for Conservative MEPs to leave the EPP.