Dan Hannan to be kicked out of the EPP for highlighting despotism in the European Parliament

This should be the last nail in the coffin for those still unsure about the principle of leaving the European's People's Party.

Last week Dan Hannan MEP wrote an amazing account of Hans Gert-Pöttering's (the already powerful President of the European Parliament) successful attempt to get the authority to interpret Parliamentary rules as he wished.

It's worth reading in full. 

Basically, about two dozen MEPs from across Europe, including British Conservatives and UKIP, decided to use two perfectly legal mechanisms to register their disapproval of the EU constitution: the right to call for an electronic vote so that you can see exactly who votes which way, and the right to talk for no more than one minute about why you voted the way you did. As Hannan says:

"Two dozen MEPs making a series of one minute speeches hardly constitutes a filibuster. At worst, we would have kept MEPs from their lunch for half an hour and perhaps delayed the start of the afternoon session. But even this is intolerable to the parliamentary authorities. Blinded by their resentment of “anti-Europeans”, which is in turn a surrogate for the fear and contempt they feel for their own electorates, they have abandoned any pretence at legality in order to prevent us making our point in the chamber. The very sound of someone calling for a referendum is offensive to their guilty ears."

In response to this little display of democracy, Hans Gert-Pöttering wrote an extraordinary letter to the Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, a German Socialist, requesting permission to be able to stop such procedures at his discretion. He actually put it in writing! His request was duly rubber-stamped. You can understand Hannan's temptation to compare it to Hitler's 1933 Enabling Act which gave him the power to override the German parliament and constitution.

This morning in the European Parliament, there was a vote on the Committee's proposals to grant Gert-Pöttering these powers even though the proposals hadn't even been distributed to members. In criticising this, Hannan paraphrased the argument in his blog post, pointedly saying that "a majority is not the same as the rule of law." EPP leader Joseph Daul then stood up irately and declared that he wanted Hannan out of his Party, saying with an air of great concession that he had "no problem with you people calling for a referendum in Britain but I will not have you doing it on the Parliament floor as a member of the group".

Astonishingly, Christopher Beazley - a Conservative MEP - apparently berated Hannan just before speaking this morning, also threatening to call for the EPP to remove the Whip from him if he dared to stand up and criticise the undemocratic motion!

There is a process to go through to get Hannan kicked out, but it should be confirmed by the next Strasbourg session in two weeks. It should also be noted that the fact the Conservatives won't be getting a vote on his expulsion is a broken EPP promise. In the negotiations following the 2004 elections that led to the creation of EPP-ED the Conservatives were promised that they would have that right - but this of course was immediately reneged upon.

Whilst absolutely shameful, being outside of the EPP will be a blessing in disguise for Hannan. He said nothing that wasn't Conservative Party policy, indeed leaving the EPP isn't against Party policy, so he will retain the Tory Whip. This has been confirmed by Den Dover, the Conservative Whip who said he backed him and that as far as he was concerned Hannan was sitting as a Conservative and will be a Conservative candidate at the next election. He will, however, personally get the procedural and financial benefits of being outside of the EPP bloc, such as getting prime speaking slots in debates.

Just like Roger Helmer MEP did when he was kicked out of the grouping for daring to question the Commission President about corruption.

And just like the Conservatives will when they leave this undemocratic group. We can't leave it soon enough.

Related links: Polish Law & Justice Party looks set to bolster eurosceptic grouping and Dan Hannan gives seven reasons why we must leave the EPP

3pm update: Hannan has now blogged about being thrown out

5pm update: Click here to download a scan of Gert-Pöttering's letter to the Committee

Friday morning update: Roger Helmer MEP writes for ConservativeHome about life outside the EPP and Dan Hannan explains it all in the Telegraph

Comments

[Sally Roberts]

Serves him right - he's pushed all this to the limit and I think people are fed up with him (though not here of course!)

[Ay Up]

I can't think of a worse example of how the EU/EPP operate.
I thought I'd lost the ability to be shocked by them!
Good on Dan.

[John Broughton]

Dan tells the truth and the nazis prove his point.

Dan keep telling the truth and we may yet be saved from enslavement by the nazis in Brussels.

[Deputy Editor]

Sally - you cannot be serious!

[nigel syson]

Well done Dan ! You and Roger Helmer have done a good job exposing how corrupt the EU really is. It amazing that somebody can be expelled from a group for calling for a vote to be made in accordance with the rules! Another illustration , if one were needed, that Parliamentary Democray is incompatible with EU membership.

[Sally Roberts]

Oh believe me, Sam I am!

[Sally Roberts]

I am no more in favour of "dictatorships" than anyone else - but I think some of the behaviour that has gone on recently has been nothing short of infantile and it is my belief that there is more than one way of skinning a cat!
Adult behaviour would be taken more seriously.

[Struan Jamieson]

But Pottering is a Nazi. If I were Daniel, I'd be careful on or about June 30th.

As it is, the reneging by the EPP on the expulsion of a member being a breach of contract means that contract is null and void. Therefore, all Conservative MEPs should walk out this afternoon

[Andrew Woodman]

Well done Dan. Good to see a man sticking to his principles and fighting aginst the way this bunch operate.

[Bexie]

But the EU pork barrel is not a very serious place. It is full of self important people who know that rather than serving their constituents, a party list system means that they only have to keep in with the power brokers in their party.

IMHO well don to Dan for standing up to the Nazis and to the people who want him to "conform"

[James Burdett]

Sally - Well they sure took the adult behaviour of voting against their pet project very seriously, and blatantly disregarded it!

[Duncan]

This is very unfortunate as the tragedy is that our Centre Right sister parties in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia seem intent on remaining with the EPP rather than having the courage to join up with us to pursue a vision of a deregulated,decentralised EU focussing on issues such as trade, the environment and global development. Why all these parties appear intent in following the German CDU (who dominate the leadership of the EPP)into "ever closer Union" is beyond me.

I applaud Daniel's courage but sitting alone and isolated or with extremists is not a comfortable thought.

[Iain]

"but I think some of the behaviour that has gone on recently has been nothing short of infantile "

But when protest has been almost completely censored its some of these gestures which act as a thorn in the side of the establishment, irritating them, and in the response elicited you get a true picture of the situation. Here we see the EU establishment throwing its toys out of its pram, in a fit of rage and vindictiveness, which exposes them and their project for what it is, an anti democratic, authoritarian, totalitarian project which brooks no opposition.

Well done Dan, I hope the Conservative party stands by you!

[Simon Richards]

Dan is well rid of the constraints of the Eurofanatic EPP. Like Roger Helmer, he will continue to flourish without the dead hand of Pottering and his cronies. I suspect other Conservative MEPs will be keen to join him.

[Bill]

Well done Mr Hannan. We need another Cromwell
to sort out our own and the European parliament. Failing him, another Maggie would
do the job.

[Tim Roll-Pickering]

Have none of the people commenting on this thread heard of Godwin's Law? You're just undermining your own case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Well done to Daniel for taking a stand and I call upon all our MEPs to do likewise. If the EPP would rather stand for corruption than for democracy than it shouldn't be touched with a bargepole.

[Treacle]

Sally

"Serve him right?"

Elected by British Voters to speak on their behalf and silenced by a tinpot Kraut Gauleiter.

You don't have to be Eurosceptic to see that the EU is an intolerant, power mad centralising and corrupt bureaucratic nightmare where free speech is under assault.

Your patronising attitude to those who disagree with you is a typical example of the reason this issue is so poisonous in our party.

Shame on you

[passing leftie]

Anyone who compares the EU parliament with Nazi Germany is an idiot.

If this man wants a referendum he should get back to the UK and lobby for one. The EU Parliament doesn't have that power - only nation states do. That's how the EU works. He's taking the salary and expenses and holding up the process of the parliament in which he does not believe. Why isn't he in UKIP?

[Lindsay Jenkins]

Well done Dan indeed. First Roger Helmer and now you.

The man out on a limb is not Dan but David Cameron (and his 'yes men'). How much more of this nonsense is he going to put up with while humming and hawing about alliances with 'sister parties' in Europe.

Why is the Conservative Party supporting the EU at all? We can all see what the EU is.

Now let's get our precious freedom back - and keep our money into the bargain.

[Bill]

The EU is an intrinsically undemocratic illegitimate institution. It amazes me how anyone with any knowlege of British and European history can defend it. The British public only agreed to it because it was sold to them under false pretences as a simple free trade area and they were desparate to save the sick man of Europe which consecutive Tory and Labour governments had made us.

[powellite]

"He's taking the salary and expenses and holding up the process of the parliament in which he does not believe."

What's wrong with that, Passing leftie? Are you advocating a Sinn Fein approach to the European Parliament?

[HF]

What would the Conservatives lose by pulling out of the EPP now if they move against Hannan?

[passing leftie]

What's wrong with that, Passing leftie? Are you advocating a Sinn Fein approach to the European Parliament?

I'm suggesting that if he wants to campaign for a referendum, he should do it where the government actually has the power to make that decision.

The EU Parliament has little power at the moment, and it certainly can't force a referendum on nation states. It doesn't have the power to abolish or replace itself.

What he is doing is closer to the Sinn Fein approach than my suggestion.

[Andrew Woodman]

passing leftie, I'm sure Dan is regularly in the UK campaigning for a referendum as all our MEP's should be (Roger Helmer certainly is in the East Mids), and I have no problem with him taking the salary and expenses if he's using it to show up what a sham the European Parliament is.

As for being in UKIP, the man's a Conservative and fighting for Conservative principles. I'm just thankful we have people like him and Roger Helmer fighting our corner in Europe.

[Rod Sellers]

Well done 'Desperate Dan' - and desperation is the only way to feel about the Cancer that is the EU and a cancer that will eventually destroy European Co-operation - if we can wait that long.

Is Sally Roberts a real person ? - if so a complete list of her other ways of 'skinning this cat'would be a facinating read !!

[christina speight]

Sally Roberts - You didn't read in full what he wrote did you?

Good news indeed! But why are there troglodites like Christopher Beazley IN the Tory party still? You can tell him what you think of him on :- christopher.beazley@europarl.europa.eu. I have!

Not being in the EPP actually allows him more time to speak - not less as Helmer has shown.

Cameron was silly not to have kept his prom ise when he became leader and scotched this vicious and undemocratic German, Poettering. Look at the trouble he would have avoided.

[Serf]

Why is anyone in the least bit surprised. Whilst aknowledging Tim's point about Godwin's Law, it is fair to point out that freedom in the institutions of the EU only extends to those supporting the glorious revolution. Anti-revolutionaries are not tolerated. Those who make perfectly valid criticisms are seen as saboteurs.

In true marxist form, a man such as Dan Hannan who questions the very idea of EU, is so suspect that he is irrelevant. Leaving the EPP will be great, but nothing will really be achieved until we leave this sorry chapter of Kow Towing to unaccountable, illiberal, democracy hating Eurocrats.

[Roger Helmer]

Well done Dan. Two down, twenty-five to go!

[George Hinton]

Dan Hannan will become in time our martyr to the tyranny and despotism that is the EU and its Parliament.

[David Parker]

Passing Leftie,
That is, of course,exactly how the EU(by which I assume you mean the European Parliament) works!
Nasty things Referendums, you can't always be certain of getting the answer you want. But don't worry, if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the nation states wont be allowed referendums either; nor, for that matter, will national parliaments be able to vote upon future EU treaty amendments, however draconian.
Sally Roberts,
I am sure that you are an animal lover, really, but just how else would you propose to skin this particular cat?

[passing leftie]

Nasty things Referendums, you can't always be certain of getting the answer you want. But don't worry, if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, the nation states wont be allowed referendums either; nor, for that matter, will national parliaments be able to vote upon future EU treaty amendments, however draconian.

Do point me at the clause in the treaty which states these positions.

[Richard]

Dan is a bright and very articulate politician; he is a credit to our party.

I hope soon that Dan and Roger will be joined by other sound Tory MEPs and that soon the whole party will be out of the EPP-ED.

As for the behavior of the likes of Christopher Beazley, I hope the Chief Whip and leader in Brussels give him a thorough dressing down as it is the least he deserves!

[Gospel of Enoch]

The problem is not with the principle of Tories withdrawing from the EPP. The problem is with Camerloon putting it into practise - "in months, not years" - his words!

[Philip Porter]

There are two inaccuracies in your report and especially its title: “Dan Hannan to be kicked out of the EPP for highlighting despotism in the European Parliament”

1) You wrote EPP but that is incorrect. Dan and the rest of the Conservative MEPs are actually members of the EPP-ED (European People’s Party - European Democrats) coalition in the European Parliament.

However, they are not members of the Europhile EPP half of the EPP/ED coalition - but rather of the Eurosceptic ED half of the EPP/ED coalition

Dan and his ilk will never admit to this because it would take the wind out of the sails of their call for the Conservatives to take the ED out of its coalition with the EPP.

To find out more about the ED agenda, check out their website:
http://www.epp-ed.org/europeandemocrats/

You will notice that it says that “The ED is expressly committed to democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law, national sovereignty, free enterprise, minimal regulation, low taxation, private ownership, respect and security for every individual and a strong transatlantic alliance.”

One would therefore have thought Dan and co. would be quite happy with this and be quite happy for the ED to remain in coalition with the EPP (given the fact that in practice the British Conservatives and the rest of the ED actually vote the same way as the EPP in the vast majority of votes in the EP). Apparently, however, Dan prefers to split the Right in the European Parliament - despite the fact that he knows that the real winners from such a split will be the Socialists and Liberals. It all begins to smack of Labour in the early 1980s. Dan seems to be the Conservatives’ answer to Derek Hatton (interesting coincidence their sharing the same initials …) and the Militant Tendency.

2) M. Daul (head of the EPP/ED did indeed say that he would move to have Dan expelled from the EPP/ED. However, he did not do so because Dan had been ‘highlighting despotism in the European Parliament’ (as your report suggests) - but rather because (as your report completely omits to mention), he insulted Hans-Gert Pöttering by comparing his proposal with the 1933 Ermächtigungsgesetz.

To see how insulting this is, look no further than Dan Hannan’s own blog:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/danielhannan/jan08/despotisminparliament.htm

There Dan himself concedes that such a comparison is indeed offensive:

“I am almost tempted to compare it to the Nazi Ermächtigungsgesetz – the Enabling Act of 1933 which allowed Hitler to override parliament and the constitution. But I won’t because a) it would be disproportionate and b) it would be terrifically rude to Hans-Gert, who lost his father in the war and who, for all that he is behaving appallingly on this occasion, is a decent man and a democrat.”

…

So, if Dan is to be expelled from the EPP/ED, it is because of his own spectacular lack of judgement and courtesy. There really is no need for this sort of abuse. It would be good for Dan if he was to follow the Golden Rule - do unto others that which you would wish them to do unto you.

…

I was watching the EP online when this incident took place. Dan Hannan and Nigel Farage were working so hand in glove on this point that it makes me wonder (yet again) why Dan does not simply leave the Conservative party and join UKIP (presumably he wants to be a Westminster MP one day ?)

philip_porter25@hotmail.com

[Sean Fear]

"He's taking the salary and expenses and holding up the process of the parliament in which he does not believe."

That is what his voters want him to do.

This is excellent news, though. It demonstrates quite clearly that we have nothing in common with the leaders of the EPP.

[Chris Palmer]

Of course Sally Roberts is serious, Sam - but then Sally Roberts is not a serious person. She is a joke. She thinks that everyone who is not a 'genuine' Conservative in her eyes should just shut up and go away.

As for Dan, this shows what happens if you stand up for what you believe in the supposedly 'democratic' EU.

[Adolf Hitler]

Ich kann in dieser Stunde dem deutschen Volke die größte Vollzugsmeldung meines Lebens abstatten: Als Führer und Kanzler der deutschen Nation und des Reichs melde ich vor der Geschichte nunmehr den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich!

[Sean Fear]

Philip Porter, you haven't actually made a very strong case against what Hannan is saying.

[Sean Fear]

Given that Hannan was comfortably reselected, it would appear that the Conservative Party as a whole shares his sentiments.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Like Sally, I think Hannan deserved it. He was not sent to the European Parliament to play childish games designed to appeal to the hard-right. Sensible MEPs should up their campaign to stay with our friends in the EPP. Should we align ourselves to fascists, e.g. Poland’s L&J Party, I for one will have to think twice before voting, let alone campaigning, for the Tory Party.

[Adolf Hitler]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

[Mike A]

PERSONAL ABUSE OVERWRITTEN.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Brilliant contribution, Philip Porter.

[Sean Fear]

Justin,

It would appear that his Regional Selection Committee disagree with you.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

There is still a very nasty element operating in our party, Sean.

[Deputy Editor]

Philip, thanks for your reasoned comments.

I don't accept your points however. It is perhaps more specific to say EPP-ED but in reality you know that doesn't mean a great deal. People of all persuasions use the EPP as shorthand, Caroline Jackson did on this website when arguing against leaving it, for example.

Regarding Daul's reason for kicking Dan out... It was not simply because of talking about "Ermächtigungsgesetz" - which as you must know is just the German phrase for the 1933 Enabling Act that I referred to!

Dan has just given his account of the episode on his blog:

I made a point of order to protest. An electoral majority, I said, could not over-rule a constitution. Majority or no, the Parliament still had to follow its own rule book. To do otherwise would be to replace the rule of law with arbitrary government.
I repeated the point I made in this blog last week: that the 1933 Enabling Act had had a technical majority in the Reichstag, but that it opened the door to unconstitutional rule. Whatever else MEPs are, they are not Nazis: many of them have proud records of fighting totalitarianism throughout the world. That is why it was so disappointing to see them resorting to this appalling measure in order to silence dissent.

As I sat down, the EPP leader, Joseph Daul, sprang to his feet and announced that he wanted me thrown out of the group. He had lost patience with my filibustering, he said. Enough was enough.

I spoke to him afterwards. I hoped, I said, that he wasn’t taking any of this personally. But I understood why he wanted to exclude me. There was, I suggested, an ideological difference between us. “Not a difference, an incompatibility”, he snapped, adding: “I don’t are if you call for a referendum in the United Kingdom. But I won’t have you doing it from the floor of the European Parliament as a member of my Group.”

Fair enough. It is, as I have always maintained, better for us to be friendly neighbours to the EPP than grudging tenants.

I'd rather some of the earlier commenters didn't use the word Nazi in the way they did, but to compare a policy to one instituted by Nazis is not offensive in itself, it could maybe be willfully interpreted as such but no reasoned person would say that Dan was equating anyone with Nazis as people.

[Bill]

I appreciate some people may (naively IMO) believe in world government. I similarly understand others (again naively IMO) believe in a fully unified Europe (perhaps as a first step to world government). The majority of us want neither. As such we must be grateful for the likes of Mr Hannan and all others who are prepared to speak out against the EU and its undemocratic and illiberal project.

[Paul Oakley]

Well done to Dan for speaking out. I'm sure he won't be losing any sleep about the federasts' response.

This merely unlines the fact that Britain has no influence whatsoever on the direction of the EU leviathan.

Better Off Out.

[Oliver Arthurs]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

[Anon]

Justin, you think it is OK for Dan to be expelled. Some would say it is within the rules of the party to expel a party chairman for suggesting they may vote for another party?

Neither sounds too democratic does it?