Conservatives under Cameron have made it known that they would like to sit in a political grouping of some sort outside the EPP – but is it feasible and realistic?
Margarida Vasconcelos has written an interesting piece for the August issue of The European Journal which covers the problem. It is argued that from 2009 it will be much more difficult to create a political group at the European Parliament. The rules have changed. Recently, the European Parliament voted to increase the threshold to create a political group. Presently, to form a political group, 20 members representing at least one fifth of the Member States (6 countries) are needed. The European Parliament has agreed to change its rules of procedure to increase the threshold to 25 MEPs (3.3 per cent of total membership), representing at least one quarter of the Member States (7 Member States).
Already, the survival of the Independence/Democracy Group is at threat at the next European elections as it presently has 22 members. Moreover, the Europe of the Nations (UEN) group has 44 members but they represent 6 Member States therefore it might fail to meet the member state threshold in the next elections.
More to the point, however, the Conservatives’ Movement for European Reform which is presently supported only by the Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and the Bulgarian Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) must definitely find more support as presently a political group is composed of MEPs elected from at least six Member States and from 2009, it would be required, under the threshold, to have a quarter – which means seven Member States. Wouldn’t it be potentially embarrassing for the Conservative Party to initiate their EP plan only to watch it fail at the first hurdle?