The European Conservatives and Reformists Group: 'May Contain Nuts'?

Dr Tim Bale, a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sussex has just released a new paper entitled ''May Contain Nuts'? The Reality behind the Rhetoric Surrounding the British Conservatives’ New Group in the European Parliament'. 

 

Broadly speaking, Dr Bale's piece is a fair one which does a good job of dismissing many of the radical falsehoods about the party's new partners which have been spread by the British political left in recent months.  Similarly, his overall conclusion is a sound one; that the group is comprised of moderate and mainstream parties who share the Conservative Party's commitment to deregulation, Atlanticism and constructive reform of the European Union.

I do, however, take issue with a few of the points contained in the document which I'll address in turn. 

 

I quote from Dr Bale's article:

"Much of the criticism originates from the suspicion that the refusal of other centre-right parties in Europe to countenance leaving the EPP has forced the Conservatives into an alliance with partners with whom they have—or at least should have—little in common"

This is a highly questionable assertion, the validity of which is largely predicated on how you personally view the political positions of the EPP's members.  The description of the EPP as being the European Parliament's "centre right" grouping is largely one which has been cultivated by British MEPs favourable to the continuation of the party's membership of the alliance and our opponents on the political left.  The EPP describes itself as the “political centre of Europe” and strongly emphasizes the importance of the “social market economy” in policy making. 

 

In contrast, the Conservative Party’s new allies in the ECR group – particularly those from the Czech Civic Democrats, Hungarian Democratic Forum and Belgian Lijst Dedecker – eschew such centre-left concepts, focusing on free market values and deregulation in policy making. 

 

The ODS and Law and Justice (PiS) parties, for example, shared the Conservatives’ pro-business approach to the REACH chemicals directive for 93.8 per cent and 87.7 per cent of the time, respectively, in the last session of Parliament. On the issue of the Services Directive - a significant step towards enhancing cross-border competition policy that was steered through the European Parliament by Tory MEP Malcolm Harbour - the ODS and PiS shared the party’s liberalising position 88.2 per cent and 78.5 per cent of the time, respectively.

 

Other partners such as the Latvian Fatherland and Freedom party describe their economic outlook as ‘modelled on Margaret Thatcher's’, while Hungarian Democratic Forum’s MEP Lajos Bokros was responsible for the austerity measures which many credit with salvaging his country’s economy in the mid-1990s.

“Some commentators have suggested that leaving the much larger EPP–ED for the much smaller ECR will both reduce the Conservatives’ ability to influence EU legislation and confirm fears that they will once again decide to play the role of ‘the spoilers, the naysayers, the foot-draggers of Europe”

Yes, this criticism has been made – but it is a hollow one.  

 

As seasoned European Parliament-watchers will know, many of the Parliament’s more important votes – such as to amend or reject the common position of the Council of Ministers – are taken on the basis of an absolute majority, requiring the support of 369 of the chamber’s 736 MEPs in order to become law.

 

Having always operated on a ‘coalition’ basis, the 2009- to-2014 session has the potential to be different – potentially providing the Parliament with its first genuine centre-right ‘government’.  Whether or not this will happen depends upon the will of the ECRG. The ECRG has the power to either grant or deny the EPP and ALDE groups an absolute majority of 369 in closely-contested votes. The ‘coalition’ can operate as follows:

• EPP (264)
  plus ALDE (84),
  plus ECRG (54)
  
  = 402 votes

As a case in point, the Conservatives provided the votes needed to reconfirm the pro-market José Manuel Barroso to a second term as European Commission President – proving just how crucial the group’s votes are.

“We are reminded (in the same article) that during its time in government, Law and Justice ‘formed a coalition with extremists and ultra-nationalists, conducted witch hunts of opponents, pursued deeply illiberal policies and was turfed out of office as a national embarrassment’”

Dr Bale appears, through this comment, to be drawing on a widely-discredited and hugely-biased Guardian article.  The Law and Justice governments led by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and later Jaroslaw Kaczyński are widely noted in Poland for their commitment to free-market reforms and moderate social agenda.  As such, the party continues to hold widespread popularity as the country’s second largest political force and main party of opposition. 

 

A moderate Catholic party, Law and Justice’s presence in Polish politics has actually brought about the near-extermination of nationalist fringe parties such as League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin) and Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej).   

 

Law and Justice has been a moderating, modernizing force in Polish politics – and will continue to be.

 

"They are also, it is noted, led by a politician, Miroslav Topolanek, now famous not so much for being unable to hold his governing coalition together during his country’s six-month presidency of the EU, but for being photographed ‘naked and excited’ (as one paper put it) at a poolside party hosted by Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi."

 

And to which group in the European Parliament are Silvio Berlusconi’s MEPs aligned?  The EPP.  This is a silly and rather empty point.

"Latvia's Fatherland and Freedom Party... its alleged support  for veterans who joined Latvian units of Hitler’s Waffen-SS”

 This point has been articulately and definitively dealt with by Roberts Zile MEP, the party’s leader.

 “The Dutch ChristenUnie had been accused of being anti-women because the fundamentalist Calvinism”

It’s wrong to see the ChristienUnie as a unitary political party as it is in fact an electoral alliance of small Christian parties.  While it is true that one of the more religious-orthodox components of the ChristenUnie do indeed hold this position, the MEP representing this faction of the party (Bastiaan Belder of the Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij) was not admitted to the European Conservative and Reformist Groups and instead sits with UKIP in the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.

“A large number [of Law and Justice activists]  would argue that their opposition to, say, ‘civil partnerships’ and gay adoption does not constitute homophobia, but represents a legitimate position on moralcultural issues that conservatives have long felt strongly about”.

Poland is a considerably more religious and conservative country than the United Kingdom and as such these positions on social issues are easily explainable – and should not be seen as being based on prejudice.  Michał Tomasz Kamiński, the leader of the ECR group in the European Parliament has already confirmed to Iain Dale that he would be happy to attend the party’s ‘Conference Pride’ event next year.

“[The Hungarian Democratic Forum] seems to have plumped for the ECR largely in order to boost its claim to an ideological and political identity distinct from Hungary’s dominant centre-right party, Fidesz”

To describe Fidesz as “centre-right” portrays a lack of knowledge of Hungarian politics.  Indeed, the Hungarian Socialist Party who sit with the British Labour Party in the European Parliament are widely considered to be a more natural home for free-marketeers than Fidesz who have in the recent past advocated price controls and vast public sector wage hikes.  Dr Lajos Bokros, the country’s former Finance Minister and an avowed supporter of the free market, has publicly declared that his decision to leave the EPP was born of the group’s left-of-centre agenda, not as the result of internal Hungarian political squabbles.

 

I would recommend taking a look at Dr Bale’s complete article. 

 

It is a measured and mature piece which at least attempts to give the ECRG a fair hearing - something for which we Conservatives can be grateful.