Party to set up joint policy groups with the CDU-CSU

Three weeks ago we asked when Merkel and Cameron would meet after they missed an opportunity to do so. The answer is today, in Berlin, and it sounds like they got on encouragingly well.

Cameron talked to her about our policy review process and they've agreed to set up several joint working groups on issues like climate change, counter-terrorism and economic competitiveness.

Politicians from both sides will start meeting eachother more, starting with a discussion in London between Cameron and Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble on counter-terrorism.

Cameron congratulated Merkel on disrupting the terror plot last week and agreed to make a speech to her party's parliamentarians on security issues in late October. They also discussed how centre-right parties can work together, a favourite theme of this site.

Deputy Editor

Comments

[Moral minority]

So we are not leaving the EPP!

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Let's hope this means we do not leave the EPP after all.

[Andrew Woodman]

Lib Dems call for a referendum on staying in the EU and Cameron setting up policy groups with EPP members. We live in strange and dangerous times.

(I know i'm twisting the points but there's a lot of strange stuff going on at the moment)

[Mill Point]

Glad to see that Merkel has overcome her apparently petulent and entirely unreasonable reluctance to see DC due to his EPP policy. This will also stuff Labour's dismal line of attack on DC's supposed lack of diplomatic traction in Europe. Both to be welcomed, as is the substance of the meeting.

[Traditional Tory]

So she's now quite happy about the fact that the Tories will be leaving the EPP, is she?

Or does she know something we don't?

[TomTom]

Great ! Schauble wants police to plant trojans on PCs so they can be scanned for suspicious documents....and although a very intelligent man has gone a bit OTT on some of his recent proposals

[Sam S]

Well Done to Cameron. A very good idea to share policy groups. Perhaps we could learn a lesson or two about manufacturing from the world's largest exporter.

[Tony Makara]

TomTom, I agree with you that Schauble is taking state interference in Germany too far. I believe Schauble has been trying to cultivate an image of himself as a hard-man for some time. On the subject of David Cameron meeting Angela Merkel, well I'm always pleased to see David building friendships, however as you say David Cameron shouldn't take on any suggestions from Schauble, he sees the world in black and white and believes problems can only be solved with overkill.

[TomTom]

Perhaps we could learn a lesson or two about manufacturing from the world's largest exporter.

Forecast to be superseded by China in 2008......I doubt the CDU knows anything about business or exporting - it is probably looking at the Conservative Party as its future......the main parties in Germany are suffering huge collapse in membership drifting to smaller parties

[Radical Tory]

Cameron is trying to look the statesman. He's taking on Brown's strongest plus and so he'll lose. Its ambitious but ultimately foolish. It must be worrying for the Cameroons that he's getting this desperate.

[William Hawthorn]

Nothing new about tie-ups with the CDU-CSU or other federalist groups.

Tory delegates are members of the European People's Party within the EU Committee of Regions. Conservative Future recently affiliated to the EDS, the EPP youth wing.

And there is regular bonhomie between Conservative and CDU politicians at the Cadenabbia residence of Konrad Adenauer - the next one's on 12th October.

[Ashton]

just because we're talking to the CDU-CSU again doesn't mean we're not leaving the EPP. it just means merkel has grown up, and knows you don't have to have the same euro-federalist views to talk about important issues. Nations working togethor, whether that be the EU or bi-partisan agreements, will get solutions to the questions posed by these commendable policy committees

[Realism]

"Nations working together", "commendable policy groups".

Come off it. UKIP here I come.

[Anne Palmer]

If ever there was 'A Plot, which I doubt very much for no politician seems to look far enough ahead to hatch one, without doubt, this guy would definitely 'lose it'.

[Fiona]

You're all very cynical about this... Look at the areas that they will set up policy groups on: climate change, counter-terrorism and economic competitiveness.

Those are the areas that the Movement for European Reform has outlined as their priorities for the EU.

[Sally Roberts]

William Hawthorn - you are absolutely right and it is something which is very much to be welcomed!

[James Maskell]

"You're all very cynical about this"

Force of habit I suspect...

[Simon Denis]

Whether or not Mr Cameron does pull the tories from the EPP, the fact remains: he promised that he would.

Yes, the international right must coordinate its efforts. Where those efforts are contradictory, however, we should split. There is the Euro-right - descended from the Catholic Centre parties and there is the Anglo-Saxon right - ultimately classical liberal.

The two traditions are at loggerheads over the role and the nature of the market. This emerges with crystal clarity whenever we discuss the green agenda. The rhineland papists can't wait to restrict economic activity in the name of "conservation". We, the classical liberals, view this as moralising nonsense. It is based, moreover, on an analysis not dissimilar to Luddism.

We should have listened to de Gaulle and stuck with the Anglo-sphere. It is not too late; all the relevant countries are still there.

[Traditional Tory]

Nothing new about tie-ups with the CDU-CSU or other federalist groups.

Years ago, at a YC conference, I was signed up as a Young European Federalist and given a nice badge to wear.

I only joined because it was free, and there was loads of complimentary booze and food on offer.

It would be interesting to know whether this obviously well-funded organisation is still in existence and whether it retains links with the Conservative Party.

[TomTom]

The rhineland papists can't wait to restrict economic activity in the name of "conservation".

Sorry Simon you are way out of date.....Angela Merkel is a Protestant; the Leader of the CSU in Bavaria, Guenther Beckstein is a Protestant....the Catholic parties are not really Catholic at all any more, just a different shade of Social Democrat.....Kohl destroyed the CDU with his cheque-for-every-problem approach and it is an SPD Finance Minister who is more hardline than the CDU and who berated Sarkozy for gate-crashing an EU Finance Ministers meeting and trying to circumvent the ECB

The only similarity with the CDU the Conservatives have is that a) membership is in meltdown and b) the voters are running away or staying home

[Anne Palmer]

If what the majority of people want is to remain IN the EU, then we should and must dissolve our parliament and Government and make the European Union's Regions work for us. This would really bring democracy down to the people because certainly democracy is not working for any British citizen at present. The British people are being ignored by their elected and paid for-by YOU-MP's. If this is what Conservatives want, then so be it. However, there is absolutely no way back to an independent (which you obviously do not want) sovereign (which you obviously do not want), Country. (which. once again you obviously do not want). Be happy with the EU Regions then. For information on the Regions, get the latest on European Union Regional Policy. A remarkable and most interesting read.

[Traditional Tory]

It was 'Rhineland Papists', in particular Adenauer, who were able to resore stability and decency to Germany after the fall of Hitler, so I don't think we should dismiss them in such derogatory terms.

What we do have to recognise - as British Conservatives of the 1960s and '70s often totally failed to recognise - is that their traditions and priorities are often very different from ours, and frequently the two are in conflict.

[Tony Makara]

TomTom, I must say your knowledge of the German political scene is very comprehensive. The scene in Germany appears to becoming more fragmented. From what I've seen of Merkel I don't rate her, she always seems eager to milk every half-positive headline rather being aloof as a head of state should.

[George Hinton]

I trust that DC will be giving her a hard time about dragging the EU Constitution, sorry Treaty, out of its grave and foisting it on everybody in the most shabbiest of fashions. Underhand, Secretive and downright Mendacious.
DC should not be cuddling up to this woman, she is deceitful and what is more, does not have to bother with the necessity of a referendum, as they are banned under the German Constitution.
He can also tell her that he has a deadline for exiting the EPP, end September.
DC has plenty of fence building to do in the UK, he has no mandate to go running around Europe meeting these corrupt, autarchic, didactic, thieves and liars that run the EuroSoviets.

[nony with nouse]

Just preparing the ground for the Pan-European parties in line with what the E.U. wants...........

[John Moss]

Can we have their healthcare system please.

[Ashton Cull]

anybody who rejects the ideas of bi-lateral co-operation with european partners and sees Britain existing in sweet isolation away from the world, or perhaps nestled in to the US as the 51st state, is at most misguided, at least supremely arrogant, and is destined to see Britain fail if their world view was a reality

[Paul Spencer]

Well said George Hinton. I lived in Germany for many years and have famuly there and believe me the average Gereman is just as sick of this corrupt political paradise (E.U.) as we are in England.