The saga of the Tories leaving the EPP Group (or not) shows no sign of abating. Interestingly, discussions were held last night between British pro-European MEPs from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. Where will this all lead? Then I noticed that there were no Tory or UKIP MEPs present in the chamber this morning when a British Minister presented the budget on behalf of the Council Presidency. (Were they all out plotting a merger?)

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with some more quotes from Conservative MEPs, showing what they think of David Cameron’s plan to force them out of the EPP Group.

“We would… find ourselves in the company of The League of Polish Families (racist and Europhobic), the Danish People’s Party (Ian Duncan Smith banned us from even talking to them!), the Italian Fascist Party, and of course UKIP. This is a pretty much unappealing ragbag of fringe politicians and I, and the great majority of my Conservative colleagues, view that prospect with great distaste.”
(The Rt. Hon Sir Robert Atkins MEP, Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in Europe, in letter to Conservative colleagues, 19 October 2005)

“Leaving the EPP won’t speed up a solution. It would simply slow it down. David Cameron – assuming it is David – has said he is the unity candidate. I just do not believe he will wish to create disunity on his first day, simply to appease a very vocal minority. “I would not move. I think a large number of us would not move, for a very simple reason. We have made a clear manifesto commitment, which each of us had to sign, that we would stay for the duration of this parliament.”
(Philip Bushell-Matthews, Tory MEP, on BBC Radio 4 Today programme, 6 December 2005)

“We would have to sit around the table on a weekly basis with these fascists and nutters that nobody else will sit with. I tell you now that I refuse to do that. I don’t care who’s ordering me to do that. I won’t come back and stand for election as a Conservative in Scotland when I’m sitting in a group with Le Pen”
(Scottish Tory MEP Struan Stevenson in the Sunday Herald, 11 December 2005)

“Of course we do benefit from being members of a large group… The centre-right is where we want to be politically”
(Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the Tory MEPs, in the FT, 13 December 2005)

“I have no intention, after 30 years of elected service to the Tory party, of breaking my word and leaving the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament. If ordered to leave the EPP-ED, which I was recommended to join by Margaret Thatcher and Chancellor Kohl, I shall ignore any such instruction, which would be in breach of Parliament’s rules on the independence of elected members.”
(Christopher Beazley, Tory MEP, in the Telegraph, 13 December 2005)

“The Cameron strategy ignores the fact that MEPs make European laws – are these laws of 'second order' importance? Working with the EPP we can win crucial votes. We will be a lot less use to those we represent, lined up only with assorted Estonian Rightists and Slovenian Woolgathers… Oddly, he seems not to understand."

and

"God knows who his alternative allies are. Aides are said to be shaking the hedges of Eastern Europe: so far the only possibilities may be Polish and Czech peasant nationalists, three eccentric Swedes, a French protectionist Eurosceptic, and two MEPs from the Netherlands' extreme Christian party, which wants to stop Sunday bicycle riding. Mr Cameron has vowed to work with the government in the British national interest how can he do so as part of this barmy army?"

and

"If Mr Cameron does withdraw the British Conservatives from their alliance with the EPP, I am certain that he will be back again in a few years, trying to negotiate re-admission. So whatever happens I intend staying with the EPP to keep the place warm for my party when it returns to its senses."
(Caroline Jackson MEP, in the Times, 14 December 2005)

"I can't believe that a leader of the Conservative Party would seriously contemplate breaking the last remaining international link that the party enjoys… The alternatives [to EPP membership] are frankly barking."
(Edward Macmillan Scott, Tory MEP, in the Daily Mail, 9 December 2005)

And it's not just MEPs:

"Some of our really hardline people apparently have persuaded him that he must break ranks and leave all these Christian Democrats and Scandinavian Conservatives and Gaullists and start walzing off, looking among the ultra-nationalist right in central Europe. …What a pity to insist on finding some new, slightly head-banging… eurosceptic position to take up as his first act in the leadership"
(Ken Clarke, on the BBC Politics Show, 11 December 2005)

January 2006 - update: Some more quotes. First, from the Tory election manifesto for the 2004 European elections:

During the 1999-2004 Session we were allied members of the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED). This agreement means that Conservative MEPs will remain allied members of the EPP-ED parliamentary group for the duration of the 2004-2009 legislature. It provides us with a powerful platform to promote our distinctive vision of Europe, while at the same time allowing us to work constructively with all parties of the European centre-right against the threat posed by the Left in the European Parliament."
(Conservatives European election manifesto, June 2004) (pdf)

"Simply by following our manifesto commitment, the party is now telling us we are de-selecting ourselves. This is driven by an extreme minority group within the Conservative delegation who are more interested in leaving Europe than leaving the EPP."
(Edward McMillan Scott, Tory MEP, in the Telegraph, January 2006)

"I urge David Cameron not to encourage colleagues to break such a clear pledge, not to weaken our ability to deliver our manifesto commitments, and not to create new splits over Europe when he should be uniting our party to replace the present Government."
(Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP, in the Birmingham Evening Post, 1 November 2005) (not available online)

"I know some Daily Telegraph readers are concerned about our alliance with the European People's Party. But the most eurosceptic political party in the EU - the Czech ODS, led by President Vaclav Klaus - is a member, too. Like Mr Klaus, I believe in fighting for change from within Europe."
(Michael Howard, in the Telegraph, June 2004)

"Our sole guide [to our actions] is the Conservative Manifesto on which we were elected and our Leadership decides absolutely and without external pressures of any sort how Tory MEPs will operate."
(The Rt. Hon Sir Robert Atkins MEP, Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in Europe, in letter to Conservative colleagues, 19 October 2005)

"I simply cannot afford to have my political opponents in the House of Commons suggesting that I am isolated from the mainstream Conservative parties on the continent of Europe"
(William Hague in 1999)

"It would be a political mistake. You are either in one of the two biggest groups or out in the cold."
(Inigo Mendez de Vigo, senior MEP from the Spanish Conservative 'Partido Popular')

"Withdrawing from the EPP in the European Parliament would I think be a very curious thing to do, because if we withdraw from that group, where do we sit? Do we sit in splendid isolation? That's not a way to exercise leverage and have an effect on events in life. Or do we sit with the barmy-army of obscure right-wing continental politicians in the European Parliament?"
(Quentin Davies MP, Politics Show, 30 October 2005)