EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: BRITISH TORIES SET TO LEAVE EPP AS LEADER REFUSES NEW DEAL.

Hans-Gert Pottering, President of the EPP-ED group, told a press conference in Brussels on January 12: "As long as I am Chairman (of the group) there is no possibility to negotiate". He was responding to a question about whether the 27-member British Conservative delegation would remain within the group following repeated statements by the new Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, that he would withdraw his members. There has been speculation that Mr Cameron, through his shadow foreign minister and party leader William Hague, would renegotiate terms for remaining within the EPP-ED. One possibility being suggested would be for Tory MEPs to reduce the amount of funds they pay into the group from their individual information budgets.

But Mr Pottering ruled out any further negotiations, saying that his group would not contemplate any new concessions. He pointed out that the group had changed its statute to allow the Tories to take different positions to other delegations on institutional and constitutional matters. "We have done everything we could (to keep the British Conservatives in the group)", he said.

Despite the apparent inevitability of the Tories quitting the group, Mr Pottering still said he was "optimistic" that they would stay with the EPP-ED.

Eurosceptics leading the drive to form new group.

A pledge to quit the group was one of the first policies announced by the Conservative Party's leader, David Cameron, when he was elected in December 2005. Moves to leave the EPP-ED have been led by a group of hardcore Eurosceptic Tories MEPs including Daniel Hannan, Chris Heaton-Harris and Roger Helmer, known as the "H-blockers". Mr Hannan is believed to have convinced David Cameron that if the Tories quit the EPP-ED they would be able to form a new Eurosceptic, pro-free market group of around 70 MEPs. This would be the fourth...