EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: DISQUIET WITHIN THE EPP GROUP.

The revision of the EPP's Rules of Procedure is designed to ensure the group is properly adapted to the entry, following the European Parliament elections on June 13, of MEPs from the new EU Member States, and to guarantee the participation as associate members of Conservative MEPs for the next five years. "The changes we have agreed mean that the Group is now prepared for EU enlargement and the challenges we will face after the European elections in June", Hans-Gert Pottering said following the vote in Strasbourg. He stressed that the Group's principles and European policy goals were still explicitly set out in the Group's Rules, Article 4b specifying that members "act on the basis of the Community model within the EU, the define their values and aims in line with the current European People's Party election programme, and in accordance with principles such as freedom and democracy, as well as the rule of law, human rights, and subsidiarity".

The irritation of a number of EPP MEPs, particularly French UMP and UDF members, has been apparent over recent weeks regarding suggestions that in order to keep Britain's Conservatives on board, Mr Pottering had agreed to leave them greater political latitude. He explained that the Group remains committed to accepting "politically close" Members not elected on the list of one or other of the EPP member parties and said the ED section has the right to "develop and promote its own positions on constitutional and institutional issues", which is already the case in the current legislative period.

Faced with an agreement denounced by some as above all reflecting the German Christian Democrat's ambitions to lead the European Parliament's largest political group, and by extension the group securing the most funding, some MEPs went so far as to threaten to defect. The vote on March 31 provided these MEPs with an opportunity to publicly vent their discontent and disquiet.

In a joint statement, Guido Bodrato...