Tag: conservative party

Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, whatever the other distractions of their premierships, were keen followers of the European debate. Only Gordon Brown, in the terminal stages of his decay, can be accused of such a lack of interest in matters European. David Cameron is in a league of his own, writes Tom Spencer.

Although the British Conservative Party is openly critical of some aspects of the European Union, it has nevertheless made Europe free, stable and prosperous and its member states must now focus on issues such as climate change, poverty and energy security, writes William Hague, the UK's new foreign secretary, in a commentary for Europe's World.

The conservative group is hoping that Czech President Václav Klaus and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski will not sign their Lisbon Treaty ratifications, preventing the EU's reform treaty from entering into force until the UK Tories have come into power next spring, Geoffrey van Orden, a leading Conservative MEP, told EurActiv in an interview.

British Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott won a vice-presidency position in the European Parliament yesterday (14 July), infuriating his political group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which had nominated a Pole, Michal Tomasz Kaminski, as their favourite.

Creating new jobs and greening the economy will be among the key campaign messages of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) for the EU elections next June, party leader Wilfried Martens said at the presentation of the EPP election manifesto on Friday (30 January).

The UK Conservatives will increase their majority over Labour in June's European elections, and will abide by party leader David Cameron's decision on whether to pull the party out of the centre-right EPP-ED group after the ballot, Timothy Kirkhope MEP, leader of the Conservative delegation to the European Parliament, told EurActiv in an interview.