By Martha Moss - 27th January 2010
I regret that we have to leave the EPP but accept that we have to do as the leadership wants
Sir Simon Day
The British Conservative delegation in the Committee of the Regions (CoR) has been ordered by UK party chiefs to leave the assembly's mainstream EPP grouping.
The decision to opt out from the CoR's centre-right grouping follows party leader David Cameron's controversial decision to remove Tory MEPs from the European parliament's EPP group - the assembly's biggest political alliance - in June last year to forge the controversial European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
Conservative CoR councillors had been negotiating a deal to remain in the EPP, but the party confirmed on Tuesday that the national leadership had ordered British delegation leader Gordon Keymer to quit the group.
A Tory spokesman confirmed, "The British Conservative CoR group will be working independently of the EPP CoR group."
The exact number of Conservatives in the UK CoR delegation is unclear, as the CoR looks to begin a new mandate over the coming weeks.
But the spokesman added that Conservative members would form the largest party in the UK CoR delegation in the new mandate.
"We shall continue to ensure that the interests of local government in the UK are strongly represented at EU level," he said.
A CoR source told this website that it was important for the Tories to find a new group if they wanted to avoid being "left out in the cold".
Failing to find a new group would leave members with non-attached status, unable to secure rapporteurships and without any speaking time.
"The real fear is that you need to be part of a group to have any influence in the CoR," the source added.
"The very fact that Gordon Keymer spent six months trying to head this thing off would suggest that it's going to be difficult to form another group."
Keymer, a member of Tandridge district council near London, has previously acknowledged that it is difficult to work effectively in the CoR outside of a political group and is now expected to begin talks on forming a branch of the ECR in the CoR.
"If you do not belong to a political group in the CoR you are in a very difficult position," Keymer said in December.
Keymer is well respected member within the regional assembly, with one insider calling him a "moderate, reasonable and pragmatic person" who would find it "tough on the outside".
However, his Conservative colleague in the CoR, Sir Simon Day, who has been with the regional assembly for 15 years, said he was "sure" that the UK Tories would form a new group.
"I regret that we have to leave the EPP but accept that we have to do as the leadership wants," he told TheParliament.com.
"In all fairness having told MEPs to withdraw from the EPP it was more than likely."
One option for the Tories could be to join with members from the UEN - which has been struggling to form a new group in the CoR since members from Ireland's Fianna Fail left to join ALDE after June's European elections.
Asked whether an ECR-UEN alliance was likely, Day said, "Anything's up for grabs at the moment. Gordon Keymer is doing his best to enlarge with the UEN."
