THE United Kingdom Independence Party agreed with eurosceptic parties from other countries yesterday to form a unified group in the European Parliament to help to block legislation and to win EU funding and staff.
After a day of talks in Brussels, UKIP anticipates a group with 40 MEPs, double the size of the last parliament’s eurosceptic alliance.
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“People have been battering down our doors all day,” Nigel Fararge, a UKIP MEP who led the negotiations in Brussels, said. With 12 MEPs, UKIP is the largest purely eurosceptic party in the 732-member parliament.
“It will be a very coherent group in terms of policy and absolutely opposed to an EU constitution in principle. It is (built) on a platform of co- operation between independent nation states,” he said.
UKIP wants the new alliance called simply the “No” group, or even “Non”, to echo Charles de Gaulle’s reply on whether Britain should be admitted to the EU.
UKIP has ruled out working with far-Right groups such as the French National Front, but will work with groups such as the ultra-Roman Catholic Polish Families League, which has ten MEPs, and the Swedish June List, with three.
The alliance will share opposition to centralised EU power, but not all its members will favour withdrawal from the EU — UKIP’s policy.