Press Release: For Immediate Release
ADIEU-EPP.com

Robert Oulds
Dr Lee Rotherham

For the past 15 years, Conservative MEPs have been shackled to a political group that does not share their beliefs - the centrist and corporatist European Peoples Party. That body is strongly in favour of an "ever-closer union" and the gradual establishment of an EU superstate - anathema to true Conservatives.

Today, the long campaign waged by the Bruges Group to break that link has come to fruition as a new group is formed in Brussels, allowing Conservative MEPs to sit with like-minded colleagues as a genuine "official opposition" to those pushing for an EU superstate.

Robert Oulds, Bruges Group Director, says;
"The Bruges Group’s campaign to force the Conservatives unfortunate links with the federalist EPP to be broken has now succeeded.

"The Conservative Party’s federalist rump, both at Westminster and Brussels, should now recognise that the tide has turned and any future Conservative Government must deliver a real change in Britain's relationship with the EU and give us an immediate referendum on the Lisbon Treaty regardless of whether or not it has been ratified in Ireland."

Dr Lee Rotherham, who has spent the last decade campaigning for the change, says;
"As of today, voters in Europe who say 'No' to Brussels have now got a powerful new voice to speak up for an alternative vision of Europe."

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- NOTES TO EDITORS -

The Bruges Group has long campaigned for the move, and the background can be found on its special website, www.adieu-epp.com. This site has been highly commended by campaigners as the key one-stop-shop on this important issue.

Leaving the EPP was a key pledge by David Cameron during the leadership election (see website for quotes).