In order to describe the role of British parties in the European Parliament, it is useful to first distinguish three different attitudes towards the European Union in general:

1. Pro-Europe and Pro-Supranationalism: Supporters of this group argue that European integration is the only future for the European states. Only the European Union can manage global problems such as the current financial crisis or environmental and climate change. They support the further transfer of competences to the European institutions and they usually also support more power for the European Parliament. The most well-known representatives of this group are the European federalists, such as Altiero Spinelli.

2. Euroscepticism: Although generally supportive of the European project, Eurosceptics rather see it as the expansion of a large Single Market than as the creation of a federal polity. They might support reform within the EU, but only if it serves the economy. Eurosceptics are critical about supranationalism, which is the decision-making power of the European institutions (particularly the Commission and the European Parliament). The most well known British Eurosceptic was Margaret Thatcher, who had a clear anti-integration course while she nevertheless signed the Single European Act in 1986.

3. Anti-EU: These groups either oppose the EU in general as an administrative monster that has taken national sovereignty from its members, or they oppose the membership of their country in the EU. Anti-EU groups usually come from the radical left or the radical right wing. However, in recent years some Scandinavian Green Parties as well as some conservative parties from Eastern Europe have also established themselves as opposing the European Union.

When applying these three categories to the British party system, we can clearly see that there is a dominance of those parties who on the one hand support the UK’s membership in the European Union, and on the other hand are doubtful about the advantages of the Brussels institutions and the transfer of further competences. In fact, it can be argued that both the Labour Party and the Conservatives are Eurosceptic parties in the above sense.

Conservative Party - pragmatic Euro-MPs

As for the Conservative Party this is easily demonstrated. David Cameron, the young leader of the party has recently announced that the Conservatives will leave the fraction of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament after the European elections and form a new, more EU-sceptic party group, which supposedly will be called “European Conservatives”. The evidence that the Conservatives are not as pro-European as their party family in the European Parliament is of course much older than Mr Cameron’s announcement. Going back to Sir Winston Churchill, who in 1946 called for a “United States of Europe”, we can see that British Conservatives were often with Europe, without being in Europe. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that it was a Conservative government under which the UK joined the European Community in 1973. Subsequently, Margaret Thatcher, the grand leader of the Conservatives in the 1980s gave the party her Eurosceptic touch. While she argued against all form of supranationalism, she nevertheless signed the Single European Act in 1986, one of the key Treaties of the then European Community, which transferred more decision-making power to the European institutions and massively enhanced the powers of the European Parliament. John Major, Mrs Thatcher’s most unlucky successor continued this policy by signing the Treaty on European Union in 1992 and proudly announced in the House of Commons that he had managed to keep the words “federal Union” out of the Treaty. Jacques Delors would later reply to this by stating that he did not care about words, but about the political reality of the new European Union becoming a federal polity.

Members of the same European party group: Parliaments’ President Hans-Gert Pöttering and David Cameron.

David Cameron however announced that the Conservatives would form their own parliamentary fraction after the 2009 elections. Photo: European Parliament.

What can we say about the Conservative Party in the European Parliament? Well, as part of the European People’s Party (EPP) the 27 Conservative MEPs are surrounded by pro-European parties, especially from France and Germany, which favour even more supranationalism. However, since the EPP has opened up not only to some dubious parties from Eastern Europe, but also to Mr Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the Conservatives have found some support in their criticism of the European Union. Members of the European Parliament from the Conservative Party usually act in a very pragmatic way. As the nature of the matters dealt with in the European Parliament is usually more technical and less about the grand design of integration, the MEPs go with the flow and support certain issues, especially in regards to market liberalisation and environmental policies, while they are doubtful about ideas of a social Europe and European decision-making in areas of immigration and internal security.

Labour Party - MEPs who went native?

To identify the Labour Party as a Eurosceptic party is a little more difficult. In fact, over the last twelve years Labour has become an advocate of the UK’s membership in the European Union. As Tony Blair famously stated, the EU is good for Britain because it is in the British national interest to be a member of the European Union. Naturally, every supporter of integration recognises the contradiction in Mr Blair’s statement, however, it is important to admit that as a British Prime Minister he was the one to be most supportive of European Integration, signing the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice and being involved in the debates around the Constitutional Treaty. Having said this, we must recognise, that it was also Mr Blair’s support for the US American intervention in Iraq, which brought Europe one of its deepest political crises since the departure of Mrs Thatcher. We should also keep in mind that the “old” Labour party until the late 1980s was very much anti-European. The party manifesto focused on nationalisation and protectionism and the European Community was seen as an exploitative common market supporting capitalist domination over the workers. Later on, New Labour under Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown (even more unlucky than John Major) have continued to incarnate the British attitude towards the EU, that was built over decades by the Churchills and the Thatchers in the British leadership. They supported the idea of the EU as a big free market and they are generally very supportive of further enlargement of the Union, but they are very sceptical about its further deepening, i.e. integration. They have followed Thatcher’s policies of opt-outs, most famously from Schengen and from the Economic and Monetary Union, and they have added the policy of “red lines” in EU negotiation. Those familiar with bargaining theory can imagine how fruitful bargaining will be if one party states from the beginning where it is not willing to go because the issues touches supposedly “national interests” or “national sovereignty”.

Richard Corbett, MEP for the Labour Party since 1996.

The member of the committe on constitutional affairs has been involved in Parliament’s work early on: As a policy advisor of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament he worked on drafting the parts of the treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam that increased the powers of the Parliament. Photo: European Parliament.

Having said this, what can be said about the 19 Labour MEPs and their behaviour in the European Parliament? Surprisingly, they tend to be much more pro-integration than their party fellows back home in the UK. They support issues concerning the vision of a social Europe as well as individual rights protection and European cooperation in the areas of immigration and even foreign policy, without of course being willing to give up British sovereignty. There are even some Labour MEPs who support the adoption of the Euro in the UK. One cannot fail to recognise the different attitudes of Labour politicians in Brussels and London and it might very well be the case that while the Labour MEPs can be characterised as pro-European, the British Labour Party as a whole must be characterised as Eurosceptic. As Margaret Thatcher would say, the Labour MEPs have probably “gone native”.

Lib Dems - lone fighters for a stronger European Union

Graham Watson, MEP for the Lib Dems

He has been the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe since 2002. Photo: European Parliament.

There are two more parties worth looking at. The first one being the Liberal Democrats (11 MEPs in 2004-2009) who are part of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) group in the European Parliament. It is no exaggeration to argue that the Lib Dems have been the only party in the UK to always support and advocate British membership in the EC and later EU as well as the only party that has always argued for more decision-making at a European level and further democratisation of the European Union. They are the only British party that without any doubt supported the Constitutional Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon and who is sceptical of the policies of opt-outs and red lines. Having said all this, it should be noted that it is of course very unlikely (if not impossible) for the Liberal Democrats to ever come to power in the UK, considering the Labour-Conservative monopoly over the government in the UK.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament.

The central aim of the party is the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. Photo: European Parliament.

UK Independence Party - outright opposition

Finally, a quick look at the party that calls itself UK Independence Party, which is necessary in order to understand British attitudes toward the European Union. While this party is not particularly known for its impact on European legislation, but rather for the disturbances of the nine UKIP MEPs in the Parliament, it nevertheless cannot be ignored that 16 per cent of the people who voted in the 2004 European elections in the UK supported this party. The party argues for the immediate withdrawal of the UK from the European Union and of course blames the Union for everything bad that is happening. Lately, they argue that the EU is responsible for the financial crisis and that because the UK pays so much to be in the EU, it worsens the British position. This anti-European attitude represents nevertheless a large part of British society, that is not only sceptical of the EU but categorically against Britain’s membership in the Union.

British Parties in the EP - a mixed bag

What can we conclude about British parties in the European Parliament? To what extent do they represent the continuation of Euroscepticism? As it is so often the case in real life, we have to answer - it depends. It depends on the party, obviously, but also on the behaviour of individual MEPs, as demonstrated by the case of the Labour Party. It depends on the European party group of which the party is a member, as it can be expected that the Conservative MEPs will act differently after June 2009 when they will have set up their own fraction. It also depends on the policy issue at stake in the European Parliament. As the EP is a very technical parliament, there are mostly no direct debates about the future of the EU and European integration. Most British parties have adapted to that technical nature.

To put it in a nutshell, British policies towards the European Union have a long history of cooperation and conflict, and are characterised by the contradiction of supporting the single market and economic integration while at the same time questioning the necessity of institutional reforms and deeper political integration. Students of European integration will recognise that both are intertwined. Maybe someday British politicians will recognise this, too.

Pictures: Vera Kissler (Logo), European Parliament (Illustrations)