Cameron's Revolution Comment

The big story is being missed. David Cameron is being truly revolutionary. He plans to give the EU something it has never had before: an Official Opposition.

Journalists find it hard to write the words "Conservative" and "Europe" in the same sentence without adding the word "divisions". So, predictably enough, Mr Cameron's determination to remove his MEPs from the Euro-fanatical European People's Party (EPP) grouping in the European Parliament has largely been reported as a revival of an old quarrel about his party's European orientation. A supposedly arcane issue is now interesting, in other words, only to the extent that it involves rows or broken pledges.

But it is worth asking why, if the issue is so abstruse, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy and the other leaders of Old Europe are determined to thwart Mr Cameron. The answer is that they fear losing their ideological monopoly. At present, every major alliance of European parties - Socialists, Greens, Liberals, Christian Democrats - supports Euro-federalism. Once Mr Cameron breaks the cartel and creates a bloc positing a different EU, the aim of ever-closer union will cease to be inevitable and become just one among a series of competing ideas. That is what the Euro-zealots fear; that is the prize within Mr Cameron's grasp. It is not only Mr. Cameron's integrity, or his party's credibility that is at stake: it is the future of Europe.
The Sunday Telegraph, 11th June 2000