Later today (Sat - 30 Aug), British PM David Cameron will join other EU leaders in Brussels for a special European Council meeting to discuss candidates for the next European Commission plus successors to EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.  Coming after Cameron’s failed attempt to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming President of the European Commission, the leader of Britain’s new 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) Dirk Hazell said: “This key meeting will test Cameron’s ability to shape EU policy and to silence the growing influence of the UKIP militant tendency within the British Conservative Party.”

 
Last month (15 July) Cameron chose British peer Jonathan Hill as candidate to become Britain’s next European Commissioner, and now hopes to win a prize portfolio for the UK as EU leaders carve up Europe’s top jobs during Saturday’s working dinner in Brussels.  “Socialist President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz is wrong to label Jonathan Hill as anti-European, but Cameron is not over the hill yet in Britain’s quest for a significant European Commission role.  Next month’s European Parliament hearings are a rigorous process for all concerned”, noted Hazell.

 
This afternoon, EU Heads of State and Government and opposition leaders of the European People's Party (EPP), along with the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, will also gather for an EPP Summit.  “Unfortunately, Cameron’s foolish decision to break links with the mainstream centre-right EPP means that, yet again, the UK’s voice will not be heard at this crucial pre-Council meeting.  In contrast, Michael Howard - Cameron’s immediate predecessor as Tory leader - made sure that Britain was present during EPP negotiations”, explained Hazell.

 
Ever since William Hague first hosted the 1998 EPP Summit in Cardiff all Conservative leaders - bar Cameron - regularly took part so as to ensure UK interests were represented in the EPP.  “As a past Tory party leader, William Hague - and his then-adviser George Osborne - will remember joining mainstream centre-right leaders at regular EPP Summits.  Hague and Osborne must realise how serious a mistake Cameron made in ordering Tory MEPs to leave the EPP, surrendering valuable opportunities to shape European policy from within and setting the stage for deeper Tory schism”, stated Hazell.

 
 “Instead, in 2005, Cameron placed leadership ambitions ahead of the national interest and sold out to Tory Euro-rebels.  Heeding siren calls from former MEPs like Theresa Villiers and Robert Goodwill, Cameron pledged to order Conservative MEPs out of the mainstream centre-right EPP Group in return for votes from the UKIP militant tendency on the Tory backbenches.  -  British influence in the EU was further undermined before the summer recess, when Tory Euro-MPs recently defied Cameron’s alleged orders and went into alliance with anti-immigrant and anti-EU parties”.

 
As London region chairman for the Conservatives, Hazell witnessed first-hand the growing power of the UKIP militant tendency within Tory parliamentary ranks: “Cameron’s decision to sever relations with the Conservative’s natural centre-right European allies in the EPP significantly reduced the UK’s ability to shape European policies.  Cameron needs to take control and face down UKIP-sympathisers like Daniel Hannan MEP who are determined to secure Brexit.  Instead of taking Britain to the brink of Brexit, Cameron should be leading not leaving the EU”.

 
Ahead of this crucial EU Summit (Thurs - 28 Aug), in a strongly-worded comment piece for The Korea Herald, London School of Economics chairman and former World Trade Organisation boss Peter Sutherland warns: “Far from enhancing British influence, threats of withdrawal have undermined the Cameron government’s credibility and influence within the EU”.  -  The defection to UKIP by senior anti-EU Conservative MP Douglas Carswell further illustrates Cameron’s inability to heal the Conservative’s Euro-split for which his opportunism has exacerbated.

 
“As a refreshing alternative, the pro-European 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) gives centre ground, centre-right pro-European people in the UK the chance to be back at the heart of Europe, inside the mainstream EPP family.  We will begin to repair the damage Cameron created.  We believe in bringing people together, not driving them apart”, concluded Hazell.

Following today’s (Thurs – 28 Aug) shock defection by high-profile anti-EU Conservative backbencher Douglas Carswell MP, pro-Europeans are urging British PM David Cameron to stop appeasing his UKIP militant tendency in Westminster and Brussels.  “Cameron has constantly caved into UKIP, but appeasement never works!” warns the leader of Britain’s new 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) Dirk Hazell.  As London region chairman for the Conservatives, Hazell witnessed first-hand the growing power of the militant UKIP tendency within Tory ranks, with Cameron making matters worse during his Conservative Party leadership bid.

“While Carswell is more principled than many in resigning from the House of Commons so the voters of Clacton (Essex, UK) can decide between UKIP and the Conservative Party, the timing is deeply unpatriotic.  All Unionists will be dismayed that he has stolen attention from the PM’s keynote speech this evening on Scotland’s future.  In addition, at the most dangerous time for a generation in foreign affairs - when Britain’s outstanding armed forces are on standby - Carswell’s shameless vanity is distracting attention from the vital NATO Summit the Prime Minister will host next week,” commented Dirk Hazell.

Looking ahead to the key by-election this autumn, Hazell noted: “This will be a major test for both UKIP and the Conservative Party.  Cameron needs to come clean with the British people over his EU strategy.  Short-term tactics and media spin have now proved beyond doubt to be no substitute for a national strategy.  Cameron must explain how the Tories will stop Brexit.”

On Saturday (30 Aug), Cameron joins other European leaders in Brussels for a special EU Summit to discuss the appointment of the next European Commission.  Following on from Cameron’s failure to prevent Jean-Claude Juncker becoming President of the European Commission, Carswell’s defection to UKIP risks further damaging Cameron’s credibility with fellow EU leaders as splits over Europe continue unabated within the Conservative Party.  “British influence was sharply reduced when Cameron marched his Tory MEPs out of the EPP Group in 2009 and it has been downhill ever since”, observed Hazell.

In the European Parliament, Conservative Euro-MPs recently defied Cameron’s orders by going into alliance with anti-immigrant and anti-EU parties.  “Cameron is increasingly isolated in Europe as the British Conservative-led ECR Group lurches to the harder right.  Cameron has lost control of his fringe Euro-Group.  Since January 2013, Tory-led ECR Group Euro-MPs voted two-thirds of the time with Farage’s UKIP-led EFD Group.”, stated Hazell.

“Before Britain went to the polls on Thursday 22 May 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) asked both the Prime Minister as leader of the Conservative Party and also the leader of the Conservative MEPs to come clean about their intended euro-allies. It looks like they concealed from the British people what was already planned.  The sad reality is that UKIP-sympathiser Daniel Hannan MEP - not David Cameron - runs the Conservative Party in Brussels”, explained Hazell.

In 2008, leading anti-European MEP Daniel Hannan co-authored with Douglas Carswell - who is a close friend of Hannan - a plan to “save Britain”.  -  “The Hannan bandwagon of UKIP sympathisers has form: they are determined to secure Brexit.  By refusing to face down UKIP, and instead putting his own survival as party leader ahead of the British national interest, Cameron is taking Britain to the brink of Brexit”, said Hazell.

The pro-European 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) gives centre ground, centre-right pro-European people in the UK the chance to be back at the heart of Europe, inside the mainstream EPP family.  “We will begin to repair the damage Cameron created.  We believe in bringing people together, not driving them apart.  Britain should lead not leave the EU”, concluded Hazell.

President Putin's United Russia seems to have just quit the European Democrat Group in Strasbourg which was chaired by one of his most trusted members of the State Duma, Alexey Pushkov.

This follows the departure from the EDG earlier this year of Yanukovych's Party of the Regions after the collapse, despite a recent visit to Kiev by Tory parliamentarians, of his Ukrainian kleptocracy.

While the Tories' human rights alliance in Strasbourg may no longer be replete with KGB veterans and the political heirs to Stalin, EDG still contains inapposite members ranging from President Erdogan's party in the south to the Danish People's party in the north.

Time will tell whether EDG's website - edgpace.org - may now be restored having been closed "under Maintenance" since Russia's invasion of the Crimea.

Mr Cameron's order for the Conservative Party to leave the EPP was both unpleasant and daft. By no stretch of the imagination could it have pursued the strategic British national interest.

However, the kopek has not fully dropped within the Conservative Party. The internet still contains some references to the ostentatious launch of Conservative Friends of Russia, originally presided over by The Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, only two short years ago at a lavish August reception in London. The Group has since collapsed in controversy but the Russian language coverage of the launch reception is still available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE2XZaGd5hU and we still have the English language version of the video with effusive support from a number of Conservative MPs.