He may have promised to do it years ago, but it was only yesterday that UK opposition leader David Cameron officially started the process of taking the Tories out of the European Parliament's centre-right grouping, the European People's Party. And with that, the Tories' 'slow walk from Europe' has begun.Cameron's intent, which he outlined in his 2005 campaign to become the Conservative Party's leader, is to form a new European party that would be more hostile to the federalist viewpoint. The EPP is the largest of seven Europarties in the parliament. It's the main centre-right party standing astride the Party of European Socialists, the main centre-left grouping. Both parties are more or less federalist in their platform.
Since he came to power Cameron has been attempting to take the conservatives in a strongly Eurosceptic direction, something fraught with danger since the party is split over the Europe issue. As time has gone on the inconsistencies between Cameron's platform in the UK and the EPP's platform has become politically awkward for him. For instance, the EPP was opposed to the UK having a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty while Cameron was loudly calling for one. The EPP also wants more common European policies on the economy, immigration, defence and foreign policy - while Cameron seems to be opposed to any expansion of the EU's remit.
