Leading political figures who understand the EPP issue give Adieu-EPP.org their exclusive insight.

'”As a member of the Convention on the Future of Europe, I tried working with the EPP but found that their whole attitude towards European integration was different to the Conservative Party. It was only when I left the EPP Group and joined some real allies that I was able to defend the British position and stand up for Conservative principles.”
Rt Hon David Heathcoat-Amory MP, British Parliamentary delegate to the drafting Convention of the EU Constitution

"Europe needs to take an innovative new direction. Academics, businessmen and certainly voters in referendums increasingly express this. Yet internationally there is no one to provide the political leadership for this new direction. For historical and practical reasons we inevitably look to the British and particularly to the Conservative Party for that leadership. A new EP group is a necessary mechanism for creating that direction and providing that leadership."
Prof Ivar Raig, Research Centre Free Europe, Tallinn

“I have been trying to think why we ever let our MEPs sign up to the EPP alliance, but I cannot.”
Rt Hon Lord Tebbit CH, former Party Chairman

“It is hard to understand how a party that is opposed to the construction of a federal Europe can sit in the European Parliament in the European Peoples Party group, whose alpha and omega, whose very reason for existing, is to adopt a European Constitution and to establish a federal Europe.”
Philippe de Villiers, MP, French Eurosceptic leader

“As Marta Andreasen explains in her section of this website, the EPP were the people who were lifting up the carpet to sweep the Commission dirt under it. Some people say that we had a manifesto commitment to stay in the EPP alliance. But we also had a manifesto commitment to fight fraud. The only people who stopped us were our supposed friends.”
Chris Heaton-Harris, MEP, Former Conservative Chief Whip in the European Parliament

“Britain’s destiny can never lie in a United States of Europe. There seems little point in remaining in a group for whom a federal European state is the ultimate destination.”
Dr Liam Fox, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

"Forming a new group with mainstream like-minded parties of the Eurosceptic centre-right will put the Conservative Party in a strong position to shape the debate on the future of Europe. As a former MEP, I can say with confidence that breaking the link with the EPP will make us a more effective force in the European Parliament and give a boost to our campaign against European Federalism."
Theresa Villiers, MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and former Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament

“I can speak from personal experience, having been fired from the EPP nearly a year ago. Since then, I have received much more information funding, more staff support, and more access to speaking time and parliamentary facilities than ever before. The EPP are desperate to keep us in, and keep us quiet. They know better than anyone that a new Conservative group will be a powerful voice for a free-market, atlanticist, anti-integration agenda. And they're terrified of it.” Roger Helmer, MEP