Turf war and navel-gazing over External Action Service must end

A new Financial Transaction Tax to fund climate change and development are not the right way forward, ECR economic spokesman Kay Swinburne MEP warned today after the European Parliament called for their introduction - potentially at EU level.

In the European Parliament today (10 March) Baroness Ashton 's position on the formulation of the new EU foreign and defence policy came under scrutiny from Conservative Security and Defence Spokesman Geoffrey Van Orden who commented: "EU Security and Defence Policy deliberately confuses military and civil crisis management in order to justify an EU role. It relies on a bogus narrative concerning EU operations and increasingly seeks to involve the European Commission in areas which are properly the responsibility of our nations or of Council."

The way the European Union responded to last year's swine flu outbreak has raised serious questions about the EU's effectiveness in a public health crisis that cannot be ignored, Marina Yannakoudakis, an ECR member of the European Parliament's environment committee, said today.

The delegation was led by the President of the ECR Group, Michał Kamiński, who underlined Lajos Bokros' key role in the Conservative Group and his vast knowledge and expertise in the field of economics. The leader of the Euroconservatives also noted that the plan presented by Mr Bokros is the best formula for Hungary to overcome the financial crisis.

The former Czech Prime minister and the Czech ODS party leader Mirek Topolanek addressed the ECR Group meeting on Tuesday. He applauded the Group´s success and efforts up to now. "Your constructive and hard work in the committees shows the ECR as a serious partner for the centre-right wing in the European Parliament. You have already proven to be a reasonable mainstream group and I´m sure the ECR Group will be much more powerful in the future," Mirek Topolanek said.