This is the first of five policy questions we have asked MEP candidates, including incumbent MEPs. The EPP Declaration many refer to is here.
If we are unable to find enough other MEPs to form a new group, would you sit as an independent outside the EPP?
Richard Ashworth MEP (SE): That decision must be made by William Hague and David Cameron and our job as MEPs is to deliver their wishes. I have signed the Party's pledge*.
Dan Hannan MEP (SE): Yes
Niina Kaariniemi (SE): Yes
Richard Robinson (SE): Yes
Therese Coffey (SE): We will be able to find enough other MEPs to form a new group. I will sit in the group that David Cameron signs us up to and he has already declared we will not be part of the EPP.
Marc Brunel-Walker (SE): If I am elected, I will respect the agreement made by David Cameron and Mirek Topolanek in July 2006*.
Tony Devenish (SE): My answer is as per the pledge all Candidates signed*.
Nirj Deva MEP (SE): Yes. Since my election to the European Parliament in 1999, I have consistently supported any efforts to withdraw the Conservative Party from the EPP and strongly support efforts to form a new alliance with our free-market, Atlanticist allies (mainly in Eastern Europe).
Sarah Richardson (SE): Why are these questions always so defeatist? We should leave the EPP and launch a new group. Around 50% of Europeans were against the EU Constitution yet these views are not represented by the main groups in the European Parliament. That has to change and we can start it.
Julie Girling (SW): I will act exactly in line with the undertaking I have signed to*.
Ashley Fox (SW): I have signed the same undertaking as all the other candidates and I will honour that commitment*. I sincerely hope that if a new group cannot be formed we do not return to the EPP. In that situation my preference would be to sit as an independent.
Mike Dolley (SW): Yes – I signed the undertaking to follow the Party line with alacrity and I will abide by it enthusiastically. I have already addressed this issue in my blog and will doubtless do so again!
Don Collier (SW): I am very happy to leave the EPP. I will sit and vote with my Conservative Colleagues but I truly don’t expect that to be with the EPP, nor do I expect us to be alone.
Zehra Zaidi (SW): I will abide by the undertaking* that I signed as a candidate upon entering the selection process. The preferable course would be to find new allies outside the EPP-ED (especially from Eastern Europe) but if we have to go independent for a short time and then continue our search for new partners, it may make our job easier as other parties will see that we will stick to our commitment.
Charles Tannock MEP (L): David Cameron is committed to forming a new group in 2009 with our Czech partners, the ODS. I have heard nothing to indicate that he foresees any other outcome and the idea of sitting as Conservatives in the 'non-inscrit' (unattached) is not something I have ever heard him talk about. He is confident of being able to form a new group and I am supporting his efforts to do so.
Syed Kamall MEP (L): If that's necessary, yes. But I would much rather see us focus on forming a new Group first, and even if we do go independent for a while, we should continue the search for allies willing to join us. I believe it will be easier once we've actually delivered on our pledge. So many potential allies have heard this all before, and do not believe we will see it through.
Warwick Lightfoot (L): Yes, but I would be guided by the Leader of the British Conservative Party, David Cameron. Conservative MEPs must not be detached from our national party.
Bob Seely (L): Yes
Alison Sproule (L): Yes, we need to establish a viable truly right of centre group in Europe and I have no doubt that with firm policies and my powers of persuasion we would soon be joined by others!
Jean-Paul Floru (L): We have already found other European parties to form a group. Our membership of the EPP, with its huge trade union wing and its many federalists, is utterly bizarre. Every MEP candidate has signed the Declaration*.
Marina Yannakoudakis (L): I agree with the agreement made by David Cameron and Mirek Topolanek in 2006.
Graham Postles (L): I think that recent EU enlargements mean that it is entirely sensible to reassess what has gone before. I am confident that a new grouping will be sucessfully formed. I have signed the Party's Undertaking and I am quite happy to respect that agreement.
Geoffrey Van Orden MEP (E): I have been a strong advocate of a new Group from the start and have now been given a key role in helping to bring it into being. I am confident we will be successful. Like all other candidates for selection, I have agreed with the Declaration*.
Jonathan Morgan (E): I will respect the agreement made by David Cameron and Mirek Topolanek in July 2006*.
John Flack (E): In common with all other Conservative Candidates I signed an undertaking to sit in whatever grouping the Party Leader directs. I fully stand by that undertaking*.
Clare Whelan (E): In common with other candidates I have signed the following undertaking*.
Claire Strong (E): I will do whatever the leadership decides.
Vicky Ford (E): Yes, The EPP's mission statement begins "The EPP is committed to a federal Europe …". I do not believe in a federal Europe. I support the Conservative Party's stated commitment to leave the EPP.
Roger Helmer MEP (EM): I have signed DC's commitment to leave the EPP. In the unlikely event that we were unable to form a new group, then sitting as an independent would be the only way to fulfil that commitment. By the way, I sit as an independent now and have done for three years.
George Lee (EM): I have already made an undertaking that if I am elected, I will respect the agreement made by David Cameron and Mirek Topolanek in July 2006*.
Fiona Bulmer (EM): Yes
Rupert Matthews (EM): I agree with David Cameron that we should leave the EPP. If the best way to do that is to sit as an independent group then I would support that.
Emma McClarkin (EM): I have signed up to David Cameron’s undertaking*. I am firmly behind David in his decision to leave the EPP and believe the formation of a new group is more than achievable. However, I do acknowledge that this may mean sitting with other Conservatives outside the EPP if it proves difficult to form a new group.
Eveleigh Moore-Dutton (WM): This is a hypothetical question. I have signed the Declaration*.
Anthea McIntyre (WM): I will sit with the British Conservatives in whichever grouping the Leader of the Conservative Party chooses.
Dan Dalton (WM): I consider that a decision for David Cameron to make and I will remain loyal to whatever he decides. From my experience in the European Parliament, I believe we can find new partners, and I look forward to assisting the leadership in those negotiations if I am elected.
Evan Price (W): I will abide by the undertaking that I signed when I completed my application forms. I read and understood the consequences of that undertaking* and I signed it with the intention that I would abide by it, if elected.
Emma Greenow (W): I Emma Greenow hereby agree that if I am elected, I will respect the agreement made by David Cameron and Mirek Topolanek in July 2006*.
Karen Robson (W): Like all candidates I signed an undertaking as part of my application on this point*.
Kay Swinburne (W): If I am elected, I will become a member of whichever political Group in the European Parliament is decided upon by the Party Leader, in consultation with the Leader of the Conservative MEPs, after the 2009 European elections as I have previously agreed*.
Sir Robert Atkins MEP (NW): Not if it requires us to sit with extremists and oddballs or if it reduces the influence that Tory MEPs ought to maintain over the activities of Parliament. That said, I shall, of course, follow the instructions of David Cameron in consultation with the Leader of the Conservative Delegation of MEPs.
Alexander Williams (NW): Yes
Fiona Bruce (NW): If I am elected, I will respect the agreement made by David Cameron and Mirek Topolanek in July 2006*.
Peter Wilding (NW): I am confident we will enter a new grouping after 2009. In fact I have signed an undertaking stating the same*.
Martin Callanan MEP (NE): Yes
Emma Moore (NE): I will honour of course the pledge* I made to the Party, which many have referenced in their answers. If a candidate signed this pledge because they wanted to stand for selection, then they should stick by it.
Barbara Musgrave (NE): No
* "'that at the commencement of the next legislature period of the European Parliament, following the elections in 2009 our delegations will establish a new parliamentary group, which other like-minded parties will be invited to join', and that I will become a member of whichever political Group in the European Parliament is decided upon by the Party Leader, in consultation with the Leader of the Conservative MEPs, after the 2009 European elections".