The European People’s Party rules the roost all across Europe but uneasy lies the head that wears the crown so the EPP-dominated governments, especially at the head of the European Union, will have to deal with some tough issues, including enlargement, with Iceland and Croatia knocking on the door. Turkey is still on a back burner though, so the party will have a lot to deal with. Elmar Brok, a Member of the European Parliament from Germany, and a leading member of the Conservative party, stopped during its Congress in Bonn last month to talk to New Europe about some of the more vexing questions it faces.

The EPP has done outstandingly well in the European elections, we’ve got a new Commission and Lisbon has been passed. Surely, everything is in place for the EPP to bring about its own vision of Europe
 
That is true. I think it’s a big success story, both the elections and what we have achieved in the last years. And the Treaty of Lisbon is a very good basis for the EU which is more effective, more democratic for the European Parliament and national parliaments, also because it’s based on values coming from Christian origin. I think this is very important to freedom of individual, responsibility for the community. And I think that on this basis the EPP can continue to be the strongest political force in Europe

You were talking about the Christian values that are behind the philosophy of the parties in the EPP. But doesn’t talk about the Christian values alienate people who have a different faith?

I think that is not a problem. It’s not a basic question. We do not say that Christianity is the only sole responsibility we have for these values. This is the basis for thinking. Everyone who is coming from other philosophical science, or other religions but goes in the same direction is welcomed
 
How do you feel that the EPP can move forward from this? What are going to be your short- medium-term aims in the Parliament and in the Commission?

First of all we have to implement now the Treaty of Lisbon. We have to concentrate on the EU. We had in the last 20 years revolution: enlargement, monetary union, internal market, all that. Now we have to make it work. With all 27 member countries, I think that is the most important policy that we have to do: make it coherent and strong

What is it going to require to make it work?

It means that the moment we do not have new institutions; that we do not talk about enlargement too fast. Croatia, okay, but we want to keep our promises. The speed is an important question. Therefore we have time for legal order, which is binding the European Union together, is applied in the same way in Brussels and in Düsseldorf, in Bucharest and Rome
 
So you are pro-enlargement but you’re saying that perhaps Ukraine and Turkey, more contentious countries, will have to wait until Lisbon is embedded in the EU. And we’ll have to get used to how Lisbon is going to work in practice?

I think as every enterprise which has grown at the time of consolidation needs that, also the EU needs that I think both must be in place. New member countries, candidate countries which have to fulfil complying criteria but also the EU must be stronger in the integration capacity
 
Now, the one setback, some call it that, is the British Conservative party has left the EPP and formed their own group. We’ve just heard Wilfried Martens describe the new group as “weak and feeble.” Do you expect any Conservative party MEP’s coming back to the EPP?

We know that many Conservative MEPs would like to be again in the EPP because they would have more power. It could influence the biggest group in the European Parliament. Now they are not needed any more. And the Conservatives lost influence in the EP, and therefore also in the EU. I believe that after the institutional questions and the Lisbon Treaty are over we can start talking again about our composition, and perhaps the Tories will see that we can live without them but it’s difficult for them to live without us

One of the first could be Edward McMillan-Scott who has his appeal against being ejected from the Conservative party being heard. Do you expect him to join the EPP or would you like him to join as an individual?

I think this is a debate we have in our group but I think if someone is not in the other party and fulfills the conditions for a member of the EU, we should be open for such people

Elmar Brok is Chairman of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the United States, and a member of the Conference of Delegations Chairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well as a former radio and newspaper journalist and former Senior Vice President of Media Development for Bertelsmann. He has been a member of the Parliament since 1980)

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