The view of the blue of the Mare Nostrum is the backdrop to the event organized by the European conservatives who have met in Brucoli in Sicily for the study days of the ECR group. This is an event that takes on particular importance while negotiations are taking place for the plenary session of the European Parliament in which the nominations proposed by the European Council will be voted on. The choice of Sicily is not accidental and demonstrates both the centrality of Italy and the attention to the Mediterranean. The Sicilian meeting is the first opportunity to bring together the 83 MEPs of the ECR group which, after overtaking Macron’s Macronians, is currently the third group in the European Parliament.
Also present were MEPs from the new parties that joined the ECR, from the Danish Democratic Party (Danmarksdemokraterne) to the Bulgarians of “There is a People Like This” (ITN), from the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (Lietuvos valstiei ir alij sjunga) to the Romanians of AUR.
Also arriving in Sicily were the French elected with Reconquête and then left the party after the split with Zemmour, the Croatian representative of the Movement for the Fatherland (Domovinski Pokret), the Cypriots of the National Popular Front (Ethniko Laiko Metopo, ELAM) and the Latvian United List (Apvienotais Saraksts, AS). The conservatives added a delegate from Luxembourg for the first time, while the Finns’ Party (Perussuomalaiset) was welcomed from Finland.
Hosting the event, together with the general secretary of the ECR party Antonio Giordano, is the co-president of the European Conservatives Nicola Procaccini who outlines the agenda of the conservatives: «The working days serve to establish the political priorities on which we will fight in the new legislature. Our priorities are to resist the trend towards the centralist European super state that strips nations of their legitimate competences and to oppose the reform of the treaties in a federalist sense. Furthermore, a more rational approach to the green transition which in recent years has been the cross of European politics and support for European productive competitiveness in particular by supporting farmers, breeders, fishermen and all those who live and work in the rural world but have been pilloried».
Procaccini then underlined another fundamental aspect for the conservatives: «the Western and Atlanticist position and a resolute attitude against the Russian invasion of Ukraine».
In the days when the creation of a sovereignist group is being discussed, the positioning in foreign policy is one of the main distinctions with the conservatives and is also a fundamental element for the Poles of the Pis. Today, an important closed-door meeting will be held between the conservative delegations to define roles and responsibilities both in the Ecr party and in the European group. As explained by the national spokesperson of Vox José Antonio Fuster, the creation of a new group does not compromise the unity of the right: «we can be united even with different groups» explaining that «even with different groups we can unite and we will always work for this». The study days continue today and will conclude tomorrow with a panel in which the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida will also speak.
Meanwhile, yesterday Geert Bourgeois, head of the Flemish N-Va delegation, took part for the Ecr group in Brussels at the meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament with the President of the European Commission Von der Leyen: «I cannot go into details. In general it was a good discussion». Ursula von der Leyen «illustrated the guidelines of her political program.
We have explained our priorities, that’s all I can say.”
Negotiations continue in view of the vote on 18 July in which the European Parliament will have to express its opinion on the nominations for the top Jobs and in which the ECR can play an important role.
