European Commission President Jose Barroso said U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party risks losing 2014 legislative elections in Europe as it gets outflanked by Britain’s nationalist party.
Barroso told Martin Callanan, a Tory member of the European Parliament and head of its Conservatives and Reformists group, that he faced the threat of defeat at the hands of the U.K. Independence Party. UKIP’s leader is Nigel Farage, a prominent opponent of the EU.
“Increasingly your party and your group is looking like the UKIP,” Barroso told Callanan during a debate in the 28-nation legislature today in Strasbourg, France. “I start to have some doubts that you are going to be elected yourself in Britain, if it’s not UKIP that is going to be the first force in the British elections.”
The sniping follows Cameron’s decision this year to open the door to a possible U.K. departure from the EU, a step that would be unprecedented. In January, seeking to stave off growing anti-EU voices within the Tory party, Cameron promised to win back powers from European institutions and put continued membership in the bloc to a popular vote.
Farage, who is also a member of the EU Parliament, said at the time that it was UKIP’s “greatest achievement to date.”
“When it comes to be against Europe, the people, between the original and the copy, they prefer the original,” said Barroso, who is a former Portuguese prime minister. “That’s probably why they are going to vote more for Mr. Farage than for Mr. Callanan.”
The Tories have 27 of the U.K.’s 73 seats in the 766-seat EU Parliament. UKIP has 11 seats in the European assembly.
Callanan responded to the remarks by Barroso, who was appointed by EU governments in 2004 to head the Brussels-based commission, the EU’s executive arm, with a jibe of his own.
“It’s a bit rich for the unelected head of the European Commission to give us electoral advice,” Callanan said on the EU Parliament plenary floor, prompting a smile from Barroso. “But I suppose that’s typical of him.”
NOTE EU-Digest: it is high time that citizens of the European Union democratically elect a President of the EU rather than having an appointed figurehead.
Read more: Cameron Gets Warning Lecture on EU Politics From Barroso - Bloomberg
Barroso told Martin Callanan, a Tory member of the European Parliament and head of its Conservatives and Reformists group, that he faced the threat of defeat at the hands of the U.K. Independence Party. UKIP’s leader is Nigel Farage, a prominent opponent of the EU.
“Increasingly your party and your group is looking like the UKIP,” Barroso told Callanan during a debate in the 28-nation legislature today in Strasbourg, France. “I start to have some doubts that you are going to be elected yourself in Britain, if it’s not UKIP that is going to be the first force in the British elections.”
The sniping follows Cameron’s decision this year to open the door to a possible U.K. departure from the EU, a step that would be unprecedented. In January, seeking to stave off growing anti-EU voices within the Tory party, Cameron promised to win back powers from European institutions and put continued membership in the bloc to a popular vote.
Farage, who is also a member of the EU Parliament, said at the time that it was UKIP’s “greatest achievement to date.”
“When it comes to be against Europe, the people, between the original and the copy, they prefer the original,” said Barroso, who is a former Portuguese prime minister. “That’s probably why they are going to vote more for Mr. Farage than for Mr. Callanan.”
The Tories have 27 of the U.K.’s 73 seats in the 766-seat EU Parliament. UKIP has 11 seats in the European assembly.
Callanan responded to the remarks by Barroso, who was appointed by EU governments in 2004 to head the Brussels-based commission, the EU’s executive arm, with a jibe of his own.
“It’s a bit rich for the unelected head of the European Commission to give us electoral advice,” Callanan said on the EU Parliament plenary floor, prompting a smile from Barroso. “But I suppose that’s typical of him.”
NOTE EU-Digest: it is high time that citizens of the European Union democratically elect a President of the EU rather than having an appointed figurehead.
Read more: Cameron Gets Warning Lecture on EU Politics From Barroso - Bloomberg
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