Brown speech to the European Parliament

In the run up to the G20 meeting which will be held in London on 2 April, Gordon Brown started a world tour with his first speech to the European Parliament since he became PM. In a parallel with his Washington speech, he called for Europe to promote 'tough regulatory standards' for the world financial sector. He added: "Today there's no old Europe and no new Europe... We have one Europe and it's our home Europe.. I stand here today proud to be British and proud to be European: representing a country that does not see itself as an island adrift from Europe but as a country at the centre of Europe, not in Europe's slipstream but firmly in its mainstream."

Meanwhile, the Conservatives' recurring objective of withdrawing their MEPs from the mainstream centre-right EPP group in the European Parliament after next June's election suffered another setback. The Economist revealed this week that William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, had been in contact to join a new group with a fringe Latvian party, the Fatherland and Freedom Party, members of which attended ceremonies to commemorate the Waffen SS... Not exactly the respectable eurosceptic views the Conservatives aim to embody. This only illustrates once more the dilemma in which the Conservatives have cornered themselves: no other mainstream centre-right party is Europe is eurosceptic ! They have therefore no natural allies, even though they claim to represent widespread opinions in the EU. They will face a major problem to define their European policy if and when they regain power in Westminster.