Brussels, 28/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Several MEPs belonging to the European Free Alliance (EFA) have criticised the recent remarks made by the permanent president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, on nationalist parties. The EFA is an alliance of nationalist and regionalist parties which form a political group with the Greens within the European Parliament.
In an interview on Flemish television, Van Rompuy had said he did not know of any nationalist party that was pro-European (see EUROPE 10245). EFA President Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru, Party of Wales) challenges Van Rompuy's analysis saying: “I want to see Wales as an independent member state playing its full part in building a better European Union”, a “Europe of the Peoples”, she states in a press release. The Scottish MEP, Ian Hudghton, who is also a member of the EFA, says Van Rompuy is “not only wrong” but also “stepped far outside his remit as EU Council president”. Hudghton says he is “pro-European” adding: “I look forward to the day when an independent Scotland will play a constructive and equal role in EU decision-making”. Oriol Junqueras, a Catalan MEP (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) believes many Catalans were “shocked” by Van Rompuy's remarks “given the pro-European nature of the Catalan nationalist movement, and our nation's attachment to the EU”. Frieda Brepoels, Belgian N-VA MEP, wonders whether the president of the European Council suffers from “political amnesia”, given that his own party, the CD&V (Flemish Christian Democrats) worked in close cooperation with the N-VA for many years. (H.B./transl.jl)