Brussels, 11/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Having remained tight-lipped over the subject in recent weeks, Syed Kamall, the British leader of the ECR group of the European Parliament, publicly took position in favour of the United Kingdom leaving the EU, in an interview with the Evening Standard of Friday 4 March.
The leader of the third-largest political group of the EP is therefore distancing himself from the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who hopes that the British will vote in favour of staying in the EU on 23 June, in the referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the EU.
This position is also poles apart from that of the MEP Ashley Fox, 'leader' of the British MEPs of the ECR group who, the day after the agreement reached by the 28 on the outlines of the renegotiation of the British membership of the EU (see EUROPE 11495), immediately announced that he would be campaigning to keep the country in.
In his interview with the Evening Standard, the leader of the ECR group explained that his choice is based on the fact that EU rules penalise the migration of talent from third countries to the UK. “People should be treated equally whether they come from Austria or Australia, Croatia or the Caribbean, India or Italy”, he said. “Unfortunately, this is not possible within the EU”.
Kamall also explained that great uncertainty subsists over the next steps with political integration following a positive vote in favour of keeping the UK in the EU, which, he said, the Commission is planning, for instance by means of a European army. However, the MEP also admitted that leaving the EU could have certain consequences, such as the delocalisation of jobs and commerce out of the City of London.
Over at the EP, particularly within the largest group in terms of numbers, one source commented that Kamall is within his rights to choose a side, just as as it is the right of his group to receive European funding.
Other groups said that this “comes as no surprise”, as one source from the ALDE group said, with Guy Verhofstadt having already “drawn attention to Kamall's ambiguous position on a number of occasions”, such as the plenary session in Strasbourg on 24 February, when the Briton's absence from a debate on the United Kingdom in the EU was very much remarked upon. This source added that it is now an “internal matter” to decide whether or not Kamall should continue at the helm of the EP's third-largest group. In any case, this once again shows the enormous “divisions” within the ECR group, the source added.
The German AfD MEP Beatrix von Storch, who is also a member of the ECR group, called for Kamall to step down from his position as president of the ECR group. ( Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)