Brussels, 03/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - Mr Castagnetti, Secretary of the PPI (Partito Popolare italiano), has announced that, at the meeting of the Bureau of the European People's Party on 10 February in Brussels, he will request the expulsion from the EPP of the Österreichische Volkspartëi (it will be recalled that in Belgium, PSC President Joëlle Milquet has also called for such expulsion).
Such a decision "seems logical to me", said François Bayrou, MEP and President of the UDF and also Chair of the EPP "Council", speaking to journalists in Brussels. "When one is in direct contradiction with one's ideal, no excuse will do", he said, adding that "this debate is not a debate on Austria, it is a debate on Europe". Mr Bayrou observed that, during discussions in the EPP Group preceding Wednesday afternoon's debate in plenary, two positions came to the fore: that of Group Chair Mr Pöttering, who confirmed his confidence in the ÖVP, and "mine, a very different position", he stated. And he noted that support for his position was astonishingly high and that it came from Spanish, Greek, all Benelux and some Italian members. "We are not yet a majority" in favour of expulsion of the ÖVP from the EPP, but whereas at the start of the group's meeting this position was supported by a little less than one third of members, at the end it had the support of markedly more than a third, he stated.
The French Greens in the European Parliament have urged the EPP to "accept its responsibilities and expel ÖVP members. Further, considering Article 6 of the Treaty "too limited", they call on the Council and Commission to make the Charter of Fundamental Rights now being elaborated a "binding legal tool, fully integrated into the preamble of a future European constitution".