Strasbourg, 16/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Europe of Democracies and Diversities Group, jointly led by Danish national Jens-Peter Bonde, French national Jean Saint-Josse and Johannes Blokland from the Netherlands, this week held its first conference as a group. Mr Bonde was clear in stating that it was the only group whose members had voted against the investiture of the Prodi Commission, and the only group that had a common position on institutional matters. "We are the only opposition group", he said, once more reproaching President Prodi for not having kept his promises concerning transparency and access to documents. "The Commission clams up, and documents which were accessible before have now received the seal of secrecy", he said. Furthermore, on the subject of the referendum on 28 September on Denmark's accession to the euro, Mr Bonde commented: "this is my seventh referendum. I am used to losing, but we could also win …". Ole Krarup, Danish member of the group, felt that this referendum will have a "colossal" importance not only for Denmark, but also for the future of the European "anti-democratic" edifice, and announced that he had filed a complaint against the Danish prime minister who, he said, monopolises information during referenda.
Mr Blokland, for his part, reminded the press that his party is opposed to federalism, but that it acknowledges the fact that certain cross-border issues require action at European level (I am rapporteur on waste incineration, a question for which common rules are needed, he added). Jean-Louis Garnier (hunting, fishing) urged for subsidiarity that is "serenely" applied, and said he was "disagreeably surprised by the internal working of this Parliament" with its voting rate and the documents that arrive late … The elected members of the UK Independence Party are MEPs of a particular kind because, in fact, "we don't want to be here", said Jeffrey Titford, who affirmed that most British "want to retain the pound", and that the latest polls show that a large part of the British want their country to leave the EU … In one or two years "I may not be sitting here", concluded Mr Titford.