Sinn Féin has brushed aside claims that its decision to join a communist-linked group in the European Parliament will alienate its supporters in the US.
The party said yesterday that its two new MEPs, Ms Bairbre de Brún and Ms Mary Lou McDonald, had been accepted into the European United Left/ Nordic Green Left group in the Parliament.
Most MEPs affiliated to the group are communists or former communists, including members of the successor parties to the communists who governed in eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
While most of the western European parties in the group remained loyal to Moscow until the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ms de Brún said that Sinn Féin's US supporters would continue to back the party.
"I think people in America will take a commonsense approach," she said.
Noting that the party's US backers were broadly supportive of the peace process and of Sinn Féin's political development, she said there were also former communists in the Parliament's socialist group, of which Labour is a member.
Despite Ms de Brún's remarks, the Labour MEP, Mr Proinsias de Rossa, said the party's support from the Democratic and Republican traditions in the US would be unhappy with the choice of group.
"I know from what I've read over the years about the kind of people that give them money in the US that they would be entirely unhappy with the idea that the Sinn Féin organisation is now affiliated to a French communist-led group in the parliament," said Mr de Rossa.
However, both Ms de Brún and Ms McDonald stressed at a briefing in Dublin yesterday that there was no whip system in operation in the group.
They said this would enable Sinn Féin to maintain its individual political identity in cases where the party's stance differed from other members of the group.
Areas of potential divergence included nuclear issues and agriculture, said Ms McDonald.
"This is a very effective and progressive group within the Parliament, which does not operate a whip system ensuring that, for us, it is Sinn Féin's and Ireland's priorities which will come first," she said.
The chairman of the European United Left, Mr Francis Wurtz, yesterday welcomed Sinn Féin's decision to join the group.
"I have no doubt that Sinn Féin will fit well with our group. Their priorities of defending public services, refocusing the so-called 'Lisbon Agenda', eliminating poverty, protecting the environment, and promoting equality and global social justice are causes close to the hearts of all our members," he said.
Mr Wurtz, a French communist, said Sinn Féin had "something remarkable to offer" the group, particularly in view of the party's experience in Northern Ireland.
"Sinn Féin membership will reinforce our political identity as one of the most energetic, innovative and progressive political groups in the European Parliament. We hope to benefit from their expertise on conflict resolution, on defending civil rights, and on advancing politics out of stalemate and into compromise," he said.
The group is one of smallest in the Parliament. The arrival of the two Sinn Féin MEPs for Northern Ireland and Dublin will bring its membership to 41.
The European United Left group includes the Communist Parties of France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.