A major split has emerged in Fianna Fáil between party headquarters and its MEPs over plans to align the party with a new political grouping in the European Parliament. Joe Humphreys reports.
The Minister of State for Europe, Mr Dick Roche, has led calls from within Fianna Fáil for the party to scrap its alliance with the right-leaning Union of Europe of the Nations (UEN), and move to a "more mainstream grouping".
But the party's North West MEP Mr Seán Ó Neachtain has expressed strong reservations about joining a proposed new liberal alliance because of its likely stance on abortion, federalism and CAP.
"I am not going into any political group that does not fulfil the political philosophy I hold," he told The Irish Times.
"This new centrist group will be dominated by liberals and I would be very, very concerned about their attitudes to certain issues, like abortion. From my experience their members have been very, very pro-abortion. The second thing is their stance on agriculture. Time and again their voting patterns have been anti-CAP. Also, they are very strongly pro-federal, which would not be compatible with my thinking."
Mr Brian Crowley, one of Fianna Fáil's three other MEPs, and the only other such parliamentarian to be re-elected, has signalled support for Mr Ó Neachtain's stance.
But Mr Roche said "abortion has nothing to do with any debate", as it was not within the competence of the European Parliament to deal with the issue.
Moreover, the question of federalism had been dealt with by the new European Constitution, and should not be a point of contention.
"The UEN has served us very well in the past, but the sands are shifting within the European Parliament. My personal view is that it would be more appropriate for us to be in a more mainstream grouping."
He said he didn't believe Fianna Fáil would join the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest group in the parliament, as Fine Gael was already a member. He added the future of the UEN had already been thrown into doubt by the failure of a number of members to be re-elected, including current leader, the French right-wing MEP, Mr Charles Pasqua.