Tories appoint Irishman as secretary general of group

THE British Tories have formed their own group in the European Parliament and appointed Irishman Frank Barrett as secretary general.

The son of the late Sylvie Barrett, a Clare Fianna Fáil TD and minister, Mr Barrett held a similar position with the UEN group for the past 10 years.

The Fianna Fáil MEPs belonged to the UEN and South MEP Brian Crowley was its co-president for the past five years. But their three MEPs are now in the process of moving to the Liberals after Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted they belong to a more mainstream group.

Two groups from the UEN have joined the Tories – a party from Latvia with one MEP and the Polish Law and Justice Party with 15 MEPs.

According to reports, the Poles – the second largest delegation in the new group – proposed Mr Barrett for the job that carries a salary of at least €150,000 net a year.

Last week, Mr Barrett denied he had been offered the job or was about to accept it.

He was not available for comment yesterday.

The Tories moved from the European People’s Party, the largest in the parliament, some weeks ago as their leader, David Cameron, had promised, saying the EPP was too pro-EU and federalist for them.

The new group will be known as the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the 26 Tory MEPs will form the largest delegation.

So far they have 55 MEPs in total from eight countries and say they expect to be the fourth largest group in the parliament.

The group intends to attract further members over the next few weeks.

The Taoiseach has yet to appoint who will be the leader of the delegation, which could go to Mr Crowley.