Van Buitenen weigert lidmaatschap anti-EU fractie in Europees Parlement (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Plans to form a new anti-EU group in the European Parliament are reaching the last stages and are expected to be announced early next week.

The new group, in an attempt to get as many MEPs on board as possible, will have two different wings - which will be separated by their degree of being anti-EU.

One of these wings will be headed by Jens-Peter Bonde, the Danish eurosceptic.

The veteran MEP, who says he is against complete withdrawal from the EU, will be joined on this side of the fence by the Swedish eurosceptic Junemovement, the French Mouvement Pour la France, and Dutch MEPs from the ChristenUnie.

Making up the other wing, will be the more hardcore anti-EU groups - the UK Independence Party and the nationalist Roman Catholic Polish League of Families - who advocate withdrawal from the EU.

Paul Van Buitenen, the Dutch MEP whose party won seats on a transparency ticket, and who was also expected to join the group, is now set to join the Greens.

Co-presidency

There will be two co-presidents of the group - one will be Mr Bonde and the other, UKIP MEP Nigel Farage.

"The one thing that really unites us is the Constitution", says Mr Farage, whose party wants UK citizens to say no to the recently-agreed treaty in a referendum and then for Britain to leave the EU.

Mr Bonde, meanwhile, has said working against the Constitution will be his main platform during the coming five years.

The groups is expected to have over 30 MEPs, and, as one insider put it, is set to be "very vocal" in this parliament.

Fresh name

The group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD), where Mr Bonde and UKIP MEPs sat during the last parliamentary term will be given a "new face".

Buoyed by their election performance two weeks ago which gave them 12 seats (up from 3), the UKIP MEPs want a fresh name that reflects their fundamental aim.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Robert Kilroy Silk, a TV celebrity in the UK and now MEP, said it could be called the "out of Europe" group.

Mr Farage said this is still one of the things that has to be decided when negotiations on the group are finalised on Tuesday (29 June).