Beppe Grillo's 5 Star Movement rejoins EFDD group

The Italian 5 Star Movement's MEPs have rejoined the EFDD group they co-founded with UKIP just 48 hours after leaving to attempt to join the federalist ALDE group led by Guy Verhofstadt.

The ALDE group rejected Beppe Grillo's application to join their pro-EU, anti-democracy alliance which would have meant the 5 Star Movement's MEPs sitting with the non-inscrits ("independent" MEPs) with little in the way of funding to do their jobs.

Reports suggest that some changes have been made to how the group is run to get Grillo and his colleagues back on board but they don't say what. Details will no doubt come out in the media soon enough once the UKIP-hating left wing press have got over their disappointment that the EFDD group hasn't folded and lost Nigel Farage his front seat and speaking rights.

Italian 5 Star Movement leave EFDD group to seek membership of federalist ALDE

The Italian 5 Star Movement have voted to leave the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group they co-founded with UKIP and join the pro-EU, anti-democracy Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) group headed up by Guy Verhofstadt.

It's not that surprising that the 5 Star Movement is looking to the future without UKIP in the EU Parliament but it's quite bizarre that a party founded on the core principal of securing a referendum on leaving the €uro and introducing direct democracy would join a grouping that is fundamentally opposed to both of those ideals.

The ALDE group has to vote on whether to accept Beppe Grillo's motley crew of anarchists but despite some strong opposition in the group to the 5 Star Movement's lack of commitment to the EU project the fact that it will bring them more money to UKIP's disadvantage will smooth the way to their joining.

There will be a reduction in funding to the EFDD group to reflect its smaller size going forward but the overall effect will be somewhat muted as Grillo's party received a sizeable chunk of it as the second largest delegation. It does leave the EFDD group in a precarious position, potentially needing only to lose a single MEP to fall short of the country requirements to form an official group. The other groups will be working hard to poach one of the EFDD members to force it to fold as they have done in the past but something usually turns up when this happens, much to their dismay.

The decision hasn't gone down too well in Italy where Grillo has been criticised by politicians on the left and the right and by Italians who feel let down that he has aligned his party with a group of federalist politicians.

Labour MP accuses Nigel Farage of misusing EU funds

Labour MP, Wes Streeting, has reported Nigel Farage to the EU for using EU funding to partly pay for his Say no to the EU tour of the UK.

Streeting wrote to the unelected president of the EU Commission, Martin Schultz, asking him to investigate whether Farage has broken any rules by using money allocated to the EFDD for his tour. He said "Nigel Farage has a catalogue of questions to answer about whether he is spending taxpayers’ money on his campaign and breaching European Parliament rules".

MEP groups in the EU Parliament are given funding to pay for their administration, producing information about the EU, EU election campaigns and meetings and conferences where the expenditure is "directly linked to the objectives set out in the party's political programme".

The Say no the EU tour is part of the EFDD group's political programme to give UK citizens information on how the EU works and why we would be better off out. The tour is an EFDD event headed by EFDD co-president, Nigel Farage MEP. It is directly linked to the objectives set out in the EFDD's political program which is to promote freedom and co-operation between member states; more democracy and respect of peoples' will; respect for Europe's history, traditions and cultural values and; respect for national differences and interests.

Labour know that public opinion is against them in their irrational crusade to keep the UK shackled to an undemocratic, morally and financially bankrupt European Union and that is why they are resorting to such desperate measures to close down the flow of information from the EFDD group.

Polish MEP saves EFDD group

The Europe of Freedom & Direct Democracy (EFDD) Group has been saved by Polish MEP, Robert Iwaszkiewicz.

Iwaszkiewicz is a member of the KNP, a right wing conservative libertarian party. The EFDD group are arguing that Iwaszkiewicz joined the group before Iveta Grigule was bribed to leave the group by Martin Schultz so the group was never legitimately disbanded. The powers that be disagree of course and are going to drag out reconstituting the group as long as possible.

EFDD group dissolved after Schultz bribes member to resign

The Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group that UKIP formed in the EU Parliament has been forcibly dissolved after the supposedly-neutral president of the EU Parliament, Martin Schultz, bribed Iveta Grigule MEP to leave the group.

Grigule told EFDD staff that Schultz told her she had to resign from the group to get the presidency of the EU delegation to Kazakhstan.

Dissolving the EFDD group is a big prize for Schultz. UKIP and other EFDD group members have been denied seats on committees that they should have had under the D'Hondt system since the start of the parliament and every effort was made to try and prevent the group from being formed in the first place. Unless another MEP from another country not currently represented in the EFDD group can be convinced to join, Nigel Farage will get less talking time in the EU Parliament and a valuable source of funding for all the members of the EFDD will be lost, along with the jobs it creates.

UKIP committee members in the EU Parliament

One of the reasons why it's so important to form a group in the EU Parliament is that it increases the number of inside men (and women) we have on committees, seeing first hand what is working its way through the bureaucratic mess that passes for a legislative system and having the opportunity to filter out some of the more dangerous and outrageous suggestions before they get to the puppet parliament.

Here are the committee appointments for UKIP members of the EFDD group:

Committee	Member 1	Member 2
Foreign Affairs	Jim Carver
Development	Nathan Gill
International Trade	William Dartmouth
Budgets	Jonathan Arnott
Budgetary Control	Jonathan Arnott
Economic & Monetary Affairs	Patrick O'Flynn	Steve Woolfe
Employment & Social Affairs	Jane Collins
Industry, Research & Energy	Roger Helmer
Internal Market & Consumer Protection	Amjid Bashir	Margot Parker
Transport & Tourism	Jill Seymour
Regional Development	Bill Etheridge	Julia Reid
Agriculture & Rural Development	Stuart Agnew
Fisheries	David Coburn	Ray Finch
Culture & Education	Louise Bours
Civil Liberties, Justice & Home Affairs	Gerard Batten
Women's Rights & Gender Equality	Margot Parker
Petitions	Tim Aker
Human Rights	Amjad Bashir
Security & Defence	Mike Hookem