An attempt to declare Belgian Liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt as the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator should be challenged and put to all 751 MEPs, a Conservative MEP said today.
Julie Girling, Conservative MEP for the South West and Gibraltar, spoke out after the parliament’s President Martin Schulz today tried to appoint the leader of the fourth largest group in the parliament as the institution’s sole negotiator on Britain’s EU departure.
Mr Verhofstadt, former Liberal Prime Minister of Belgium, is well known as an arch-federalist who want the EU turned into a fully-fledged federal United States of Europe.
Mrs Girling said: “I don’t believe that the majority of MEPs will want Mr Verhofstadt to be the lead negotiator on Brexit, it is a question for all of us to decide in a full vote of the parliament, not a backroom deal cooked up by Mr Schulz and some friends.
“I expect Conservative MEPs to challenge this and demand a full, democratic and transparent selection procedure.”
