Bruges Group
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The Bruges Group is a euro-sceptic think tank which is often associated with the British Conservative Party (although this has been disputed). It claims to be an all-party group but its Honorary President is the Baroness Thatcher, its co-chairs are Brian Hindley and Norman Lamont, and its Director is Robert Oulds. It has no non-Conservative politicians on its board. It is considered to be the common ancestor of many UK euro-sceptic parties and groups that emerged in the 1990s.
Originally set up by Oxford University student Patrick Robertson following Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech in September 1988, the group quickly became a focus for mounting euro-scepticism, stoked by the speeches of then EU Commission president Jacques Delors.
The group was considered highly influential during the period 1988 - 1993 and a rallying point for rebellious backbench Conservative MPs during House of Commons debates over the Maastricht Treaty. At the height of its influence, Robertson briefly attempted to break the group out of its Westminster base. An Oxford branch was set up (under Roland Smith) with important links to Oxford University's rapidly growing euro-sceptic movement led by student Daniel Hannan - later a newspaper columnist and Conservative MEP. The group then went through a difficult period. Dr Alan Sked, a leading academic associated with the group, fell out with other leading members during 1991-1992. Sked went on to form the withdrawalist party the Anti-Federalist League which later evolved into the UK Independence Party.
Robertson left the group a short time later and, after some work with the World Economic Forum, emerged as an adviser to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party (later the Democracy Movement).
The group continued however and has been reinvigorated in recent years under the directorship of Oulds. It continues to publish and is active on the World Wide Web. Some of its leading lights are active in the blogosphere (e.g. Dr Helen Szamuely and Dr Richard North at the EU Referendum blog).
Some critics suggest the group's moment in history has passed and that British and particularly Conservative euro-scepticism has steadily become mainstream since 1988.[citation needed] Others within the group counter that much of mainstream euro-scepticism has insufficient substance, remains too concerned about working within the EU and tends to focus too easily on particular symptoms of Europeanism such as the Euro or the EU constitution.[citation needed]
