MEP Raffaele Fitto has today joined the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, Europe’s fastest-growing force calling for EU reform. The news comes as Mr Fitto launches a new Conservative and Reformist movement in Italy that will mirror the ECR’s message of stimulating economic growth through lower taxation and helping enterprises to grow and create jobs, particularly by cutting bureaucracy.

MEP Raffaele Fitto has today joined the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, Europe’s fastest-growing force calling for EU reform. The news comes as Mr Fitto launches a new Conservative and Reformist movement in Italy that will mirror the ECR’s message of stimulating economic growth through lower taxation and helping enterprises to grow and create jobs, particularly by cutting bureaucracy.

The new movement will immediately become heavily involved in the work of the ECR – a pan-European grouping with 73 MEPs from 16 EU countries. The Italian Conservative and Reformist movement will play an active role at the Alliance of ECR parties’ meeting in Winchester, UK, from the 21st-23rd May, where UK ECR member The Conservative Party has just won the General Election. The delegation will include Raffaele Fitto , Leader of the Movement; Daniele Capezzone, President of the Finance Committee of the Italian Chamber; and Mrs Susy De Martini, Italian Representative of the ECR Group.

The following week, on the 26th May, ECR chairman Syed Kamall MEP, along with the President of the New Direction Foundation, Geoffrey Van Orden MEP, will travel to Rome for the first conference of the new Italian Conservative and Reformist party, entitled, “A New Direction for the Italian Centre Right.”

ECR Group Chairman Syed Kamall MEP welcomed the decision of the ECR to grant full membership to Mr Fitto. He said:

“We welcome Raffaele Fitto to the ECR Group, an organisation that has gone from being a new group just six years ago, to the third largest group in the European Parliament today.

“We wish Raffaele our full support in creating a centre-right movement that looks to the challenges that Italy faces in the future, as we are building a Europe-wide movement that does the same. We believe it is time we stopped with the old faces and ideas of the past, and embraced the challenges of the 2050s. We look forward to our cooperation as we continue to build an alliance for reform right across the EU.”