EU: Britain's Eurosceptic political party, the UK Independence Party, which advocates withdrawal from the EU, yesterday began its task of winning friends and influencing people in the heart of enemy territory.
Three of the party's newly re-elected MEPs arrived in Brussels seeking new allies to boost their political clout in the new European Parliament which begins its work in Strasbourg next month. The first visit since the Euro elections saw the three existing UKIP MEPs - Nigel Farage, Graham Booth and Jeffery Titford - sounding out fellow Eurosceptics from political parties in other EU member-states which boosted their fortunes in the Euro poll.
Yesterday, the three stood yards from the massive glass and steel European Parliament headquarters in Brussels, vowing to "obstruct and delay" European Parliament business as part of their mission to win British withdrawal from the EU.
UKIP quadrupled its numbers in the election to 12 MEPs, including television celebrity and former Labour Party MP, Mr Robert Kilroy-Silk. He was not in Brussels yesterday - he says he wants to go there as little as possible - but is expected next week when UKIP continues negotiations to form a large multinational political group in the parliament.
There was no hostility in Brussels - that occurred on the cross-channel ferry carrying their anti-EU trailer. Someone ripped the posters carrying the slogan: "Don't Sign the Constitution, Tony. Britain Says No". The anti-EU slogan raised some eyebrows, but Brussels is used to political factions using the EU institutions as a campaign backdrop.
Mr Farage was adamant that UKIP was not anti-European, just anti-EU. "I'm certainly not anti-European, I am married to a German." Asked what the new, enlarged UKIP presence in Europe would do, he replied: "We want to obstruct and delay legislation."
Nine Czech eurosceptic MEPs are joining their British Conservative Party colleagues as part of the political fall-out from last weekend's elections.