The UK’s Conservative Party does not sit with other mainstream centre-right parties in the European Parliament as a member of the European People’s Party, but instead sits in a smaller group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Tim Bale assesses some of the challenges the party might face after the European Parliament elections on 22-25 May. He notes that with opinion polls predicting a difficult result for the Conservatives and some of their ECR allies, the party will face a dilemma over how to strengthen its position within the parliament, while also balancing discontent in his own party in the run up to the UK general election in 2015