Accompanied by a militaristic flag-raising ceremony and the strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy — the European anthem — the new members of the most Eurosceptic European Parliament gathered in Strasbourg yesterday to begin work.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the outgoing President of the Parliament, urged MEPs to unite to freeze “anti-Europeans” out of the decision-making process for the next five years.

About a fifth of the 736 MEPs will be in groups that favour either less EU integration or withdrawal — including the 25 Conservatives, 13 UK Independence Party and two BNP members from Britain.

“I think it is very important that the pro-European MEPs co-operate well so the anti-Europeans cannot make their voices heard so strongly,” Mr Pöttering, said.

The former President, who is furious at David Cameron’s decision to leave the main centre-right group and form an anti-federalist bloc, told The Times: “[The Parliament] depends on those who are willing to unite Europe.”

References to the flag and anthem were removed from the EU constitution to tone down its trappings of statehood when it was redrafted as the Lisbon treaty after it was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands.

The Irish Republic will vote in a second referendum on the treaty on October 2.

That did not stop troops from the 1,000-strong Eurocorps garrison — consisting of soldiers from France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg — raising the gold-starred blue EU flag yesterday.

“Soldiers are part of the defence of our values of human rights, democracy and the law, and this is part of our value system of the European Union,” Mr Pöttering said.

“We do not want a European superstate — we want a European Union that is strong because no country alone can defend its interests.

“We respect the identity of our regions and our villages and counties and this makes Europe rich.”

Eurosceptics were unimpressed and members of UKIP sang the British national anthem during Ode to Joy.

Senior Conservative MEPs were dismayed at the prospect of the main centre-right group, the European People’s Party (EPP), co-ordinating with the main centre-left bloc to exclude Eurosceptics from key decisions.

Nirj Deva, a Conservative MEP, said: “What has distressed me is that the EPP is doing deals with the Socialists and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, rather than doing deals with us. On policy areas we should work together.”

In a ceremony last night to give medals to the 400 retiring MEPs Mr Pöttering said: “You were responsible for uniting the European people.”

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