In June 1999 he was elected to the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber becoming the Conservative spokesman on justice and home affairs and the Chief Whip of the delegation that year. He also served on the Culture, Media, Arts Education and Youth Committee between 1999 and 2002. Then, in 2002, he became the Conservative Party representative on the Convention on the Future of Europe, established to consider the future course for Europe. In the course of that work he was one of those responsible for the proposal of what would become Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2005. In 2002, he was re-selected by Conservative members in Yorkshire and The Humber to head the list of candidates in the European elections in June 2004.