A new group of about 80 Euroskeptic members of Parliament met for the first time September 12 to stimulate new thinking on Britain’s relationship with Europe. Ever since former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s downfall, being opposed to Europe has been a bad career move for MPs. But this movement could be different; Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague appeared to support it in an interview with the Times on Saturday.

One of their first acts has been to support a bill calling for Parliament to be given the power to veto the appointment of British judges to the European Court of Justice. “If the move is adopted by ministers it would represent a significant power shift back to Westminster and possibly pave the way for MPs to win the right to approve more key British appointments to the EU—including even commissioners,” reports the Telegraph.

Hague said that party leaders would not try to discipline the Euroskeptics. “It’s certainly not career suicide,” he said.

So far, Euroskeptics have been disappointed in Hague’s support of Europe. His statements could signal a turnaround.

While he was in Marseille for a G-7 meeting on the weekend, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the European Union will need a new treaty. The Telegraph reported that Osborne said Hague is creating a list of demands of powers that must be returned to Britain in return for Britain’s support for the new treaty.

“To us,” wrote think tank Open Europe, “it seems increasingly as though the UK government has made a policy shift over recent weeks, and is now openly acknowledging that the aim is to bring some powers back should a new EU treaty be up for negotiation.”

While Britain wants to reduce the EU’s powers, other nations want to expand them. Leaders of France and Germany have written a letter to the European commissioner for taxation and customs, Algirdas Šemeta, calling for the EU to approve a financial transaction tax. And last week, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said that although he didn’t think the EU would gain much more taxing and spending power, “we need more tax coordination, certainly, in the field of corporate taxes.”

The EU and the UK are plainly moving in opposite directions. They cannot remain together much longer.