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The European Parliament is unique among supranational assemblies because it organizes itself around ideological, rather than national, groups.¹ These political groups of the European Parliament are groups of MEPs. In some cases a Group is the formal representation of a European political party in the Parliament, in others it is a political coalition of a number of European parties, national parties and independent politicians.

Groups are not parties, but looser coalitions. But each Group is assumed to have a set of core principles, and Groups that cannot demonstrate this may be disbanded (see below). These core principles fall into distinct categories, and those categories encompass the whole range of political thought.

Requirements and privileges

Working together in Groups benefits European political parties: for example, the European Free Alliance (5 MEPs) and the European Greens (37 MEPs) have more power by working together in the European Greens–European Free Alliance Group (42 MEPs) than they would have as stand-alone parties, bringing their causes much-needed additional support. Further incentives for co-operating in Groups include financial subsidies from the Parliament and guaranteed seats on committees² which are not afforded to Independent MEPs.

For a Group to be formally recognised in the Parliament, it must fulfil the conditions laid down in Rule 29 of the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure. That Rule states that a Group must have MEPs elected in at least one-fifth of the Member States, must have at least twenty MEPs, must contain no MEP that is a member of another Group, and its MEPs must have a common political affinity. Provided these conditions are met, MEPs can theoretically create any Group they like. This was put to the test when MEPs attempted to create a far-right Group called "Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty" (ITS). This generated controversy and there were concerns about public funds going towards a far-right Group.² Attempts to block the formation of ITS were unsuccessful, but they were blocked from gaining leading positions on committees, a right meant to be afforded to all Groups.³

These events spurred MEPs, mainly from the largest two groups, to approve a rise in the threshold for groups. Following the next election, the minimum number of MEPs to form a group will be 25, and they will have to be drawn from seven rather than six states. This was opposed by many MEPs, including the Liberal group, for being detrimental to democracy, while supporters argued that 2.5% of MEPs could still form a group while making it harder fro the far right to claim EU funds (however, the new rules would also close the two other smallest groups in Parliament).⁴

Organisation

Groups may be based around a single European political party (e.g. the Socialist Group) or they can include more than one European party as well as national parties and independents⁵ (e.g. the Liberal Group).

Each Group appoints a leader, referred to as a "president", "co-ordinator" or "chair", who decides which way the Group should vote in Parliament. The chairs of each Group meet in the Conference of Presidents to decide what issues will be dealt with at the plenary session of the European Parliament. Groups can table motions for resolutions and table amendments to reports.

Current

Party relations

The Parliament does not form a government in the traditional sense and its politics have developed over consensual rather than adversarial lines.⁶ No single group has ever held a majority in Parliament.⁷ The two largest Groups are the Conservative and Christian Democrat Group (EPP-ED) and the Socialist Group (PES), which are based around the European political parties called the European People's Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (also called PES). These two Groups have dominated the Parliament for much of its life, continuously holding between 50 and 70 percent of the seats together. The Socialists were the largest single party up to 1999, when they were overtaken by the People's Party.⁸⁹

In 1987 the Single European Act came into force and, under the new cooperation procedure, the Parliament needed to obtain large majorities to make the most impact. So the People's Party and the Socialists came to an agreement to cooperate in the Parliament.¹⁰ This agreement became known as the "grand coalition" and, aside from a break in the fifth Parliament,¹¹ it has dominated the Parliament for much of its life, regardless of necessity. The grand coalition is visible in the agreement between the two Groups to divide the five-year term of the President of the European Parliament equally between them, with a Socialist President for half the term and a People's President for the other half, regardless of the actual election result.⁶

Position of the liberals

Liberal Group leader Graham Watson MEP has denounced the grand coalition and has described the aim for the liberals in the following terms: "the challenge for us is not only to break the inherent conservatism of the grand coalition, where a failing EPP Europe is propped up by a Socialist poodle pinching the crumbs from the table" also expressing a desire to ensure that the posts of Commission President, Council President, Parliament President and High Representative are not carved up in an agreement between a the two groups to the exclusion of third parties.¹²

During the fifth term it was the liberals who were involved in a break in the grand coalition when they entered into an alliance with the People's Party, to the exclusion of the Socialists.¹¹ This was reflected in the Presidency of the Parliament with the terms being shared between the EPP and the ELDR, rather than the EPP and PES¹³ as before. In the following term the liberals grew to 88 seats becoming the "Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe". This was the largest number of seats held by any third party in Parliament.¹²

Break in the coalition

However liberal intervention has not been the only cause for a break in the grand coalition. There have been specific occasions where real left-right party politics have emerged, notably the resignation of the Santer Commission. When the initial allegations against the Commission Budget emerged, they were directed primarily against the Socialists Édith Cresson and Manuel Marín. PES supported the Commission and saw the issue as an attempt by the EPP to discredit their party ahead of the 1999 elections. EPP disagreed. Whilst the Parliament was considering rejecting the Community budget, President Jacques Santer argued that a "No" vote would be tantamount to a vote of no confidence. PES leader Pauline Green MEP attempted a vote of confidence and the EPP put forward counter motions. During this period the two Groups adopted a government-opposition dynamic, with PES supporting the executive and EPP renouncing its previous coalition support and voting it down.¹⁴

In 2004 there was another notable break in the grand coalition. It occurred over the nomination of Rocco Buttiglione as European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security. The People's Party supported the appointment of Buttiglione, while the Socialists, who were also critics of the President-designate Jose Manuel Barroso, led the parties seeking Buttiglione's removal following his rejection (the first in EU history) by a Parliamentary committee. Barroso initially stood by his team and offered only small concessions, which were rejected by the Socialists. The People's Party demanded that if Buttiglione were to go, then a Socialist commissioner must also be sacrificed for balance.¹⁵ In the end, Italy withdrew Buttiglione and put forward Franco Frattini instead. Frattini won the support of the Socialists and the Barroso Commission was finally approved, albeit behind schedule.¹⁶ Politicisation such as the above has been increasing, with Simon Hix of the London School of Economics noting in 2007 that¹⁷

History

Political groups at each election.

Conservative/Christian Democrat (CD,EPP (79-92),EPP (92-99),FE,EPP-ED)      Conservatives only (C,ED,MER)      Social Democrats (S,SOC,PES)      Communist/Far-Left (COM,LU,EUL,EUL/NGL)      Liberal/Centrist (L,LD,LDR,ERA,ELDR,ALDE)      National Conservatives (UDE,EPD,EDA,UFE,UEN)      Greens only (G)      Green/Regionalist (RBW (84-89),RBW (89-94),G/EFA)      Heterogeneous (CDI,TGI)      Independents (NI)      Eurosceptics (EN,I-EN,EDD,IND/DEM)      Far-Right Nationalist (ER,DR,ITS)

Overview

The first three Groups were established in the earliest days of the Parliament. They were the "Socialist Group" (which eventually became PES), the "Christian Democrat Group" (later EPP-ED) and the "Liberals and Allies Group" (later ALDE).

As the Parliament developed, other Groups emerged. Gaullists from France founded the European Democratic Union Group.¹⁸ When Conservatives from Denmark and the United Kingdom joined, they created the European Conservatives Group, which (after some name changes) eventually merged with the European People's Party Group.¹⁹

The 1979 first direct election established further groups and the establishment of European political parties such as the European People's Party.²⁰ A full breakdown of Groups by complexion and timeline is given below.

Far-Right Nationalists

In European politics, a grouping of nationalist parties constitute the sector often labelled as 'far right'. They have found it difficult to cohere in a continuous Group: their distaste for other countries and the European Union make it difficult for them to form and maintain pan-European coalitions, and the distaste of other MEPs for them makes it difficult for them to translate any coalitions into a Group. The first far-right Group was founded by the French National Front and the Italian Social Movement in 1984¹⁸²¹ under the name of the "Group of the European Right",¹⁸²¹ and it lasted until 1989.²¹²² Its successor, the "Technical Group of the European Right",²³²¹ existed from 1989²¹ to 1994.²¹ There was then a gap of thirteen years until "Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty"²⁴ was founded on 15 January 2007,²⁴ which lasted for nearly eleven months until it fell apart on 14 November 2007 due to in-fighting.²⁵

In January 2008, leaders of far-right parties across four countries announced another attempt at a pan-European far-right European political party, provisionally called the "European Patriotic Party".²⁶²⁷ Should they be successful and elect sufficient MEPs under that banner, then another far-right Group may be formed.

National Conservatives

Parties from certain European countries have been unwilling to join the centre right European People's Party group. These parties generally have a national conservative agenda. The first such Group was formed when the French Gaullists split from the Liberal Group on 21 January 1965³¹ and created a new Group called the "European Democratic Union"³²¹⁸ (not to be confused with the association of conservative and Christian-democratic parties founded in 1978 called the European Democrat Union nor the Conservative Group called the "European Democratic Group" founded in 1979). The Group was renamed on 16 January 1973³¹ to the "Group of European Progressive Democrats"³³³⁴ when the Gaullists were joined by the Irish centrist Fianna Fáil and by regionalist social-democratic Scottish National Party, and renamed itself again on July 24, 1984³¹ to the "Group of the European Democratic Alliance".¹⁸³⁴ The European Democratic Alliance joined with MEPs from Forza Italia to became the "Group Union for Europe"³⁵³⁶ on July 6, 1995,³¹ but it didn't last and the Forza Italia MEPs left on 15 June 1998 to join EPP,³¹ leaving Union for Europe to struggle on until it split on July 20, 1999.³¹ The RPR members joined EPP,³¹ but Fianna Fáil and the Portuguese Democratic and Social Center / People's Party members joined a new group called "Union for Europe of the Nations Group".³⁷

Conservatives/Christian Democrats

In European politics, the centre-right is usually occupied by Christian democrats or by conservatives. The two strands have had a tangled relationship in the Parliament. The first Christian Democrat Group was founded in 1953³² and stayed with that name for a quarter of a century. Meanwhile outside the Parliament, local Christian-democratic parties were organising and eventually formed the pan-national political party called the "European People's Party" on April 29, 1976. Since all the Christian-democratic MEPs were members of this pan-European party, the Group's name was changed to indicate this: first to the "Christian-Democratic Group (Group of the European People's Party)"²⁰⁴⁰ on March 14, 1978,²⁰ then to "Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)"³⁵²⁰⁴⁰ on July 17, 1979.²⁰ Meanwhile, on January 16, 1973,¹⁹ the "European Conservative Group"³² was formed by the British and Danish Conservative parties, which had recently joined the EEC. This group was renamed to the "European Democratic Group"¹⁸⁴¹ on July 17, 1979.¹⁹ The EPP Group grew during the '80s, with parties such as the Greek New Democracy and Spanish Partido Popular that were not explicitly Christian Democratic joining the Group. In contrast, the number of MEPs in the European Democratic Group fell over the same period and it eventually merged with the EPP Group on 1 May 1992.¹⁹ This consolidation of the centre-right continued during the '90s, with MEPs from the highly heterogeneous centre-right Italian Forza Italia eventually settling down into the EPP Group on 15 June 1998,³¹ after spending nearly a year (19 July 1994³¹ to July 6, 1995³¹) in their own Group, self-referentially called "Forza Europa", and nearly three years (July 6, 1995³¹ to 15 June 1998³¹) in the national-conservative Group called "Union for Europe". But the Conservatives were growing restless and on July 20, 1999³² the EPP Group was renamed³² to the "Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats"⁴² in order to identify the Conservative parties within the Group. The Group remains under that name to this day. Although for the sake of brevity, it's usually called "People's" or "EPP-ED".

Liberals/Centrists

In European politics, liberalism tends to be associated with classical liberalism, which advocates limited government intervention in society in general. However, the Liberal Group contains parties ranging from centre-right conservative liberalism to centre-left progressive liberalism. It has also been home to parties such as the Gaullist Union for the New Republic and the centre-right Portuguese Social-Democrats that were not explicitly liberal, but who were not aligned with either the Socialist or the Christian Democratic Groups. The Liberal Group was founded on June 23, 1953⁴⁵ under the name of the "Group of Liberals and Allies".⁴⁵ As the Parliament grew, it changed its name to the "Liberal and Democratic Group"³²⁴⁵ (1976⁴⁵), then to the "Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group "⁴⁶ (December 13, 1985⁴⁵), then to the "Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party"³⁵³²⁴⁵ (July 19, 1994⁴⁵) before settling on its present name of the "Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe"⁴⁵ on July 20, 2004,⁴⁵ when the Group was joined by the centrist and social-liberal parties that formed the European Democratic Party.

Between 1994 and 1999 there was a separate progressive-liberal "European Radical Alliance", which consisted out of MEPs of the progressive-liberal French Left Radical Party, the Italian left-libertarian Lista Bonino (of the Italian Radicals) and regionalists aligned with the European Free Alliance.⁴⁷

Social Democrats

In Western Europe, socialist/social democratic parties have been the dominant centre-left force since the dawn of modern European cooperation. The Socialist Group was one of the first Groups to be founded when it was created on 23 June 1953⁵⁴ in the European Parliament's predecessor, the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, and continued through the creation of the appointed Parliament in 1958 and the elected Parliament in 1979. Meanwhile, the national parties making up the Group were also organising themselves on a European level outside the Parliament, with the parties creating the "Confederation of Socialist Parties of the European Community" in 1974³²⁵⁵⁵⁶ and its successor, the "Party of European Socialists", in 1992.⁵⁵⁵⁶ As a result, the Group (which had kept its "Socialist Group" name all along) was renamed to the "Group of the Party of European Socialists" on 21 April 1993⁵⁴ and it became difficult to distinguish between PES (the group) and PES (the party). The Group reverted to (approximately) its former name of the "Socialist Group in the European Parliament"⁴² on 20 July 2004⁵⁴ and was given a different logo, making it easier to distinguish the Group from the party. Despite all this, the Group is still universally referred to as "PES".

Communists/Far-Left

The first Communist Group in the European Parliament was the "Communist and Allies Group"¹⁸ founded on 16 October 1973.⁶⁰ It stayed together until 25 July 1989⁶⁰ when it split into two groups, the "Left Unity" Group¹⁸ with 14¹⁸ members and the "Group of the European United Left"⁶⁰ (EUL) with 28¹⁸ members. EUL collapsed in January 1993⁶¹ after the Italian Communist Party changed its name to Democratic Party of the Left and its MEPs joined the Socialist Group, leaving Left Unity as the only leftist group before the 1994 elections.⁶¹ The name was resurrected immediately after the elections when the "Confederal Group of the European United Left"⁶⁰ was formed on 19 July 1994.⁶⁰ On 6 January 1995,⁶⁰ when parties from Sweden and Finland joined, the Group was further renamed to the "Confederal Group of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left" and it has stayed that way to the present.

Greens/Regionalists

In European politics, there has been a coalition between the Greens (who support green politics) and the stateless nationalists or regionalists (who also support devolution). In 1984⁵⁰ Greens and Regionalists gathered into the "Rainbow Group",¹⁸ a coalition of Greens, regionalists and other parties of the left unaffiliated with any of the international organizations. In 1989⁵⁰¹⁸ Rainbow split. The Greens went off to form the "Green Group", whilst the Regionalists stayed in Rainbow. Rainbow collapsed in 1994⁵⁰ and its members joined the "European Radical Alliance" under the centre-left French Left Radical Party. The Greens and Regionalists stayed separate until 1999,³²⁵⁰ when they reunited under the "Greens/European Free Alliance"⁴²³² banner.

Eurosceptics

The specifically European school of political thought that states that the competences of the European Union should be reduced or prevented from expanding further, is represented in the European Parliament by the eurosceptics. The first Eurosceptic group in the European Parliament was founded on July 19, 1994.⁷⁰ It was called the "European Nations Group"⁷⁰ and it lasted until November 10, 1996.⁷⁰ Its successor was the "Group of Independents for a Europe of Nations",³⁵⁷¹ founded on December 20, 1996.⁷⁰ Following the 1999 election, the Group was reorganised into the "Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities"⁴²³² on July 20, 1999,⁷⁰ and similarly reorganised after the 2004 election into the "Independence/Democracy Group"⁷² on July 20, 2004.⁷⁰

Heterogeneous

A Group is assumed to have a set of core principles ("affinities" or "complexion") to which the full members are expected to adhere. This throws up an anomaly: Groups get money and seats on Committees which Independent members do not get, but the total amount of Independent members may be greater than the members of the smaller Groups. In 1979 MEPs got round this by forming a Technical Group (formally called the "Group for the Technical Coordination and Defence of Independent Groups and Members",⁷⁵ or "CDI"⁷⁶ for short) as a coalition of parties ranging from centre-left to far left, which were not aligned with any of the major international organizations.⁷⁷ CDI lasted until 1984.⁵⁰ On 20 July 1999,⁷⁸ another Technical Group was formed, (formally called the "Technical Group of Independent Members – mixed group"⁷⁹ or "TGI"²⁸⁷⁸ for short). Since it contained far-right MEPs and centre-left MEPs, it could not possibly be depicted as having a common outlook. The Committee on Constitutional Affairs promptly ruled⁸⁰ that TGI did not have a coherent political complexion, Parliament upheld (412 to 56 with 36 abstentions) the ruling,⁸¹ and TGI was promptly disbanded on 13 September 1999,⁸¹ the first Group to be forcibly dissolved. But it didn't end there: The ruling was appealed to the European Court of First Instance⁸¹ (not the French Court of First Instance, whose acronym is also, confusingly, "TGI") and the Group was temporarily resurrected on December 1, 1999⁸² until the Court came to a decision.⁸² On October 3, 2001, President Fontaine announced that the Court of First Instance had declared against the appeal⁸³and that the disbandment was back in effect from October 2, 2001, the date of the declaration.⁸⁴ TGI appeared on the list of Political Groups in the European Parliament for the last time on October 4, 2001.⁸⁵ Since then the requirement that Groups have a coherent political complexion has been enforced (as ITS later found out), and "mixed" Groups are not expected to appear again.

Independents

Independent MEPs that are not in a Group are categorised as "Non-Inscrits" (the French term is universally used, even in English translations). This null-Group has no Group privileges or funding, and is included here solely for completion.

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