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European United Left–Nordic Green Left European Parliament group
EUL/NGL logo
Name	European United Left–Nordic Green Left
English abbr.	EUL/NGL1
French abbr.	GUE/NGL23
Formal name	Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left425
Ideology	Democratic socialism, Communism, Eco-socialism
European parties	Party of the European Left
Associated organizations	Nordic Green Left Alliance
From	6 January 19956
To	n/a
Preceded by	Confederal Group of the European United Left
Succeeded by	n/a
Chaired by	Alonso José Puerta,5 Francis Wurtz
MEP(s)	42 (July 20, 1999), 41 (July 20, 2004), 40 (present)
Website	http://www.guengl.org/showPage.jsp

European United Left–Nordic Green Left is a democratic socialist, eco-socialist and communist political group with seats in the European Parliament since 1995.

Contents 1 Organisation 2 Subgroups 3 Position 4 History 5 Membership 6 Member parties 7 Sources 8 References

Organisation

The GUE-NGL is a confederal group: it is composed of MEPs from national parties. Those national parties must share common political objectives with the group, as specified in the group's constituent declaration. Nevertheless, those national parties, not the group, retain control of their MEPs. Thus, the Group may be divided on certain issues.

Members of the group meet regularly to prepare for meetings, debate on policies and vote on resolutions. The group also publishes reports on various topics (World Trade Organization, asbestos, sexual slavery, et al).

Subgroups

It combines the European United Left subgroup (which consists of a core of parties that are in the Party of the European Left and a periphery of unaffiliated leftist parties) and the Nordic Green Left subgroup consisting of MEPs from the Nordic Green Left Alliance parties of Sweden and Finland.

Position

The group is opposed to the present European political structure, but "deeply committed to the construction of Europe", as specified in the group's constituent declaration.⁷ That declaration sets out three aims for the construction of another Europe: the total change of institutions to make them "fully democratic"; a new model of development and ecology aimed at creating a "social space" and breaking with neoliberalism; and a policy of co-development and equitable cooperation.

The group is ambiguous between reformism and revolution, leaving it up to each party to decide on the manner they deem best suited to achieve these aims. As such, it has simultaneously positioned itself as "insiders" within the European institutions, enabling it to influence the decisions made by co-decision, and as "outsiders" by its willingness to seek "another Union" which would abolish the Maastricht Treaty.

History

In 1995, the enlargement of the European Union led to the creation of the Nordic Green Left. The Nordic Green Left merged with the Confederal Group of the European United Left on 6 January 1995,⁶and the resultant Group was called the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left.⁴²⁵ It consisted of MEPs from the Finnish Left Alliance, Swedish Left Party, the Danish Socialist People's Party, United Left of Spain (including the Spanish Communist Party), the Greek Synaspismos, the French Communist Party, Portuguese Communist Party, the Communist Party of Greece, and the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy.

In 1999, the German Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and the Greek Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI) joined as full members, while the five MEPs elected from the list of the French Trotskyist alliance LO-LCR joined as associate members.

In 2002, four MEPs from the French Citizen and Republican Movement‎ also joined the group.

In 2004, no MEPs were elected from LO-LCR and DIKKI was dissolved. MEPs from the Portuguese Left Bloc, the Irish Sinn Féin, the Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) and the Czech Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia joined the group.

Membership

MEPs may be full or associate members.

• Full members must accept the constitutional declaration of the Group.
• Associate members need not fully do so but may sit with the full members.

National parties may be full or associate members.

• Full member parties must accept the constitutional declaration of the Group.
• Associate member parties may include parties that do not have MEPs (e.g. French Trotskyist parties which did not get elected in the 2004 European elections), are from states that are not part of the European Union, or do not wish to be full members.

Member parties

The following national political parties are full or associate members.

Country	National Member Party	Subgroup	MEPs
Cyprus	Progressive Party of Working People	UEL²	2
Czech Republic	Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia	UEL²	6
Finland	Left Alliance	NGL	1
France	French Communist Party	UEL1	3
Germany	The Left	UEL1	7
Greece	Communist Party of Greece	UEL³	3
	Synaspismos	UEL1	1
Ireland	Sinn Féin	UEL³	1
United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)			1
Italy	Communist Refoundation Party	UEL1	5
	Party of Italian Communists	UEL²	2
Netherlands	Socialist Party	UEL³	2
Portugal	Portuguese Communist Party	UEL³	2
Spain	United Left	UEL1	1
Sweden	Left Party	NGL	2
Associate Parties with MEPs
Portugal	Left Bloc	UEL1	1
Associate Parties without MEPs
Luxembourg	The Left	UEL1
Romania	Socialist Alliance Party	UEL1
Slovakia	Communist Party of Slovakia	UEL²
Associate Parties from outside the EU
Norway	Socialist Left Party	NGL
Switzerland	Swiss Labour Party	UEL1
Parties with MEPs as Associate Members of the Parliamentary Group
Denmark	People's Movement against the EU		1

Notes

• ¹ - Party is a member of the Party of the European Left (PEL)
• ² - Party is an observer in the PEL
• ³ - Party is unaffiliated to either PEL or NGLA

Sources

• Democracy in the European Parliament¹
• Political Groups Annual Accounts 2001-2006²
• Political Groups of the European Parliament³
• Group names 1999⁴
• European Parliament MEP Archives⁵
• Europe Politique⁶
• European United Left–Nordic Green Left official website⁷

References

v • d • e Political groups of the European Parliament Far-Right Nationalists European Right (1984–1989)  • European Right (1989–1994)  • Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (2007) National Conservatives European Democratic Union (1965–1973)  • European Progressive Democrats (1973–1984)  • European Democratic Alliance (1984–1995)  • Union for Europe (1995–1999)  • Union for Europe of the Nations (1999–present) Christian Democrats/Conservatives Christian Democrats (1953–1979)  • European People's Party (1979–1999)  • European Conservatives (1973–1979)  • European Democrats (1979–1992)  • Forza Europa (1994–1995)  • European People's Party–European Democrats (1999–present) Liberals/Centrists Liberals and Allies (1953–1976)  • Liberals and Democrats (1976–1985)  • Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group (1985–1994)  • European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (1994–2004)  • European Radical Alliance (1994–1999)  • Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (2004–present) Social Democrats Socialists (1953–1993)  • Party of European Socialists (1993–present) Communists/Far-Left Communists and Allies (1973–1989)  • European United Left (1989–1993)  • Left Unity (1989–1994)  • European United Left (1994–1995)  • European United Left–Nordic Green Left (1995–present) Greens/Regionalists Rainbow Group (1984–1989)  • Rainbow Group (1989–1994)  • Greens (1989–1999)  • Greens–European Free Alliance (1999–present) Eurosceptics Europe of Nations (1994–1996)  • Independents for a Europe of Nations (1996–1999)  • Europe of Democracies and Diversities (1999–2004)  • Independence/Democracy (2004–present) Heterogeneous Technical Group of Independents (1979–1984)  • Technical Group of Independents (1999–2001) Independents Non-Inscrits (1958–present)

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