EU Links 19 Feb 2008. EU Politcial Groups

This EU links post shall be all about the EU political groups in the Parliament.

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.

Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats
Know as EPP-ED. Fine Gael is the Irish Member in this group. The EPP-ED is the largest grouping in the EU parliament with 289 MEPs. The Chairman of the EPP-ED Group is Joseph Daul MEP (FRA). The current president of the Parliament is a EPP-ED Member.

Member Parties
Piorities

Socialist Group in the European Parliament
Known as the PES. Labour is the Irish member here. The PES have a very cool flashy website check it out. The PES has 215 MEPs in the parliament. Martin Schulz MEP (GER) is the current president of the PES.

Member Parties
What They Stand for

Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Known as the ALDE. Marian Harkin is the Irish MEP for this group. The ALDE has 100 MEPs in the Parliament and is led by Graham Watson MEP (UK)

Member Parties
What they stand for

Union for Europe of the Nations Group
Known as the UEN. This is Fianna Fail's grouping in the Parlaiment. The Co-Presidents of the grouping are Brian Crowley MEP (IRL) and Cristiana Muscardini MEP (ITA). Found the website hard to get around and cant link to specific pages to you have to look for yourself. Cant find a what we stand for page...

Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance
This group consists of two distinct European political parties - the European Green Party and the European Free Alliance (EFA). The EFA consists of parties representing stateless nations. The Greens-EFA is a grouping of 42 MEPs in the Parliament. It is led by Monica Frassoni MEP (ITA) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit MEP (GER). I *think* the Green Party when it has MEPs sits with this grouping.

Members
Campaigns

Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left
The EUL/NGL grouping in the Parliament has 41 MEPs and Sinn Fein sits with this grouping. The EUL/NGL is led by Francis Wurtz MEP (FRA)
Member Parties
Policy


Independence/Democracy Group
IndDem grouping in the Parliament has 24 MEPs. Kathy Sinnott is the Irish Member of the Group. The grouping is led by Johannes BLOKLAND MEP (Netherlands), Jens-Peter BONDE MEP (Den) and Nigel FARAGE MEP (UK)

Program
Members