We are only two months from the European elections, to be followed by the forming of the (new) political groups in the European Parliament. In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons Library has published a standard note authored by Vaughne Miller on the political groups in the European Parliament. European Parliament Political Groups (SN/IA/5031; 26 March 2009; 10 pages) offers a brief view of t...

The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 5.6.2009 C 125 has two important announcements for the fledgling Europarties and their political foundations (and indirectly for the forming of a European awareness and for the expression of the political will of the citizens of the EU). They are the European Parliament’s: Call for proposals IX-2010/02 — Grants to political foundations ...

The Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament (16th edition, October 2008) make the political groups instrumental in many respects. Thus, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) needs his or her political group for effective action. Here are a few additional examples: A political group can table amendments, as in Rule 62 on amendments to the Council’s common position. The delegation to...

After glimpsing at the financing of political groups in the European Parliament, we turn to funding for Europarties and their foundations. Does lavish public funding for incumbents ossify representative democracy at European level too? *** Europarty funding The European Parliament contributes 10,858,000 euros to European political parties and 7,000,000 euros to their political foundations, accordi...

At the present stage of development, in the absence of a real European party statute, the political groups of the European Parliament are mainly coalitions of representatives from different national political parties, but they are still vital to the conduct of political business. *** Overview Those who want an overview of the history until the present situation can read the Wikipedia article Polit...

This site provides free access to a conference paper by Giacomo Benedetto which was delivered at the 2009 Political Studies Association conference, Manchester, April 2009. The 31 page paper analyses voting behaviour in the European parliament since 1994. It compares the voting patterns of the major political parties in the European Parliament, challenging the consensus viewpoint that until the 200...

During the coming days and weeks, the existing political groups in the European Parliament and various national parties with elected members of the EP negotiate to form the political groups, which are central to parliamentary work. As always, knowledge of the rules is a key element for an appreciation of the game, is sports as well as in politics. The European Parliament has amended its Rules of P...

Phobia is the common denominator: Europhobes join homophobes. Small wonder that the UK Conservative Party and the Polish Law and Justice Party are going to form a political group in the European Parliament after the European elections. They will be joined by the Czech Civic Democrats (ODS), hovering between the Europhobia of President Vaclav Klaus and more pragmatic market oriented nationalism. Th...

How hard should it be to acquire the privileges accorded to political groups in the European Parliament? What happens if members of a small group threaten to leave? *** Affinities Even if the Europarties and the EP political groups are mainly coalitions, the Rules of Procedure require ‘political affinities’, which means that members are prevented from banding together on purely technic...

The political groups of the European Parliament are provided with a secretariat and facilities and they receive money from the EP’s budget. Members outside the political groups (non-attached MEPs) are provided with a secretaritat and appropriations, according to the Rules of Procedure (16th edition, October 2008): Rule 30 Activities and legal situation of the political groups 1. The politica...