Membership in political groups as a way to strengthen the positions of national parties and MEPs in the European Parliament

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1 Membership in political groups as a way to strengthen the positions of national parties and MEPs in the European Parliament Olga Litvyak Department of Political Science and Sociology, European University at St. Petersburg The recent adoption of the Lisbon Treaty resulted in the growth of the European Parliament s influence on the decision making process. This article argues that to influence the decisions at the supranational level the national parties have to be members of the strong EP political groups and transnational party federations. This article presents the results of the analysis of the current EP composition. The author argues that the ruling parties and strong oppositional parties tend to join big groups affiliated with transnational party federations in order to gain more influence on the decision making process at the supranational level. Since its establishment the European Parliament was one of the most important institutions within the European Communities and later on the European Union. The only institution directly elected by citizens gained more and more importance with every treaty, which came in power. The European Parliament used every treaty reform to change its rules of procedure, improving its consistency and effectivness. This consistency distinguishes the European Parliament from the other similar supranational structures, such as, for example the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The main reason of the consistency within the European Parliament is the internal structure of the institution, which dates back to its predecessors the Higher Authority of the ECSC and the European Parliamentary Assembly. The organisational structure based on ideoligcal principle existed de facto from the first sessions of the Higher Authority. This principle of organisation of idological groups was fixed in the 1958, when the EPA adopted the Resolution on its internal organisation (Résolution 1958). According to the Resolution the members belonging to the same political group were to seat together in the plenary, thus making work of the new instituion more effective and also demonstrating its pan-european nature. (ibid.) On the one hand, this internal structure resembled the traditional structure of the national parliaments, where certain parties are represented by parliamentary factions. On the other hand, it provided an opportunity for integration within the institution and supranational interparty dialogue, opening up prospects for the promotion of ideological rather than nationalbased ideas and views. The result of the interaction between the parties was the emergence of supranational party system in the form of transnational party federations, sometimes referred to as the "European parties". As a consequence, some political groups within the 1

2 European Parliament consist of members of ideologically close political parties affiliated with the transnational party federations, what again resembles the factions in the national parliaments. Thus, some political groups can be regarded as a kind of factions of the transnational party federations and use the name of the party federation as a name of the EP political group. Over the past fifty years, party groups appeared and disappeared, changed their names, but they always reflect the diversity of the political spectrum. The first groups created were the groups of Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals, which exist nowadays as well. Later, there appeared new groups, uniting the MEPs sharing the green ideology. As the groups gained more powers than non-attached MEPs after the first elections to the European Parliament in 1979 a special ggroup of the technical coordination and protection of independent groups and MEPs was created. It united the non-attached MEPs, sharing views different from the existing groups, and enabled them to participate in the distribution of portfolios within the bodies of the European Parliament. This article describes the actual composition of the European Parliament, as it formed after the EP elections in It is important to mention, that the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon prior to the elections had a direct impact on the European Parliament. As a consequnece the powers of the European Parliament and thus MEPs expanded, making the EP an influential actor in the decision-making process at the European level. Moreover, this shift in powers resulted in a change in strategies of national parties contesting the elections to the European Parliament. The desire of parties - national favorites or strong opposition parties - to influence the decision-making process at supranational level determines their attitude to the EP political groups, as all the key positions in the European Parliament are distributed among the political groups. In this regard, the article analyzes the political groups of the European Parliament in terms of their composition, affiliation with the European transnational party federations, if it exists, and provides an assessment of the role of the political groups within the European Parliament. Modern political groups and transnational party federations Speaking about the current political landscape of the European Parliament one should mention that the most numerous and thus influential group are the ones established back in the 1950s, united by the main ideological trends - the Christian Democrats and Socialists. Since 1999 the largest political group is the group of the European People's Party (EPP) - European Democrats (ED), which was created by merging of two different political groups 2

3 the EPP and the ED. Through co-operation, it was able to overtake the number of seats of its longtime rival - the group of the Party of European Socialists (PES). As a result of elections in 1999 and 2004 there appeared also a third important player within the EP the group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), established on the basis of the Liberal Party and some of the EPP. At the same time appeared temporary right-wing groups, such as the "Identity, tradition and sovereignty" group, which existed from January 1 to November 14, 2007 The group disbanded due to the insuffiecient number of members after the Romanian MPs decided to leave it because of a conflict with the Italian MEPs. The enlargement of the European Union in the 1990s and 2000s lead to a permanent increase in the number of MEPs. However, the upper limit of the possible number of seats had already been set in the Maastricht Treaty, and then duplicated in the Treaty of Lisbon: "The European Parliament shall consist of representatives of the citizens of the Union. Their number must not exceed 750, plus the President»(Art. 14.2, Treaty of Lisbon). In this regard, as new countries joined the EU, the number of seats was redistributed, leading to a decrease in the number of MEPs from large countries such as France and Germany. However, the elections to the European Parliament in 2009 were based on the rules of the Nice Treaty, so the total number of seats was 736, the distribution of seats by country is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Distribution of seats by country ( ) Source: European Parliament / About Parliament

4 Distribution of seats by country ( ) Germany UK Italy France Poland Spain Romania Netherlands Portugal Hungary Greece Belgium Czhech Republic Sweden Austria Bulgaria Finland Denmark Slovakia Ireland Lithuania Latvia Slovenia Luxembourg Estonia Cyprus Malta It is important to notice, that the rules of the establishment of political groups in the European Parliament today are strictly regulated. For example, a political group should consist of at least 25 members of the European Parliament, representing not less than a quarter of the EU member states. As a result of the elections in 2009 there exist seven groups within the European Parliament: Group of the European People s Party, 271 members; Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, 190 members; Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, 85 members; Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance, 58 members; European Conservatives and Reformists Group, 57 members (54 members in 2009) 2 ; 2 Differences in the number of members are explained by the changes in the composition of the ECR in March 2010, when the member of the British Conservative Edward McMillan-Scott left the group and joined the 4

5 Confederal Group of the European United Left Nordic Green Left, 35 members; Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group, 28 members (32 members in 2009) 3. Moreover, there are 29 non-attached MEPs in the current European Parliament. The role of the political groups within the European Parliament and their influence on decision-making process are still poorly understood. Nevertheless, a number of advantages of belonging to a political group follow from the rules of procedure of the European Parliament and internal practices. For example, the administration of the various structures within the institution is based on the membership of political groups (Lindberg, Rassmussen, Warntjen 2008: 1116). Thus, the positions of President and fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament are distributed among political groups according to their size. The same principle applies to the appointment to key positions in parliamentary committees, namely the posts of chairmen and rapporteurs of the committees are mostly distributed among the MEPs belonging to the political groups. The appointment of the rapporteur is largely proportional to the size of the groups in the European Parliament (Mamadouh, Raunio 2003). Political groups also control the distribution of speaking time in the Parliament among its members. One should also mention one of the most important administrative bodies the Conference of Presidents, the body within the European Parliament, which consists of the presidents of each of the political groups, a representative from the non-attached MEPs is also invited to join their meetings, however, does not have voting rights. Thus, the structure of the European Parliament and regulation and administration of its activities are directly related to the functioning of political groups. It should be noted that the groups are usually composed of members whose national parties are parts of the transnational party federations. B. Lindberg, A. Rasmussen and A. Varnten (Lindberg, Rassmussen, Warntjen 2008: 1112), speaking of the influence of political parties at different levels on the work of the European Parliament, mark out three major actors - the national parties, the transnational party federations and the transnational party groups (which were previously designated in this article as political groups within the European Parliament). As the political groups, transnational party federations represent the national parties united on the basis of similar ideological views. However, there are differences between the two types of unions. Transnational party federations were usually established on the basis of existing political groups within the European Parliament. However, subsequently the federations became ALDE, which in the spring of 2011 was left by Silvana Koch-Merin, the ALDE group also joined three members of the EFD group 3 The MEPs who left the EFD joined the ECR group 5

6 actively involved in shaping their own political groups within the European Parliament. Despite the fact that a number of political groups in the European Parliament emphasise their affiliation with certain transnational party federations, we can not call all the political groups factions of the transnational party federations. The fact is that a political group may include not only representatives of a single federation, but also members of other political parties, members of the other federations, or not affiliated with any transnational party federation at all. There are also cases of transnational party federations being established by the MEPs and corresponding parties after the formation of political groups, such cases are going to be described later. For a long time, the conditions of the establishment and functioning of transnational party federations were not fixed. After numerous discussions, suggestions of the European Parliament and counter-projects of the European Council on February 15, 2004 a resolution specifying the criteria for official recognition of transnational party federations entered in force. According to this document, a party association may claim the status of transnational party federation at the European level, if: - It involves members of the European Parliament or national parliaments of at least a quarter of all the EU member states. - It consists of those parties, which managed to get at least 3% of the vote during the last elections to the European Parliament, if they can prove that they share the values of the European Union and plan to participate in the European Parliament elections (Jansen 2008: 171) Federations are organised along the same lines as the national parties - they have a chairman, who performs representative functions, and the Secretary General, responsible for the organization of communication within the whole federation. However, communication is greatly complicated by the multilingualism of the federation s members. The amount of members of the transnational party federations constantly expands due to the desire of parties from the new member countries of the European Union to participate more effectively in the decision-making process and integrate in the European Parliament. It is also important to emphasize that transnational party federations have an impact on the activities of not only the European Parliament, but the other EU institutions as well. Furthermore, the three largest federations have their representatives in the European Commission, and five transnational party federations are represented in the European Council. Despite the fact that political groups are not in a pure form "factions" of transnational party federations, their role in the elections to the European Parliament is important. The 6

7 federation, "provide the financing of the political parties election campaigns in the context of the European Parliament elections... in particular, seeing the need to emphasize the European character of these elections»(regulation 2007). In general, during the elections to the European Parliament contesting parties affiliations with political groups play an important role, as the groups are responsible for the latter distribution of the most important positions within the European Parliament. In other words, parties and MEPs, seeking to have a significant impact on the policies at the supranational level, clearly articulate their supranational party affiliations in the election campaign. It can be assumed that the national party, occupying a leading position at the national level (governmental party), or strong opposition parties, claiming to get the power at the national level, will seek to have a significant impact on decision-making at the supranational level. In this regard, the article is based on hypothesis that such national parties and thus their MEPs tend to become members of a powerful political group in the European Parliament. On the contrary, small and unpopular national parties join weak political groups that were created after the election and are not affiliated with party federations, or do not even join political groups. Verification of this hypothesis will be discussed in the next section of the article. Analysis of the composition and role of the modern political groups in the European Parliament To test the hypothesis we conduct an analysis of all currently existing political groups, based on the size and role of each group in the European Parliament, and the importance of their member parties or individual MEPs on the national arena. Also, the analysis takes into account the conditions of the establishment of political groups. As it was mentioned earlier, not every political group has a corresponding transnational party federation. In some cases, a political group can be created by several federations or with no involvement of the latter at all. Formation of groups without any transnational party federation affiliation often happens after the elections to the European Parliament. In this regard, first we analyse the composition of all the political groups of the European Parliament in order to clarify the positions of its member parties and MEPs at the national leve. Second, for the same purpose we provide an overview of parties those members do not belong to any political group. Group of European People's Party The group of the European People's Party (EPP Group), comprising 264 members from 26 countries of the European Union is by far the most numerous and influential in the European 7

8 Parliament. So, for now the president of the European Parliament and the chairmen of ten of the twenty-two parliamentary committees are members of the EPP group (see Figure 2). Figure 2. Membership of the European Parliament committee chairmen in the EP political groups Source: European Parliament / About Parliament 4 Green-EFA; 2 GUE/NGL; 1 ECR; 1 ALDE; 2 EPP; 10 SD; 6 EPP Group represents 36% of voters who voted in the elections in June 2009 and includes 43 national parties, of which 42 parties belong to the transnational European People's Party. This EPP group lacks MEPs from the UK, what can be explained if we refer to the former name of the group - the group of Christian Democrats, as the UK is the only country, which has no party with a clear articulation of Christian religious beliefs. Most national parties those MEPs belong to the group are either the ruling parties, or the main opponents of the ruling parties (for example, the Hungarian FIDESZ). Moreover, almost all parties are represented in the national parliaments of the EU member states. The majority of them received a significant share of the votes in the national elections prior to the EP elections. Thus, the four parties won more than 40% of the vote in the national elections: New Democracy (Greece), Fidesz (Hungary), the Nationalist Party of Malta and Civic Platform (Poland). Eight (or nine, if we consider the Christian Social Union in Germany separately), are the parties which have received more than 30% of the votes: the Austrian People's Party, Democratic rally (Cyprus), Union for a Popular Movement (France), the Christian Democratic Union in a coalition with the Christian Social Union (Germany), the People of Freedom (Italy), the People's Party (Spain), the Christian Social People's Party (Luxembourg) and the Liberal Democratic Party (Romania)

9 Another six parties were supported by more than a quarter of voters: Fine Gael (Ireland), Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats, Christian-Democratic Appeal (Netherlands), the Social Democratic Party of Portugal, Slovenian Democratic Party, and Moderate coalition Party (Sweden). Among the national parties those MEPs belong to the EPP parliamentary group, but which are not present in the national parliaments, there are only two - the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria and Civic Union from Latvia. The parties were created after the elections to the national parliaments of Bulgaria and Latvia, which preceded the elections to the European Parliament in 2009, that is why they didn t have an opportunity to join the national parliaments prior to the EP elections. To conclude, nineteen national parties, those MEPs belong to the EPP group are supported by more than a quarter of the population of the EU and play a significant role not only in the European Parliament, but also on the national political arena. Moreover, almost all the parties those MEPs are in the EPP are members of the European People's Party, to which currently belong also thirteen European Commissioners and seventeen members of the European Council, ie the Heads of States of the European Union. Thus, the EPP is the most powerful transnational party federations at the moment, having majority in all the institutions of the EU. Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats The second largest group of the European Parliament is the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (SD). It includes 185 members from 29 political parties of all countries of the European Union. As shown in the Figure 2, the representatives of this group chair six parliamentary committees. The SD together with the Christian Democrats is one of the first officially established political groups of the ECSC Parliamentary Assembly. For many years the Socialists had a majority and thus played a key role within the European Parliament. But as a result of the EU enlargement in 1995 and accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, the EPP became the most numerous group. The SD Group emphasizes its affiliation with the socialist transnational party federation - the Party of European Socialists (PES). Moreover, it calls itself a PES faction in the European Parliament. However, it should be noted that this is not true for all members within the group. So, the Democratic Party of Cyprus is not a member of the PES. Speaking about the power of political parties, those members are part of the SD group, it should be noted that all of them were present in the national parliaments in Moreover, in Slovenia, Austria, Spain, Greece and Hungary they were ruling parties at the time of 9

10 elections to the European Parliament, in Ireland, Luxembourg and Belgium, they were in power in coalition with other parties, and in other countries they were the major opponents to the ruling parties. The parties belonging to the SD demonstrate strong electoral performance and consistently receive mandates in the elections to national parliaments. However, it should be mentioned that socialist parties in the Eastern Europe tend to lose their voters during the last elections in comparison to the previous ones. To sum up, the SD political group plays the second important role in political decision-making in the European Parliament. The vast majority of its constituent political parties are also powerful political forces in their states. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group The political group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) includes 84 MEPs, making it the third largest political group of the European Parliament. However, its representatives, chair only two parliamentary committees (see Figure 2). As in the previous two cases, the group ALDE openly declares its affiliation with the transnational party federation of the same name - the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. However, in this case the group was created after the merger of two transnational party federations - the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDE) and the European Democratic Party (EDP). The ELDE origins are founded in the 1947 Liberal International and the 1976 created Federation of Liberal and Democratic parties. The EDP was established in December 2004, when some of the EPP members left it to create a new federation. Overall, 75 members of the current European Parliament are members of the ELDE and nine of the EDP. The ALDE political group consists of MEPS from 27 political parties from 19 member countries of the European Union. However, it has no members from a part of the member states: Austria, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Cyprus and the Czech Republic. As the ideological liberals are pro-europeans, actively supporting the EU, the ALDE has a significant number of MEPs from the new EU member states. It shoulld be mentioned, that all parties those MEPs are members of the ALDE group are also members of national parliaments. The only partial exception is case of the Lithuanian Labour Party, which is part of the national parliament in coalition with a Youth party. However, in most of the member states the Liberals, if they are part of the ruling coalition, usually play the role of junior partner required by the large party (usually the Christiandemocratic parties) to obtain a parliamentary majority. A similar role is played by the Liberals in the European Parliament. 10

11 Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance The group of the Greens and European Free Alliance (a group of the Greens - EFA) includes 55 members from 17 national parties. As the members of ALDE the representatives of the Greens EFA group also chair only two parliamentary committees (see Figure 2). As in the case of ALDE, this group has a connection with two transnational party federations - the European Green Part and the European Free Alliance (EFA). Since 1981, the EFA united regionalists and separatists seeking independence and the creation of their own states, for example, the Scottish National Party or the Republican Left Party of Catalonia. The European Green party emerged only in 2004 and has its origins in the Federation of European Green Parties, existing since Among the members of the Greens EFA are the MEPs from few parties not represented in the national parliaments: Ecological Green Party of Greece, the Swedish Pirate Party and the Green Party of England and Wales. Founded in 2002 the Ecological Green Party failed to gain seats in the Greek Parliament in 2007, but in 2009 it got a seat in the European Parliament. This mandate gained Michalis Tremopulos - a journalist who writes about environmental issues, and one of the founders of the party. In the case of the Swedish Pirate Party is important to emphasize that the party was founded just nine months before the elections to the national parliament, which became its first test. Despite the fact that in the national elections prior to the elections to the European Parliament in 2009, the Green Party of England and Wales had scored the highest result in the party history, the number of votes was not enough to have representatives in the national parliament. However, after the representatives of the party were elected to the European Parliament, the Green Party of England and Wales received one mandate in the national parliamentary elections in 2010 Thus, the political group of the Greens - EFA does not play a significant role in the European Parliament, as the EPP or SD group. It has 55 members (compared with 264 in the case of the EPP and in the SD), and has ony two chairs of the parliamentary committee among its members. The parties, those MEPs are members of the group, have little or none weight in the political systems of the EU member states. European Conservatives and Reformists group The European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR group) includes 54 MEPs from nine parties from eight countries of the European Union and one independent MEP from Poland. The group was formed after the 2009 EP elections and at the same time parties, those MEPs became members of the ECR group created a new transnational party 11

12 federation with the same name. The group has only one chair of parliamentary committee (see Figure 2). The ECR Group, and created after the elections to the European Parliament in October 2009 transnational party federation formed around the three parties: the British Conservative Party, the Polish Law and Justice party and the Czech Civic Democratic Party. In the previous composition of thhe European Parliament the Conservative Party and the Civic Democratic Party were part of the EPP-ED political group, namely, part of the European Democrats, dissolved after the 2009 elections, the Law and Justice party was a member of the Union for Europe of Nations, that united Euro-skeptics and federalists. Each of these parties won not only about a third of the votes in elections to the European Parliament in 2009, but consistently received the support of about a third of voters in elections to the national parliaments of their countries during the last five years. The ECR political group was formed, on one hand, by the parties, distancing themselves from the Christian Democratic EPP group and by the smaller parties, which were part of the smaller groups of Euro-skeptics. On the other hand, it should be noted that this association led to the creation of a new transnational party federation, what indicates relative stability and unity of the views and the composition of the group members. However, for its founding member parties it was important to articulate hostility to the EPP group during the EP election campaign. Despite the fact that the size of the ECR political groups is relatively small, all the parties those MEPs joined thee ECR group were represented in the national parliaments. The basis of this group are big parties ideologically similar to the EPP, however, more sceptic about the European Union than the groups of the EPP, ALDE and SD. Besides them, the group includes several smaller parties from Belgium, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary. The difference between the political weight and importance of its constituent parties can be explained by the fact that the group and the ECR federation emerged only in 2009, however, the creation of transnational party federation and the significant role at the national level of political parties, who established the group may be considered as an important resource for gaining political eight in the future. Confederal Group of the European United Left Nordic Green Left The political group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) brings together 35 members of twelve party from fifteen EU member states. As in the case of ECR, this group has only one parliamentary committee chair (see Figure 2). The GUE/NGL group exist in the European Parliament since Its primary stated purpose is European 12

13 integration, albeit in a form differen to the existing one. The group consists of the MEPs from the parties belonging to two transnational party federations - the Party of European Left and the Nordic Green Left Alliance. Both federations have been established prior to the 2004 EP elections in order to participate in these elections. It is noteworthy that the presence of two ideologically close transnational party federation was a consequence of the fact that left-wing parties of Northern Europe have chosen not to enter the Party of European Left, and to establish their own Nordic Green Left Alliance, uniting the parties from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. From the parties who had participated the 2009 EP elections and later joined the GUE/NGL group, the only one not represented at the national level was the People's Movement against the EU in Denmark. However, this is due to the fact that it is a party created for performance solely on the supra-national arena and not contesting at the national level. The relative weakness of the political group GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament (small number of members and only one committee chair), and combined with the absence of serious political weight of its constituent parties at the national level. Thus, the parties entering into the group, although in the most cases are represented in the national parliaments, but have support only of 5-10% of the electorate. The only exception here is the Progressive Party of Working People of Cyprus, supported in the elections both to the European and national parliaments by one third of voters. Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group The Europe for Freedom and Democracy political group unites the parties, which belonged to the political groups that existed previously, such as Independence / Democracy and the Union for Europe of Nations. After the elections in 2009, both groups have ceased to exist due to the inability to form a political group because of lack of members, since not all the parties, those MEPs used to be the groups members were re-elected to the European Parliament. Therefore, shortly before the first meeting of the 2009 elected European Parliament the representatives of parties who were formerly members of the groups Independence / Democracy and Union for Europe of nations, decided to join forces to create a new group. The EFD Group is the only political group in the current European parliament, which does not have any parliamentary committee chair. The group includes representatives of eight political parties from eight member states of the EU. After the elections in June 2009 the group consisted of 32 deputies, however, in March and June 2010 from the two MEPs from the United Kingdom Independence Party left the group, in March and May 2011 two more members from the same party followed their example. 13

14 The group consist of eurosceptics, advocating for the maximum independence of their countries from the European Union up to their withdrawal from the EU. The basis of the political group build the United Kingdom Independence Party, and Italian Northern League, presented in 2009 by thirteen and nine deputies, respectively. The Austrian Freedom Party expressed its desire to join the group twice, but in both cases in July 2009 and June 2011 the requests were denied by the group. It is important to emphasize that this group has no affiliation with any transnational party federation. It is composed of the MEPs of the parties, who do not play any significant role in the national political arena and are supported by no more than 10% of voters. And the United Kingdom Independence Party is not represented in the national parliament at all. Thus, the weakness of the EFD political group in the European current parliament is combined with the low weight of its member parties at the national level. Non-attached members The number of non-attached members of the European Parliament after the elections in 2009 were 27 people who belong to eleven different national parties, not party affiliation with transnational federations. Most of these parties share far-right ideology, some of them the views of the federalists and the parties in the EFD group. However, they either do not want to join political groups, because they do not want to belong to transnational associations because of their ideology. Or, as in the case of the Austrian Freedom Party, they can not join political groups because of hostility on the part of the parties, who are members of the group they want to join. It is important to mention, that groups consisting of the parties sharing radical right-wing ideology, who are agains the EU and European integration, appear in the European Parliament quite rare and seize to exist very quickly. The rhetoric of the MEPs of these parties is focused on the hostility towards certain ethnic groups and minorities. This ideas lead to disagreements and open confrontation with the MEPs of the countries where these ethnic groups constitute a significant proportion of the population. As an example in this case one can name the case of the Slovenian National Party, a member of the EFD group, who was against the Austrian Freedom Party s accession to the EFD group, as the latter is against the Slovenian minority living in Austria. Another example is the dissolution of the Identity, traditions and sovereignty political group, which existed in the previous parliament. In this case, there was a quarrel between the Romanian and French deputies, and as a result Romanians left the group and it was dissolved due to lack of members. 14

15 Despite the radical views and often explicitly xenophobic positions of these parties, most of them were presented in the national parliaments in 2009, even though they had no significant voters support. However there are four parties, who were not presented in the national parliaments: the British National Party, the Hungarian party Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary, the French National Front and the Greater Romania Party. Thus, the non-attached members are often the parties occupying very narrow political niche, and therefore they do not enjoy the support of significant number of voters at the national level. Conclusion Due to the strengthening of the EU political institutions and transition of more and more decisions to the supranational level national parties are forced to seek opportunities to influence the EU policies in all the European institutions. And, if in the case of the European Council and the European Commission national parties can have a direct impact on their composition and, consequently, the activities, in the case of the European Parliament the situation is more complicated. The structure of the European Parliament and the logic of its functioning are such that the main role in decision-making play not individual MEPs, but political groups. The political groups are responsible for organizing the work of the European Parliament, they allocate portfolios, and thus influence the decision making process. As a result, to participate effectively in the decision making process members of the national parties should belong to the largest and most influential political groups. The current analysis has shown that the importance of the political groups of the European Parliament has two main factors: the number of their members and their affiliation with a strong transnational party federation. A large number of members not only allows the group to have a significant advantage in decision making within the European Parliament, but also shows the legitimization of the power of a certain political group: the more members from the various national parties join the group, the more citizens it represents. Communication with transnational party federations, in turn, allows the coordination of actions between the representatives of the Federation between all the EU bodies the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament. Currently, the most influential groups within the European Parliament are the EPP and the SD group. They consist of a large number of members from various EU countries, what allows them to gain a significant share of committee portfolios. They also clearly state their affiliation with the relevant transnational political federations - the EPP and the SD. All other groups have significantly fewer members, and are not affiliated with large transnational party federations. It should be emphasized that the role of transnational party federations in the supranational arena is increasing. It is evident on the example of the ECR group, which was created by big national 15

16 parties, but did not have corresponding transnational party federation. However, right after the establishment of a political group its member parties have created the transnational party federation ECR. The establishment of transnational party federations and growing number of members joining the ECR group allows to draw conclusions about the presence of a certain capacity and possible strengthening of ECR group in the future. On the contrary, the parties who do not play significant role on the national level either join smaller political groups that are affiliated with one or more medium-sized transnational federations, or are part of groups that are not affiliated with any transnational party federation. In the first case this are such groups as the ALDE, GUE/NGL, Greens-EFA with the latter two affiliated with various federations, one of which - NGL - is formed not only according to the ideological principle, but also by geographical. The only case of a group not affiliated with a transnational party federation is the EFD group, the number of its members has been steadily declining and can lead to the dissolution of the group. The analysis shows, that representatives of some of the weak national parties do not join the political groups, thus have almost no influence on decision-making at the supranational level. In the past, such MEPs were united in the Group of the technical coordination of independent groups and MEPs, which allowed them to have influence on the internal organisation and portfolios distribution. However, the current European Parliament has no such group, what can be explained by two factors. Firstly, most of the independent MEPs are not striving to create a political group or join an existing structure because of their ideology (as a rule, these parties share the far right positions). Secondly, even if members of the particular parties wish to join an existing political groups, the group may refuse to accept them, again for ideological reasons (for example, in the case of the Austrian Freedom Party, who unsuccessfully attempted to join the EFD group). References 1. Hix, S. (1999) The Political System of the European Union, London: Palgrave. 2. Jansen, T. (2008) Europäische Parteien // Weidenfeld, W. (Hrsg.) Die Europäische Union: Politisches System und Politikbereiche. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn. S Mamadouh, V. and Raunio, T. (2003) The committee system: power, appointments, and report allocation, Journal of Common Market Studies 41(2): Maurer, A. (2007) Europäisches Parlament. in Weidenfeld, W., Wessels, W. (Hrsg.) Europa von A bis Z, Bonn : Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. S Lindberg, B. (2010) The role of political parties in the European Union, London: Routledge. 16

17 6. Lindberg, B., Rasmussen, A. and Warntjen, A. (2008) 'Party politics as usual? The role of political parties in EU legislative decision-making', Journal of European Public Policy, 15: 8, Kreppel, A. (2002) The European Parliament and Supranational Party System: A Study in Institutional Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 8. Kuhn, T., Wolkenstein, F., Perlot, F., Meyer, S. (2010) Austria // Gagatek, W. (ed.) The 2009 Elections to the European Parliament Country Reports, Florence: European Unniversity Institute. 9. Résolution concernant la répartition des membres de l'assemblée dans l'hémicycle, adoptée par l'assemblée parlementaire européenne au cours de sa séance du 21 mars 1958, 229 f/58 mts. Bruxelles: Conseils des Communautés européennes, Secrétariat,