Political Groups of The European Parliament

The political groups of the European Parliament are the parliamentary groups of the European Parliament. The European Parliament is unique among supranational assemblies in that its members (MEPs) organize themselves in such ideological groups like in traditional national legislatures. Instead, the members of other supranational assemblies form national groups. The political groups of the European Parliament are sometimes the formal representation of a European political party ("Europarty") in the Parliament. In other cases, they are political coalitions of a number of European parties, national parties, and independent politicians.

These groups are not parties, but looser coalitions. They are strictly forbidden to campaign during the European elections since this is the exclusive responsibility of the Europarties. Each political group is assumed to have a set of core principles, and political groups that cannot demonstrate this may be disbanded (see below).