Composition of The 7th European Parliament
This is a summary of the composition of the 7th European Parliament, whose mandate runs from 2009 to 2014.
| Group | Sub-parties | Leader(s) | Est. | MEPs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European People's Party (EPP) | European People's Party (EPP) +1 unaffiliated national party |
Joseph Daul | 2009 | 271 | |
| Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) | Party of European Socialists (PES) +2 unaffiliated national parties |
Hannes Swoboda | 2009 | 189 | |
| Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) | European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) European Democratic Party (EDP) + 3 independent politicians |
Guy Verhofstadt | 2004 | 85 | |
| The Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens–EFA) | European Green Party (EGP) European Free Alliance (EFA) + 2 unaffiliated national party + 2 independent politicians |
Daniel Cohn-Bendit Rebecca Harms |
1999 | 59 | |
| European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) | Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) European Christian Political Movement (ECPM) + 2 independent politicians |
Jan Zahradil | 2009 | 52 | |
| European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) | Party of the European Left (PEL) Nordic Green Left Alliance (NGLA) + 9 unaffiliated national parties |
Lothar Bisky | 2009 | 34 | |
| Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) | Libertas + 8 unaffiliated national parties |
Nigel Farage Francesco Speroni |
2009 | 34 | |
| Non-Inscrits (NI) | 11 national parties | N/A | 30 | ||
| Total | 754 | ||||
Major changes compared to the period 2004-2009 are:
- The formation of a new political group, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. This conservative, Eurosceptic group is headed by 26 MEPs from the UK's Conservative Party.
- The Eurosceptic IND/DEM and UEN suffered heavy losses in the election. On their own they no longer had enough MEPs to form a separate group. MEPs from these parties formed Europe of Freedom and Democracy on 1 July 2009.
- The centre-right European People's Party now formed its own parliamentary group, as the former members of the European Democrats left the group to join the ECR.
- The parliamentary group of the centre-left Party of European Socialists renamed itself to Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats to allow non-socialist members of the Italian Democratic Party to sit in their group.
Read more about this topic: Political Groups Of The European Parliament
Famous quotes containing the words composition of, composition, european and/or parliament:
“Vices enter into the composition of virtues as poisons into the composition of certain medicines. Prudence and common sense mix them together, and make excellent use of them against the misfortunes that attend human life.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)