Political Groups of The European Parliament - Party Relations

Party Relations

The Parliament does not form a government in the traditional sense and its politics have developed over consensual rather than adversarial lines. No single group has ever held a majority in Parliament. Historically, the two largest parliamentary formations have been the EPP Group and the PES Group, which are affiliated to their respective Europarties, the European People's Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES). These two Groups have dominated the Parliament for much of its life, continuously holding between 50 and 70 percent of the seats together. The Socialists were the largest single party grouping up to 1999, when they were overtaken by the centre-right EPP.

In 1987 the Single European Act came into force and, under the new cooperation procedure, the Parliament needed to obtain large majorities to make the most impact. So the People's Party and the Socialists came to an agreement to cooperate in the Parliament. This agreement became known as the "grand coalition" and, aside from a break in the fifth Parliament, it has dominated the Parliament for much of its life, regardless of necessity. The grand coalition is visible in the agreement between the two Groups to divide the five-year term of the President of the European Parliament equally between them, with a Socialist President for half the term and a People's President for the other half, regardless of the actual election result.