European Free Alliance - History

History

Since the 1979 European Parliament election regionalists and separatists have been represented in the European Parliament. In that election five regionalist parties got seats: the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) of Northern Ireland, the Scottish National Party (SNP), the Flemish People's Union (VU), the Walloon Democratic Front of Francophones (FDF) and the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP). The SNP, although being a predominantly social-democratic party, joined the European Progressive Democrats, which was led by the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the SDLP the Socialist Group, VU and FDF the heterogeneous Technical Group of Independents, which comprised both conservative and left-wing MEPs, and the SVP the European People's Party group.

In 1981 several European regionalist parties joined forces to form a pan-European coalition, called the European Free Alliance. It was not until the 1989 European Parliament election that the EFA members formed a united group in the European Parliament. Before, the regionalists had been seated divided, with the SNP with the Gaullist-dominated European Democratic Alliance, VU, the Valdotanian Union and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in the Rainbow Group, together with green parties, the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) with the Group of the European People's Party, and Batasuna among the Non-Inscrits.

In 1989 EFA members formed a group also called Rainbow. It consisted of three Italian MEPs (Lega Nord two, Sardinian Action Party one), two Spanish MEPs (one each for the PNV and the Andalusian Party, PA), one Belgian MEP (for VU), one French MEP (Union of the Corsican People, UPC), one British MEP (SNP) and one Irish MEP (Neil Blaney, independent). They were joined by 4 MEPs from the left-wing Danish Eurosceptic People's Movement against the EU, while the other regionalist MEPs, including those of the SDLP, the SVP, Batasuna and the Convergence and Union of Catalonia (CiU) refused to join.

In the 1994 European Parliament election the regionalists lost considerably. Moreover they had suspended the membership of their major affiliate, Lega Nord, for entering into government with the post-fascist National Alliance and the PNV chose to switch to the European People's Party (EPP). The three remaining EFA member parties in Parliament (SNP, VU and Canarian Coalition) formed a common group with the French Energie Radicale list and the Italian Pannella List. This group was called European Radical Alliance.

Following the 1999 European Parliament election EFA members formed a common European parliamentary group with the European Green Party called The Greens–European Free Alliance. The EFA supplied ten members: two of the Scottish SNP, two of the Welsh Plaid Cymru (PC), two of the Flemish VU, one of the Basque PNV, one of Basque Solidarity (EA), one of the Andalusian PA, and one of the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).

In the 2004 European Parliament election the EFA was reduced to four MEPs two of the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one of PC (Jill Evans) and one of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC; Bernat Joan i Mari, replaced at the mid-term by MEP Mikel Irujo of Basque EA) plus two affiliate members (Tatjana Ždanoka of For Human Rights in United Latvia (PCTVL) and László Tőkés, independent MEP and former member of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UMDR). The cooperation between EFA and the Greens was continued. In 2004 the EFA formally became a European political party.

Following the 2008 revision of the EU Regulation that governs European political parties allowing the creation of European foundations affiliated to Europarties, the EFA established in September 2007 its official foundation/think tank, the Centre Maurits Coppieters (CMC).

In the 2009 European Parliament election the EFA got six MEPs elected: two from the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one from the PC (Jill Evans), one from the Party of the Corsican Nation (PNC; François Alfonsi), one from the ERC (Oriol Junqueras) and Tatjana Ždanoka, individual member of the EFA from Latvia. After the election the New-Flemish Alliance (N-VA) also joined the EFA. The EFA subgroup thus counts 7 MEPs.