European Conservatives and Reformers
| European Conservatives and Reformers | |
| Official abbreviation | ECR |
| Members |
62/705 |
| Group leaders |
 Ryszard Legutko Raffaele Fitto
|
| founding | 2009 |
| history | 1973–1979 Group of European Conservatives, 1979–1992 Group of European Democrats , 1992–2009 part of the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats , 2009–2014 European Conservatives and Reformists, since 2014 European Conservatives and Reformists |
| Alignment |
EU skepticism Conservatism National conservatism Right-wing populism Economic liberalism |
| European parties | European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR Party) |
| Website | ecrgroup.eu |
The Group of European Conservatives and Reformists ( ECR , European Conservatives and Reformists Group until the end of 2014 ) is a (national) conservative and EU-critical , in parts right-wing populist group in the European Parliament founded in 2009 . With a total of 62 MEPs from 15 countries, it is the sixth largest of the seven parliamentary groups. The largest party in the parliamentary group is the Polish Law and Justice (PiS). The only member of the German Family Party from Germany is represented in the parliamentary group, and no member from Austria.
The associated European political party is the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (EKR Party). Since 2014, the group has also been made up of MEPs from the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie - which is a member of the European Free Alliance (EFA) - and MEPs without a party at European level. Since 2009 members of the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM) have also been part of the group.
history
founding
The Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) was founded on June 22, 2009 after the 2009 European elections . The majority of its members previously belonged to the European Democrats group in the Christian Democratic-Conservative EPP-ED group: the British Conservative Party, the Northern Irish UUP, the Czech ODS and the Hungarian MDF (member of the EPP). In addition, there were parties that had previously belonged to other parliamentary groups: the Polish PiS and the Latvian TB / LNNK were members of the national conservative group UEN and the Dutch CU belonged to the EU-critical group Ind / Dem . In addition, there were the newly entered parliamentary parties LDD and LLRA.
| 2009 |
55/736 |
| 2014 |
57/766 |
| 2014 |
70/751 |
| 2019 |
77/751 |
| 2019 |
62/751 |
| current |
62/705 |
In 2006, the British Conservative Party leader, David Cameron , announced his decision to leave the EPP-ED Group after the 2009 European elections. To this end, he first founded the movement for European reform with the ODS , which according to the original plans was to lead to its own European party . Since this project failed due to the lack of member parties, negotiations with UEN members began at the beginning of 2009, which finally led to the public announcement shortly before the European elections that a new parliamentary group would be founded by Conservatives, ODS and PiS. Other members of the UEN as well as some members of the Ind / Dem group joined this plan, so that the EKR group fulfilled the conditions for the establishment of a group in the European Parliament. Conversely, the remaining members of the Ind / Dem parliamentary group and the UEN as well as newly elected parties formed the new parliamentary group Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD).
7th legislative period (2009-2014)
After the group was founded, most of its member parties joined the new European party Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (now the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe , ACRE). At the constituent session of the newly elected parliament on July 14, 2009, there was a scandal when the British ECR MP Edward McMillan-Scott ran as a candidate for the office of Parliamentary Vice-President , although the ECR was not him, but the Pole Michał Kamiński had suggested. With the support of the other political groups, McMillan-Scott was elected Vice-President of Parliament, while Kamiński failed. Immediately afterwards, McMillan-Scott was expelled from the parliamentary group and the Conservative Party. He eventually joined the ALDE . Kamiński was instead elected chairman of the ECR group; Timothy Kirkhope , who had originally been earmarked for this post by the Group, waived.
At the end of 2010, Kamiński and three other PiS MPs were involved in founding the new Polish party Polska jest Najważniejsza (Poland is most important), which was more conservative than the PiS. Nevertheless, they remained members of the EKR group. Kamiński initially retained his post as group leader; Only at the beginning of 2011 did he announce his resignation in order not to bring the “domestic Polish” disputes into the European Parliament. He was succeeded on March 9, 2011 by the Czech Jan Zahradil .
On March 8, the Danish MP Anna Rosbach joined the ECR parliamentary group after she left her party, the Dansk Folkeparti , which belongs to the EFD parliamentary group. David Campbell Bannerman , who also left the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and joined the Conservative Party , also left the EFD parliamentary group on May 24, 2011 . With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty , the number of Conservative MEPs increased by one. On December 26th, three members of the PiS spin-off Solidarna Polska switched from the EKR to the EFD.
In March 2012, Roger Helmer moved from the Conservatives to UKIP and thus also to EFD. In October 2012, Cristiana Muscardini (Futuro e Libertà per l'Italia) transferred from the EPP Group to the ECR. In January 2014, Artur Zsada from the EPP Group joined the newly founded Polska Razem Jarosława Gowina party like three other ECR members .
| Members of the parliamentary groups by country and national party at the beginning and end of the legislature | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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* When constituted on July 14, 2009
+ At the end of the legislative period on June 30, 2014
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8th legislative period (2014-2019)
In the 2014 European elections , both the Conservatives and the ODS lost seats, while the PiS gained seats. In total, the ECR group lost 11 seats. By admitting members of the Dansk Folkeparti , the party Die Finns , the independent Greeks, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the family party of Germany as well as the Slovak parties OLaNO and NOVA, the faction increased to 70 members from 15 countries. The EKR faction has become the third strongest force in the EU Parliament in the 8th legislative period. The acceptance of the AfD was controversial. British Prime Minister David Cameron refused membership of the AfD out of consideration for German Chancellor Merkel .
In the course of the electoral term, the group grew. Richard Sulík switched from the ALDE parliamentary group to the EKR parliamentary group in October 2014 . In January 2015, Amjad Bashir (previously EFDD parliamentary group ), who was elected for the UKIP , was accepted into the parliamentary group of the EKR and the Conservatives. In the summer of 2015, two MPs elected for Forza Italia switched from the EPP group to the ECR group and later founded the Conservatori e Riformisti party (now Direzione Italia ). In October 2015, Romanian Monica Macovei joined the team, previously also an EPP. Finally, on March 8, 2016, Eleni Theocharous was admitted to the parliamentary group; she was elected for the Cypriot DISY and was also a member of the EPP group until then.
Five of the seven AfD members had meanwhile switched to the newly founded Alliance for Progress and Awakening (ALFA, now Liberal-Conservative Reformer ), which was accepted into the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformers (AECR, now the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformers in Europe ) . On March 8, 2016, the parliamentary group leadership called on the two remaining AfD members - Beatrix von Storch and Marcus Pretzell - to leave the parliamentary group by March 31, after they had made controversial statements about the use of firearms on the border against women and children the AfD had made contact with the FPÖ ( ENF parliamentary group). Von Storch resigned on April 8, 2016 and switched to the EFDD parliamentary group. Pretzell was expelled on April 12, 2016, by resolution in a secret ballot, with 45 to 13 votes. He joined the Europe of Nations and Freedom Group in early May 2016 .
In February 2018, the Danish Rikke Karlsson left the group. She had already left the Danish People's Party (DF) in October 2015. The background to this was the financial irregularities of the European party MELD . Shortly afterwards, two members of the British Conservatives, Richard Ashworth and Julie Girling , joined the EPP Group because of the British government and the ECR Group's Brexit policy.
On April 3, 2018, Laurențiu Rebega joined the group. The MP who was elected for the Romanian Partidul Conservator originally sat in the social democratic S&D group before he switched to the right-wing populist ENF group in July 2015 . Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski left the EKR on April 13th . Ujazdowski was originally a member of the PiS, but left the party in early 2017. He stood against a PiS candidate in the election for city president in Wroclaw and was supported by the competing PO .
On July 3, 2018, the two MPs of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats were accepted into the ECR against the opposition of some British Conservatives . The Sweden Democrats were previously members of the EFDD group. At the end of November 2018, Stefano Maullu ( Forza Italia ) announced that he would transfer from the EPP Group to the ECR and join the Fratelli d'Italia party . In January 2019 he was followed by Innocenzo Leontini . On March 27, 2019, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski joined the EKR parliamentary group. He left the EPP group on March 22, 2017 after being expelled from the Polish PO and remained non-attached for two years. In the 2019 European elections , he is running for the PiS.
At the end of the electoral term the parliamentary group consisted of 77 members from 19 countries.
| Members of the parliamentary groups by country and national party at the beginning and end of the legislature |
|---|
|
1 The MP belongs to the ACRE, not the party.
3 The MP belongs to the ECPM, not the party.
5Until March 2016, Hans-Olaf Henkel and Joachim Starbatty belonged to the ACRE as individual members, from March 2016 to March 2017 and from mid-2018 the LKR as a party.
6th Zdzisław Krasnodębski ; Mirosław Piotrowski from October 9, 2014; Urszula Krupa , successors as of June 24, 2016; Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski from January 2017 to April 13, 2018; Krasnodębski and Piotrowski belong to the ACRE, Ujazdowski was a member of the ECPM
8th Rikke Karlsson left the party in October 2015, but initially remained as a non-party in the parliamentary group. In February 2018, she left the group.
|
9th legislative period (2019-2024)
In the 2019 European elections , the EKR parties lost 14 seats, with the British Conservatives alone losing 14 seats. On the other hand, the Polish PiS was able to gain seven MPs and, with 26 mandates, consolidated its position as the strongest national group of the EKR. Losses also resulted from the departure of German MPs, four of whom were non-party members and two were unable to defend their mandates. Even before the election, the Danish People's Party and the True Finns announced that they would switch to the new Identity and Democracy faction . After the election, the parliamentary group accepted the Dutch Forum voor Democratie (FvD), the Spanish Vox , the German family party and the Greek Elliniki Lysi party . The ChristenUnie ( ECPM ) left the parliamentary group because of the admission of the FvD MPs .
For the first time, the parliamentary group was given a dual leadership made up of Ryszard Legutko ( PiS ) and Raffaele Fitto ( FdI ). The deputy chairpersons are Derk Jan Eppink , Daniel Hannan , Assita Kanko , Peter Lundgren , Hermann Tertsch del Valle-Lersundi and Roberts Zīle . Joint treasurers are Angel Dschambaski and Kosma Złotowski .
Member parties since 2009
The following table contains the parties of the parliamentary group's members in the three legislative periods since 2009, the number of members per party at the beginning and the end of the parliamentary term and the previous or subsequent parliamentary group of the party.
classification
Political scientist Dieter Plehwe (2014) does not classify the parliamentary group's work and objectives as a “fundamental opposition to Europe”, but as an “alliance policy with the mainstream parties”, i.e. the bourgeois parties. In other policy areas, cooperation up to the “social democratic camp” is possible. The aim is to achieve “alternative majorities” instead of “essentially pro-European integration policy” when voting in the European Parliament. He evaluates this as "partial disintegration".
According to the handbook on the European Parliament by Doris Dialer , Andreas Maurer and Margarethe Richter , the parliamentary group in the 7th electoral term (2009–2014) was rather “moderately Eurosceptic and nationally conservative ”, ie in the conservative spectrum. After a change in composition (from 2014) with right-wing populist parties such as the Danish People's Party and Den Finns as well as the AfD, the parliamentary group reduced its coalition options in the direction of the center-right.
Members of the parliamentary group in the 9th legislative period
The group consists of 62 MPs from 15 countries.
- Blue: Members of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party
- Green: Members of the European Christian Political Movement
Political groups in other institutions
In addition to the group in the European Parliament, there are groups of the same name in the Committee of the Regions of the European Union and in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe . In the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe there is a parliamentary group of the European Conservatives (see European Democrats # European Democrats in the Council of Europe ), in which the ECR member parties are significantly involved.
See also
- List of the members of the 7th European Parliament
- List of the members of the 8th European Parliament
literature
- Doris Dialer, Andreas Mauerer , Margarethe Richter: Handbook to the European Parliament . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-8329-6474-0 , pp. 136-138.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Andreas Staab (2013): The European Union Explained: Institutions, Actors, Global Impact . Indiana University Press , 69.
- ^ Press release of the newly founded parliamentary group , cf. also EurActiv 23/06/2009: Anti-federalist faction in parliament: A fragile coalition? ( Memento from June 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ EurActiv, June 2, 2009: New pan-European Eurosceptic alliance is taking shape ( Memento of June 17, 2009 on the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ EurActiv, Jul 15, 2009: Tory politician shakes eurosceptics in parliament .
- ↑ http://www.newstatesman.com/2009/07/mcmillan-scott-european-mep
- ↑ EUobserver , January 27, 2011: Eurosceptic group in turmoil as leader steps down (English).
- ^ EUobserver , March 9, 2011: UK Tories lose leadership of parliament group (English).
- ↑ Anna ROSBACH
- ↑ 2014 election results, 2014 opening session .
- ↑ David Cameron accused over 'dubious' European Union partners
- ^ ECR Group: 70 MEPs from 15 countries and third largest in the parliament
- ^ The Guardian : David Cameron in new bid to stop Jean-Claude Juncker , accessed June 8, 2014.
- ↑ EurActiv: Formation of factions with obstacles: Merkel lobbying against AfD , accessed on June 10, 2014.
- ↑ ECR group welcomes Eleni Theocharous. In: ecrgroup.eu. European Conservatives and Reformists Group, March 9, 2016, accessed April 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Eleni THEOCHAROUS ( Memento from December 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) . europarl.europa.eu . European Parliament, archived from the original on December 29, 2015, accessed and received on April 13, 2016 (German).
- ↑ AfD Vice Beatrix von Storch breaks with her parliamentary group . In: THE WORLD . WeltN24 GmbH, April 8, 2016, accessed April 8, 2016 (German, HTML).
-
^ AfD politician Marcus Pretzell. Excluded from the ECR group in the European Parliament . In: n24.de . WeltN24 GmbH, April 12, 2016, 9:17 p.m., accessed and received on April 13, 2016 (German).
Malte Pieper: MEP without a political group. Conservatives kick AfD man Pretzell out . In: tagesschau.de . North German Radio A. d. Publicly, April 13, 2016 12:36 a.m., accessed and received on April 13, 2016 (German). - ↑ MEP Pretzell changes to the Front National Group
- ↑ https://www.altinget.dk/navnenyt/tidligere-dfer-bliver-dobbelt-loesgaenger
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-tory-meps-defect-epp-ecr-european-peoples-party-merkel-juncker-julie-girling-richard-ashworth-a8232781 .html
- ↑ https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kolejny-krok-ujazdowskiego-w-strone-po-formalnie-opuscil-ecr-6241907289884289a
- ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservatives-sweden-democrats-european-parliament-far-right-reformist-group-a8430281.html
- ↑ https://www.milanotoday.it/politica/maullu-fratelli-italia.html
- ↑ http://www.giornaleibleo.it/2019/01/16/innocenzo-leontini-aderisce-al-progetto-di-fratelli-ditalia/
- ↑ http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,24472830,beata-szydlo-bedzie-jedynka-na-liscie-pis-do-pe-terlecki.html
- ↑ Europese christelijke partij schrapt AfD'er Von Storch . In: refdag.nl . Erdee Media Groep - Reformatorisch Dagblad, March 24, 2016 2.31 p.m., accessed and received on April 13, 2016 (Dutch).
- ↑ http://www.ujazdowski.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=115
- ↑ https://ecrgroup.eu/article/ecr_group_holds_constitutive_meeting
- ↑ European elections The chance of small parties
- ^ Doris Dialer, Andreas Mauerer , Margarethe Richter: Handbook to the European Parliament . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-8329-6474-0 , p. 136 ff.
European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (187 MEPs) •
Progressive Alliance of Social Democrats (146) •
Renew Europe (98) •
Identity and Democracy (76) •
The Greens / European Free Alliance (68) •
European Conservatives and Reformers (62) •
United European Left / Nordic Green Left (39)
List of non-attached members
List of historic political groups