Europe of freedom and democracy

Europe of freedom and democracy
Official abbreviation	EFD (English), ELD (French)
Members	32/751 (2009)
Group leader	Nigel Farage Francesco Speroni
founding	2009
predecessor	Independence and Democracy (IND / DEM) Group Union for Europe of Nations (UEN)
resolution	2014
successor	Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD)
Alignment	EU skepticism , right-wing populism
European party	Movement for a Europe of Freedom and Democracy (MELD, from 2011)
Website	www.efdgroup.eu

Europe of Freedom and Democracy ( EFD , French abbreviation ELD ) was a political group in the European Parliament between 2009 and 2014. It comprised members of EU-skeptical , national-conservative and right-wing populist parties, in particular the British UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Italian Lega North . During the 7th legislative period it was the smallest group in parliament. Group chairmen were Nigel Farage (UKIP) and Francesco Speroni (Lega Nord).

history

founding

In the 2009 European elections, only four parties from the previous Independence and Democracy (Ind / Dem) group were re-elected to the European Parliament. This meant that the prerequisites for forming a parliamentary group no longer existed. Likewise, the Union for Europe of the Nations (UEN) group no longer met the necessary requirements after some larger members had joined the newly established European Conservatives and Reformers group or other groups. UKIP (previously IND / DEM) and Lega Nord (UEN) succeeded in winning over the remnants of Ind / Dem ( MPF , LAOS , SGP ) and UEN ( DF , TT ) together with other EU-skeptical and national-conservative parties elected for the first time in the European Parliament ( Perussuomalaiset , SNS ) to unite. The establishment of this new parliamentary group was announced on July 1, 2009 at a press conference. After the founding, the Austrian FPÖ also announced their interest in participating, but this was rejected by various parliamentary group members. German MPs were not represented in the parliamentary group, but the EFD had ties to the Bremen electoral association Bürger in Anger .

Legislative period

Initially, the EFD was not supported by any European party . At the beginning of the electoral term two MPs belonged to the Libertas and four to the Alliance for a Europe of Nations (AEN), but both parties ceased their work shortly after Parliament was constituted. UKIP member Godfrey Bloom was a founding member of the European Alliance for Freedom in autumn 2010 , but later left the EVS. Finally, most of the political group members except UKIP participated in the creation of the Movement for a Europe of Freedoms and Democracy (MELD) in 2011 .

The EFD initially had 32 members. On January 18, 2010, Nikki Sinclaire (UKIP) resigned due to conflicts with group leader Farage, on June 23, 2010 also Mike Nattrass (UKIP), for whom the group did not represent the UK's exit from the EU clearly enough. In March 2011, the Danish MEP Anna Rosbach ( DF ) also left the EFD to join the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (EKR). A few weeks later, Trevor Colman (UKIP) also resigned . In May 2011 David Campbell Bannerman also moved from UKIP to the Conservative Party and thus to the EKR. As a result, the EVS had only 27 members in the summer of 2011.

In November 2011 the former Vlaams Belang MP Frank Vanhecke joined the group, in December 2011 the former UDC MP Magdi Allam . On December 26, 2011, the four members of the Solidarna Polska , a spin-off from the Polish PiS, joined the EFD. In addition, the British MP Roger Helmer announced at the beginning of March that he would be joining UKIP and the EFD parliamentary group. On December 11, 2012, Slavcho Binev joined the parliamentary group. He was elected from the list of the Bulgarian Ataka and later founded his own party, Citizens' Association for Real Democracy (GORD). Mike Natrass also rejoined the parliamentary group.

In June 2013 Mario Borghezio (Lega Nord) was expelled from the parliamentary group because of xenophobic statements. Another member of the Lega resigned from the parliamentary group. In September 2013 Godfrey Bloom and again Mike Nattrass left UKIP and the EFD Group. At the end of the legislative period, the EVS comprised 31 members from twelve countries.

After the 2014 European elections

In the 2014 European elections , some of the previous group members were no longer able to move into parliament. In addition, the SGP , the Danish People's Party and the True Finns switched to the EKR faction; the Lega Nord announced that it wanted to form a new parliamentary group with Front National and FPÖ (see Europe of Nations and Freedom ).

For the time being, only UKIP, which had gained seats, and the TT remained in the parliamentary group. UKIP was able to win the Italian MoVimento 5 position with 17 MPs for the group. In addition, it was possible to win over other smaller parties that had entered the European Parliament for the first time. Joëlle Bergeron , who was elected from the list of the French National Front, made it possible for the parliamentary group to be re-established. The group adopted the new name Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy .

Members

country	National party	European party	MPs
			2009	2014
Belgium	Frank Vanhecke	MELD	-	1
Bulgaria	Citizens' Association for Real Democracy (GORD)	MELD	-	1
Denmark	Dansk Folkeparti	MELD	2	1
Finland	True Finns	MELD	1	1
France	MPF	MELD	1	1
Greece	LAOS	MELD	2	2
Italy	Lega Nord	MELD	9	7th
	Fratelli d'Italia - Alleanza Nazionale	-	-	1
Netherlands	SGP	ECPM	1	1
Lithuania	TT	MELD	2	2
Poland	Solidarna Polska	MELD	-	4th
Slovakia	SNS	MELD	1	1
United Kingdom	UKIP	- 1	13	8th
total			32	31

¹Godfrey Bloom was a member of the European Alliance for Freedom but resigned from the EFD Group in September 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ EU Observer, June 30, 2009: Ukip, Lega Nord form hard-right bloc in EU Parliament (English); Group Ind / Dem, July 1, 2009: EU-Critical Group in European Parliament launches  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English).  
2. ↑ Der Standard , July 3, 2009: EU far-right parliamentary group has reservations about the FPÖ .
3. ↑ BIW delegation with Nigel Farage ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ New Europe, June 23, 2010: UKIP MEP leaves "eurofriendly" EFD Group ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). 
5. ↑ Member profile Slavi BINEV on the website of the European Parliament (www.europarl.europa.eu)
6. ↑ afp.com: Racism: Italian MPs excluded from the EU parliamentary group. In: welt.de . June 3, 2013, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Jason Groves: 'Sluts' MEP quits UKIP with parting shot at party and threatens to shoot reporter who helped bring about his downfall. In: Daily Mail Online , September 24, 2013.
8. ^ Nicholas Watt: David Cameron accused over 'dubious' European Union partners. In: TheGuardian.com , June 5, 2014.
9. ↑ Alvise Armellini: Grillo MEPs to join Farage group after referendum. EUObserver, June 13, 2014.
10. ↑ Who's going where? Tracking the musical chairs in the European Parliament. EuropeDecides.eu, June 2, 2014.