PARTIES AND INTEREST GROUPS

Political Groups Political parties carry out several essential roles: They represent the views and interests of voters and party members. They offer voters competing sets of public policy options. They recruit and provide a training ground for political leaders. They help articulate and aggregate the collective goals of different interests in society. Political groups in the European Parliament carry out rather different roles, bringing together groups of like-minded MEPs from different member states, but not functioning entirely as conventional parties.

Political Groups In order for parties in the EP to form a political group, they must have at least 25 members from at least one quarter of member states. The number and membership of political groups has changed often, many being no more than short-term marriages of convenience. No group has ever controlled a majority of seats in the EP. The greatest consistency has been in the mainstream left, centre right, and right of the political spectrum, where (respectively) the socialists, the liberals and moderate conservatives have consistently controlled the most seats.

Political Groups

Europarties Europarties are pan-European party organizations or confederations that coordinate policy and build links among national political parties in Europe. They are still evolving and have yet to run EU-wide campaigns for EP elections, but they have become more adept at coordinating policy and building links at national and European levels.

Interest Groups Interest groups are organizations that represent and promote the political, economic or social interests of their members, which may be individuals, cultural or social groups, professions or industries. Group activity has helped offset the relative weakness of party activity at the European level, and groups have exploited the shortage of staff in the Commission to play a key role of the drafting and implementation of law and policy. Business and labour groups have long been the most active at the EU level, but the number of special interest groups and Brussels-based think tanks has grown. Lobbying is a growth industry in Brussels, although the opportunities have so far been fewer than those available at the national level, and the rules looser.