Party Groups and Policy Positions in the European Parliament



Party Positions in the EP -- p2

1. Policy and Party Competition in the European Parliament

Just as parties do in national parliaments, political groups in the European Parliament (EP)
form the backbone of legislative organisation and decision making, acting as the gatekeepers
to legislative amendments and the vast bulk of interruptive and procedural motions in the
assembly. Political group size determines membership of committees and all other key
Parliamentary decision-making bodies. Despite this important role of party groups in the
functioning of the increasingly powerful European Parliament, our understanding and
knowledge of the policy space in which these groups compete is rudimentary. This paper
addresses this gap in our knowledge by reporting the results of an expert survey of these
policy positions of the political groups in the EP.

Since its inception, the European Parliament has been organized in terms of political
groupings, when members of the various political traditions in Europe (Liberals, Christian-
Democrats and Socialists) began to collaborate with each other to form supranational political
groupings. Since its inception in 1957, political groups in the EP have been officially
recognized in the rules of procedure, and have received financial support for administrative
costs from the Parliamentary budget. Seven political groups currently exist in the EP,
representing over 170 different political parties from the 25 member states. These political
groups vary significantly in their degree of institutionalization. Several, such as the European
People’s Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES), have been in existence for
over 50 years but others, such as the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE) are
much younger. The largest party, the EPP, has representatives from all 25 member states,
comprising a total of 268 representatives from 42 different national political parties. At the
other end of the spectrum, the Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) has just 27 members
from only 6 states of the EU.

Party groups in the EP have become increasingly cohesive and powerful over time.
Levels of voting cohesion have been rising across parliamentary sessions, especially for the
three largest political groups, despite increases in the size of the EP and the number of
member states (Raunio, 1997; Hix et al
. 2005). The increasing importance of the political



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