Page 116 - SEVEN STEPS for COMPREHENDING the EUROPEAN UNION
P. 116
115
There are seven European political groups in the current
European Parliament. The largest among them is the Group of the
European People’s Party - EPP (188 seats), followed by the Group of
the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats – S&D (136 seats),
far-right, eurosceptic Patriots for Europe (PfE) - 84 seats, right-wing,
eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) - 78 seats,
the political group of pro-European liberals and European Democratic
parties - Renew Europe (77 seats), party focused on environmental
and regional issues Greens/European Free Alliance - Greens/EFA – (53
seats), far left party - The Left (GUE/NGL) – (46 seats) and another far-
right, Eurosceptic party “Europe of Sovereign Nations” - ESN (25 seats).
There are also 32 members of the European Parliament, who are not
affiliated to any political group.
It is important to know that in accordance with the European
Parliament’s rules of procedure, a political group in the European
Parliament can be formed by at least 23 delegates represented by at
least one-quarter of the total number of EU member states, for the
current number of members (27), 7 members.
Each European political group consists of representatives of like-
minded national political parties of EU member states with similar
political agendas and objectives. For example, right-centrist political
party representatives shape the Group of the European People’s Party
and socialist-leftist national political party representatives form the
Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Other
European political groups of the Parliament are created in accordance
with the same principle.
It might be useful to remind readers that European political groups
also partner with Georgian political parties: “The Georgian Dream party”
was an observer to the parliamentary group of European Socialists
until 2023, while parties such as the “United National Movement” and
“European Georgia” are observer members of the European People’s
party, parties such as Lelo, “Droa”, “Girchi”, “Strategy Agmashenebeli”,
Republican Party and Free Democrats partner with the European
Alliance of Liberal-Democrats.