Political groups of the European Parliament

This article is about parliamentary political groups of legislators in the European Parliament. For pan-European political parties, see European political party.

The political groups of the European Parliament are the officially recognised parliamentary groups consisting of legislators of aligned ideologies in the European Parliament. Majorities in the Parliament depend on how each group vote and what deals are negotiated among them. The European Parliament is unique among supranational assemblies in that its members (MEPs) organise themselves into ideological groups, rather than national cleavages.

Each political group is assumed to have a set of core principles, and political groups that cannot demonstrate this may be disbanded. A political group of the European Parliament usually constitutes the formal parliamentary representation of one or two of the European political parties (Europarty), sometimes supplemented by members from other national political parties or independent politicians. In contrast to the European political parties, it is strictly forbidden for political groups to organise or finance the political campaign during the European elections since this is the exclusive responsibility of the parties.

There are other incentives for MEPs to organise in parliamentary groups: besides the political advantages of working together with like-minded colleagues, groups have some procedural privileges within Parliament (such as group spokespersons speaking first in debates, group leaders representing the group in the Parliament's Conference of Presidents), and groups receive a staff allocation and financial subsidies.

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