Lobbying defined as ‘any communication, written or oral between a representative or an interest group and a public decision maker in order to influence decision-making’, plays an increasingly important role in the public decision-making process. Other terms are sometimes used, such as advocacy, influence strategies, representation of interests, public or government affairs etc.

In order to receive a grant from the Parliament, a party must satisfy certain conditions:

Many candidates won elections in the European Parliament even without a basic knowledge of the office they ran for. Their names just happened to be down on the party list (Parties produce a list of candidates and electors vote for the party not the people- except in the case of independents). In any case,individuals who seek elective posts should really have studied before running for office, and not after winning the elections.

Out of 74 MEPs, France counts 36 new MEPs (48.6%)- 38 MEPs have been re-elected. Here below is their alphabetical listing and the parties they belong to.