NEW EFD GROUP FORMED IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

A New Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) political group has been formed in the European Parliament. It includes 48 MEPs (6.39% of the total number of MEPs) from the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Latvia and France.

Delegations

1. United Kingdom: UK Independence Party (24 MEPs)
2. Italy: 5 Star Movement (17 MEPs)
3. Sweden: Sweden Democrats (2 MEPs)
4. Lithuania: Order and Justice Party (2 MEPs)
5. Czech Republic: Free Citizens' Party (1 MEP)
6. Latvia: Union of Greens and Farmers’ Group (1 MEP Iveta Grigule)
7. France: (1 MEP Joëlle Bergeron who quit the Front National)

EFD is a right-wing and highly Eurosceptic political group, strongly opposed to further European integration, as they call it ‘the creation of a single centralised European superstate’. Their reasoning behind this stems from their conviction that ‘there is no such thing as a single European people’. Instead, they support an increasingly sovereign Member State model, where countries ‘co-operate’ with each other yet retain control over their own internal and external policy.

The group is also in favour of treaty changes solely through referendum by every Member State. This, they assert, will offer a solution to the democratic deficit currently seen in EU institutions.

EFD believes that Member States should protect their border. This can clearly be interpreted as a rejection of the Schengen Zone and  possibly of the four freedoms guaranteed in the Lisbon Treaty, though the group’s position on the eurozone is unclear.

The group advocates that Member States should be free to maintain their unique ‘historical, traditional, religious and cultural values’. At the same time, the group claims to be against ‘xenophobia, anti-Semitism and any other form of discrimination’ This may present the group with a challenge on how to respond to Member State policies that are openly discriminatory yet allegedly a reflection of traditional and cultural values.

However, with members from just seven countries—the bare minimum necessary to gain official group status in the Parliament—EFD will be vulnerable to defections. Crucially, it only has one lawmaker each from France, the Czech Republic and Latvia and the withdrawal of just one of them would see the group lose the extra funding and influence on the lawmaking process that comes with official recognition.