State of the political groups

The various national political parties in the European Parliament have had until today to form political groups: by allying with parties from at least 7 other Member States with a minimum of 25 MEPs between them, they are entitled to EU funding and are in a better position to get good seats on parliamentary committees. For the mainstream groups of the Socialists and Democrats, the European People's Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and the European Greens-European Free Alliance, there has been little change, with most of the movement on the right of the political spectrum.

Current group positions:

EPP: 221
S&D: 191
ECR: 68
ALDE: 67
UEL: 52
Greens: 50
EFD: 48
Non-Attached: 43
[The EP still lists 11 as "others", so they might join a political group yet and possibly change the rankings again].

The Europe of Freedom and Democracy has managed to reform. The grouping that Nigel Farage led in the last Parliament looked like it might be squeezed between the European Conservatives and Reformists and the new far-right alliance of Le Pen and Geert Wilders, but in the end enough MEPs from different countries were found. The biggest gain for the EFD was the membership of the Five Star Movement, which had been considering joining the Greens. The EFD has grown from 32 to 48 MEPs despite the change in membership (the Danish People's Party has left for the ECR) and the reduction in total EP seats, and it remains the smallest group.

The European Conservatives and Reformists have been the biggest winners from this group reshuffle. From being the fifth group in size, behind the Greens, in the last Parliament, the ECR is set to edge out the Liberals as the third biggest group (growing from 54 to 68 MEPs). This should be a big boost to its political weight in the EP, but it's unlikely that it will win the EP Presidency given the likely EPP-PES deal to take turns over the post. The ECR attracted the Eurozone-skeptic AfD and the Danish People's Party, along with a smattering of other individual MEPs. It's possible that this intake could shift the ECR in a more national-conservative direction, so while the group may be founded on a free market platform, this could start to take a back seat to concerns over free movement of people and cultural issues. This might depend on how far the AfD takes a socially conservative direction and whether it can retain a free market outlook. It will be interesting to see if the ECR will "detoxify" the Danish People's Party, or if they will toxify the ECR...

The United European Left grouping has also boosted its numbers from 35 to 52, with the Spanish party Podemos. EUObserver reports that the group is split between those that are anti-EU and those who favour more integration to solve economic and social issues (it seems that Podemos leans towards federalism). Meanwhile the Le Pen-Wilders project for a far-right alliance has failed to bring together enough MEPs from across the EU to form a political group. For now the Front National and the PVV will sit as Non-Attached.

For the EPP and S&D, little has changed. The German delegation is the largest now in the EPP and the S&D's biggest delegation will be Italian, but apart from that there doesn't seem to be any major changes. Likewise ALDE and the Greens have not had any major additions or losses in the re-shuffle - which could be seen as both groups having settled identities (any liberal/Green party that could join probably is already aligned with them).

Over this splintered Parliament it looks like Martin Schulz will re-take the President's chair as part of the coalition between the EPP and S&D. It remains to be seen if the Grand Coalition will stick together on the big issues or if it will only stay in place as a deal over the top posts.

Semi-Participation? European Conservatives' Manifesto and debate participation

The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists are in the strange position of complaining that they weren't allowed to participate in the debate between the Europarty candidates for European Commission President, while opposing the idea of running candidates altogether. It seems odd to argue that they won't run because there isn't the interest or connection with people to legitimise the election... and then loudly complain that they can't participate in the debate that they were afraid of legitimising.

The AECR are in a complicated position by being anti-federalist and wanting to largely limit the EU to the single market. The fear that participating in the race for the Commission Presidency will legitimise federalism seems to be misguided to me. While sitting out the debate makes sense for Euroskeptic parties who want to dissolve or withdraw from the EU, surely since the whole point of the AECR is that it is not fundamentally EU, but wants to reform it, the AECR should be organised towards winning posts and influence within the EU institutions to make that happen. By running a candidate, the AECR could have influenced the debate and challenged the other so-called federalist parties. Already Juncker's position seems more friendly to intergovernmentalism: having a candidate further to the right (on whose party's support the EPP may have to rely on in the Parliament) could drag the EPP further towards its position.

So what is the AECR's platform? AECR President, Jan Zahradil, says:

"The AECR rejects harmonised taxes, EU embassies and an EU army. We believe in rolling back the EU bureaucracy to a point where it can provide all citizens with the benefits of free trade, free movement of people, goods, services and capital, improved competition and strong families. We are here to speak for the millions of Europeans who do not want to be part of a federal super-state."

The AECR seems to be running more on its principles than on a manifesto per se, but the Parliamentary group of European Conservatives and Reformists (the AECR sits in this group in Parliament) produced an alternative programme for the Commission's work in 2014, so that might be a good place to start.

The AECR makes furthering the single market in areas like the digital market a priority, and talks about cutting red tape. It's identified a "Top 10 most burdensome legislation" that the AECR wants to be changed for SMEs: the Common system of value added tax; data protection laws; general product safety, Measures to encourage improvements and safety and health of workers at work; Posting of workers in the framework of the provisions of services; Procedures for the award of public workers contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts; Recognition of professional qualifications; Recording equipment in road transport for driving and rest periods; Refund a value added tax to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State; and Registration, Evaluation, authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals.

The ECR group strongly supports the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement and wants more trade negotiations with India and ASEAN. It opposes any legislation on Information and consultation of workers, and wants the reform of the Working Time Directive. Interestingly, the ECR says that "There is a need for a robust single rulebook for all credit institutions in the EU under the authority of the European Banking Authority" (page 9). You can read more about the ECR's position on other areas, like justice and home affairs, the environment and energy here (PDF).

The AECR is running in the election on its free market and anti-bureaucracy credentials, but it's not necessarily running everywhere in the EU. The member parties of the AECR can be found in 12 EU Member States (in some cases it's representation from a Member State is an independent MEP rather than a party). This limits the AECR's chance for success, though as the 5th largest block in the European Parliament has participated in coalitions on some legislation before.