European Free Alliance

European Free Alliance Europäische Freie Allianz Alliance libre européenne Alleanza libera europea Alianza libre europea L-Alleanza Ħilsa Ewropea Aliança Lliure Europea Fria Europeiska Alliansen Evropská svobodná aliance
President	Eric Defoort
Founded	1981 (1981)
Headquarters	Boomkwekerijstraat 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Ideology	Regionalism (majority), separatism (minority), progressivism (majority)
International affiliation	None
European Parliament Group	The Greens–European Free Alliance
Official colours	Blue and grey
Website
www.e-f-a.org
Politics of the European Union Political parties Elections

The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party. It consists of various national-level political parties in Europe which advocate either full political independence (statehood), or some form of devolution or Self-governance for their country or region.^[1] The alliance has generally limited its membership to progressive parties,^[2] and therefore, not all European regionalist parties are members of EFA. The EFA and European Green Party form The Greens–European Free Alliance political grouping in the European Parliament. The EFA's youth wing is the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAY).

History

Since the 1979 European Parliament election regionalists and separatists have been represented in the European Parliament. In that election five regionalist parties got seats: the Northern Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party, the Scottish National Party, the Flemish People's Union (VU), the Waloon Democratic Front of Francophones (FDF) and the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) won seats. The SNP, although being a social-democratic party, joined the European Progressive Democrats, which was led by the Gaullist Rally for the Republic, the SDLP the Socialist Group, VU and FDF the Technical Group of Independents, which comprised both conservative and left-wing MEPs, and the SVP joined the group of the European People's Party.

In 1981 several European regionalist parties joined together to form a pan-European political alliance, called the "European Free Alliance". It was not until the 1989 European Parliament election that the EFA members formed a united group in the European Parliament. Before the regionalists had been seated divided, with the SNP with the Gaullist European Democratic Alliance, VU, the Valdotanian Union and the Basque Nationalist Party in the Rainbow Group, together with green parties, and Batasuna sat among non-iscrits.

In 1989 the regionalists, including EFA-members, formed a group called the Rainbow Group as well. It consisted out of three Italian MEPs (for Lega Nord and the Sardinian Action Party), two Spanish MEPs (for the Basque Nationalist Party and the Andalusian Party), one Belgian MEP (for VU), one French MEP (for the Union of the Corsican People, one British MEP (for the SNP) and one Irish MEP (Neil Blaney, independent). They were joined by 4 MEPs from the left-wing Danish Eurosceptic People's Movement against the EU, while all the other regionalist MEPs, including those of the SDLP, the SVP and the Convergence and Union of Catalonia refused to join EFA.

In the 1994 European Parliament election the regionalists lost considerably. Moreover they had suspended the membership of Lega Nord for entering in a government with the post-fascist National Alliance and the Basque Nationalist Party had joined the European People's Party. The three remaining EFA members in the Parliament (SNP, VU and Canarian Coalition) formed a common group with the Energie Radicale-list. This group was called European Radical Alliance.

Following the 1999 European Parliament election the EFA-members in parliament formed a common European parliamentary group with the European Green Party called The Greens–European Free Alliance. The EFA supplied ten members from the Scottish National Party (2 MEPs), the Welsh Plaid Cymru (2), the Flemish People's Union (2), the Basque Nationalist Party (1), Basque Solidarity (1), the Andalusian Party (1) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (1).

In the 2004 European Parliament election the EFA was reduced to four MEPs (two of the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one of Plaid Cymru (Jill Evans) and one of the Republican Left of Catalonia (Bernat Joan i Mari, for Spain), replaced at the mid-term by MEP Mikel Irujo of Basque Solidarity) plus two affiliate members. MEP Tatjana Ždanoka (Latvia) and László Tőkés (Romania) both also sit in the EFA subgroup. They are both individual affiliates of the EFA subgroup, as Ždanoka's party For Human Rights in United Latvia was not a member of EFA and Tőkés was an independent. The cooperation between EFA and the Greens was continued. In 2004 the EFA became a European political party.

Following the 2008 revision of the EU Regulation that governs European political parties allowing the creation of European foundations affiliated to Europarties, the EFA established in September 2007 its official foundation/think tank, the Centre Maurits Coppieters (CMC)

In the 2009 European Parliament election the EFA got six MEPs elected: two from the Scottish National Party (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one from the Plaid Cymru (Jill Evans), one from the Party of the Corsican Nation (François Alfonsi), one from the Republican Left of Catalonia (Oriol Junqueras) and Tatjana Ždanoka, individual member of the EFA, in Latvia. After the election the New-Flemish Alliance also joined the EFA. The EFA subgroup now counts 7 MEP's.

Ideology

In the Brussels Declaration of 2000 the EFA codified its political principles. The EFA stands for "a Europe of Free Peoples based on the principle of subsidiarity, which believe in solidarity with each other and the peoples of the world."^[3]

The EFA sees itself as an alliance of stateless peoples, which are striving towards independence, autonomy, recognition or that want a proper voice in Europe. It supports European integration on basis of the subsidiarity-principle. It believes however that Europe should move away from further centralisation. It works towards the formation of a Europe of Regions. It believes that regions should have more power in Europe, for instance participate in the Council of the European Union, when matters within their competence are discussed. It also wants to protect the linguistic and cultural diversity within the European Union.

The EFA stands on the left of the political spectrum, and in the Brussels declaration it emphasizes the protection of human rights, sustainable development and social justice. In 2007 the EFA congress in Bilbao added several progressive principles to the declaration: including a commitment to fight against racism, antisemitism, discrimination, xenophobia and islamophobia and a commitment to get full citizenship for migrants, including voting rights.

EFA members are generally progressive parties, although there are some notable exceptions such as the conservative New-Flemish Alliance and Bavaria Party, the Christian-democratic ProDG, the centre-right Liga Veneta Repubblica and the far-right South Tyrolean Freedom.

Organization

The main organs of the EFA organization are the General Assembly, the Bureau and the Secretariat.

In the General Assembly every member party has one vote. It is the supreme council of the EFA. Only member parties can participate in the EFA. The EFA also has observers. Before becoming member a party needs to have been observer of the EFA for at least one year. Only one member party per region is allowed. If a second party from a region wants to join the first party needs to agree, these two parties will then form a common delegation with one vote. The EFA also recognizes friends of the EFA, a special status for regionalist parties outside of the European Union.^[3]

The Bureau takes care of daily affairs. It is chaired by Eric Defoort, a member of the New-Flemish Alliance. Marta Rovira of the Republican Left of Catalonia is secretary-general, while François Alfonsi of the Party of the Corsican Nation is treasurer. The other members of the Bureau are all vice-president: Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru), Gustave Alirol (Occitan Party), Fabrizio Comencini (Liga Veneta Repubblica), Ana Miranda Paz (Galician Nationalist Bloc), Ian Hudghton (Scottish National Party), Sybren Posthumus (Frisian National Party), Sebastian Colio (Basque Solidarity), Dimitrios Ioannou (Ouranio Toxo/Vinozito), Rolf Granlund (Future of Åland), Reinhild Campidell (South Tyrolean Freedom) and Lucy Collyer (PSM Entesa Nacionalista). [1]

Members

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined (Observer/Member[4])	MEPs
Austria	Unity List	Carinthian Slovenes	2005/2006	0
Belgium	Social Liberal Party(a)	Flanders	2001	0
Belgium	New-Flemish Alliance	Flanders	2010	1
Bulgaria	United Macedonian Organization Ilinden–Pirin	ethnic Macedonians	2006/2007	0
Czech Republic	Moravané	Moravia	2006	0
Croatia	List for Fiume	Rijeka	2009/2010	0
Finland	Future of Åland	Åland	2005/2006	0
France	Savoyard League	Savoie	1999/2000	0
France	Savoy Region Movement	Savoie	1991	0
France	Occitan Party	Occitania	1982	0
France	Party of the Corsican Nation	Corsica	1981	1[5]
France	Breton Democratic Union	Brittany	1987	0
France	Unser Land	Alsace	1991	0
France	Catalan Unity	Northern Catalonia	1991	0
Germany	Bavaria Party	Bavaria	2007/2008	0
Germany	The Friesen	East Frisia	2008/2009	0
Germany	South Schleswig Voter Federation	Danes, North Frisians	2009/2010	0
Greece	Rainbow	ethnic Macedonians	1999/2000	0
Italy	South Tyrolean Freedom	South Tyrol	2009	0
Italy	Liga Veneta Repubblica	Veneto	1999/2000	0
Italy	Sardinian Action Party	Sardinia	1984	0
Italy	Slovene Union	Slovenes	1991	0
Latvia	For Human Rights in United Latvia	Baltic Russians, Latgalians	2010	1
Netherlands	Frisian National Party	Friesland	1981	0
Poland	Silesian Autonomy Movement	Upper Silesia	2002/2003	0
Slovakia	Party of Regions of Slovakia	Prešov and Košice	2008/2009	0
Spain	Galician Nationalist Bloc	Galicia	1994/2000	0
Spain	Aragonese Junta	Aragon	2003/2004	0
Spain	Majorca Socialist Party	Balearic Islands	2000/2008	0
Spain /  France	Republican Left of Catalonia	Catalan Countries	1989	1
Spain /  France	Basque Solidarity	Basque Country	1986	0
Spain	Andalusian Party	Andalusia	1999	0
United Kingdom	Mebyon Kernow	Cornwall	2003	0
United Kingdom	Plaid Cymru	Wales	1983	1
United Kingdom	Scottish National Party	Scotland	1989	2

• (a)Merged into Groen! in December 2009. On the lokal level S-LP still has elected members who remain active under that name until 2012 when the next local elections will take place.

Observer members

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined	MEPs
Belgium	ProDG	German-speaking Belgians	2009	0
Germany	Wendish People's Party	Sorbs , Lusatia	2009	0
Italy	Valdotanian Renewal	Aosta Valley	2007	0
Italy	Movement for the Independence of Sicily	Sicily	2009	0
Hungary	Renewed Roma Union Party of Hungary	Roma in Hungary	2009	0

Former members

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined (Observer/Member[4])	Notes
Belgium	Party of German-speaking Belgians	German-speaking Belgians	1981	Ceased activity in 2009
Belgium	People's Union	Flanders	1981	re-emerged in 2001, and finally split into the New-Flemish Alliance and SPIRIT
Italy	Lega Nord	Padania		Suspended in 1994, left in 1996
Spain /  France	Basque Nationalist Party	Basque Country		Left in 2004
Italy	Valdotanian Union	Aosta Valley		Expelled in 2007 after lack of activity in EFA structures
Italy	Union for South Tyrol	South Tyrol		Expelled in 2008 over its opposition to the Bilbao declaration
Romania	Transilvania–Banat League	Transylvania and Banat		Ceased activity
Slovakia	Hungarian Federalist Party	Hungarians		Ceased activity
Italy	Emilian Free Alliance	Emilia	1999/2000	Ceased activity in 2010
Lithuania	Lithuanian Polish People's Party	Poles	2003/2004	Ceased activity in 2010

Non-members

Several prominent regional, regionalist, secessionist or minority parties are not members of EFA. These include:

References

External links

• European Free Alliance website
• European Free Alliance (EFA) Manifesto for the June 2004 European elections
• The Greens-European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament
• European Free Alliance Youth EFAY

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