European Parliament - integration of the sceptics

The European elections brought sceptics to about 20 % of the seats in the parliament. They represent a conglomerate of interests and opinions. Their ability to cooperate will be important for political influence.

In the parliament political relatives form groups. Groups get substantial administrative support, speaking time, attendence of meetings of political group leaders, and a quota of seats in committees. Non-attached MEPs  do not have the same benefits. A group must have minimum 25 members and at least one-quarter of the member states must be represented. From 2009-2013 there were 7 groups and some non-attached MEPs (either because they did not wanted to be members of the existing groups or because the groups would not let them in).

Two of the groups consisted of more or less sceptical representatives. European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is a conservative, anti-federalist and moderately sceptic group. The largest parties in the group have been the Conservative Party of the UK and Law and Justice of Poland. The other group is Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD). It´s more sceptic. The largest of the ten political parties here is UK Indepence Party (UKIP). After the elections there is a third even more sceptic group afoot - European Alliance for Freedom. This is a group proposed by the pan-European right wing political party with the same name.

Until 1 of July, when the parliament will start a plenary session, there will be a lot of bargaining and discussions between the new MEPs. It is impossible to predict the result and what kind of groups and non-attached members the new parliament will consist of. But there is a paradox, of which perhaps Jean Monnet would have smiled a little, that also the sceptics must try to form alliances and integration in groups to get more power to slow the European integration.