Talks are intensifying within the European Parliament's political groups between now and the constituent plenary session on 2 July to attract new members, appoint future leaders and set strategic priorities.
As long as Brexit is not in effect, each political group shall consist of at least 25 MEPs from at least seven Member States. Since the adoption at the end of January of the 'Corbett' report amending Parliament's Rules of Procedure (see EUROPE 12184/7), all Members of a group must declare in writing, in an annex to the group's declaration of formation, that they share the same political affinities (Rule 32).
Overview of the constitution of political groups.
EPP. After leading the European elections, the Christian Democratic Group (EPP) will be called upon to re-elect its management team on Wednesday 5 June, between the group's presidency and the vice-presidents. The official deadline for applications is open until Tuesday morning 4 June.
The current president, the German Manfred Weber, should be reappointed on a provisional basis, while negotiations between European political families to become the head of the European Commission (see EUROPE 12265/2) continue and possibly become a reality. On Monday 3 June, several internal sources within the group expected the current Vice-Presidents to remain in place and be re-elected.
However, MEPs who have not been re-elected, such as the Italian Lara Comi or those, such as the French Françoise Grossetête and the Pole Tadeusz Zwiefka, who did not stand for re-election, will have to be replaced. Geographical balances should be respected, with an outgoing French vice-president being replaced by another French elected representative.
The final constitution of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, with a possible new presidency and vice-presidency, will be made at a later stage. The possible succession of Manfred Weber, if he were to leave for the Commission, could be sought by Esteban González Pons of Spain.
S&D. Among the Social Democrats, the outgoing Bureau and the heads of national delegations will begin discussions on Tuesday 4 June on the procedure for selecting the group chairman and the new Bureau for the election of the first, Tuesday 18 June, and the second, the following day.
At this stage, nothing is filtering on the ambitions of some Members. Last week, the current chairman of the S&D group, Udo Bullmann of Germany, said that his journey, which began 2 years ago, at the head of the second largest political group in the European Parliament was not over.
But the German Social Democrats won only 16 seats, while the Spanish PSOE and the Italian DP won 20 and 19 seats respectively. These positive results could fuel their desire, even if, on the Italian side, the group was led by Gianni Pittella from July 2014 to March 2018.
ALDE&R. The Liberal elected representatives are meeting on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 June to discuss the group's charter, the future grand coalition and their new name.
The group, currently called ALDE, will change its name, both to satisfy the French in La République en Marche, but also to end the confusion with the European ALDE party (see EUROPE 12247/6). The new name should be confirmed on Wednesday.
Next week, the Liberals will meet on Tuesday 11 June and Wednesday 12 June. This last date is the deadline for submitting applications for the position of Group President. The Dutch Sophie in't Veld, from the Democraten 66 party, and the Swedish Fredrick Federley, from the Centerpartiet, have already officially announced themselves, according to several sources.
The French Nathalie Loiseau, head of the Renaissance list, composed notably of La République en marche!, the German Nicola Beer, head of the Freie Demokratische Partei list and member of the ALDE party's 'team Europe' for the European elections (see EUROPE 12219/3), would also be in contention (see EUROPE 12265/23).
On Tuesday 18 June, the members of the group will elect, by secret ballot, their president. On this occasion, the group should also be formed. According to one source, it should consist of about 107 members, but negotiations are still ongoing for its final formation.
Greens/EFA. On the side of the European environmentalist family, the election of the Bureau of the Greens/EFA Group will take place on Wednesday 12 June. The outgoing co-chairs of the group, Germany's Ska Keller and Belgium's Philippe Lamberts, should a priori be reappointed without difficulty.
Applications for the various posts in the Bureau of the Political Group will be open on Wednesday 5 June.
In quantitative terms, according to European Parliament projections based on groups existing during the 2014-2019 legislature, the Greens/EFA group will include 69 elected representatives. According to our information, it will be bigger. At least 73 MEPs are expected to join the Greens/EFA group, and negotiations are under way to bring together even more parliamentarians.
ECR. Currently credited with 63 deputies, the Conservatives will meet on Wednesday 5 June, and then again 2 weeks later to elect their representatives from the ECR group.
Czech Jan Zahradil, head of the ACRE European Party's list of candidates in the European elections, may not run for re-election, according to a European source.
For the Presidency, it would be better to look at the Polish PiS party in power, which will send 26 MEPs to Strasbourg.
Discussions are underway to welcome new members who could be the Spanish Vox Party (see below).
ENF-EAPN. On the far right, negotiations continue this week for the formation of a new European Alliance of Peoples and Nations (EAPN) group, announced on 8 April by Lega leader Matteo Salvini (see EUROPE 12231/7). Sovereignists, conservatives and Eurosceptics are still evaluating their options.
At the end of May, the president of the Rassemblement National (RN), the Frenchwoman, Marine Le Pen, reported talks to set up a "super-group" bringing together at least 77 MEPs (see EUROPE 12265/5).
In particular, discussions took place with Nigel Farage's Brexit Party (EFDD), which has 29 seats. He also met with Marco Zanni of the Lega and Tomio Okamura, the leader of the Czech SPD, last week.
On Monday 3 June, a source from the current Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENF) group confirmed that its 58 members will participate, namely the RN, the Lega, the Austrian FPÖ, the Flemish Vlaams Belang, the Czech SPD, the Dutch PVV. With the German AfD (11 seats - EFDD), the True Finns (2 seats - ECR), the Danish People's Party (1 seat - ECR) and the Estonian EKRE party (1 seat) the group increases to 73 seats.
The Spanish party Vox (3 seats), on the other hand, indicated on Saturday 1 June that it would not join the far-right group, reported the newspaper El Pais, with reference to membership of the ECR group. Viktor Orbán's Hungarian Fidesz party should not join EAPN either.
GUE/NGL. Negotiations within the radical left are expected to be difficult, while the GUE/NGL group has seen a significant drop in the number of its MEPs (from 52 to 38).
The successor to the German Gabi Zimmer is unlikely to be German again, according to several sources, the Die Linke party having recorded a historically low score (5 elected).
The position could be held by a French or Greek, with the two national delegations each winning 6 MEPs. Problem: the French delegation, composed exclusively of members of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise, is hostile to Alexis Tsipras' Greek coalition Syriza, particularly because of its management of the Greek crisis.
However, the confederal structure of the group, which had been the subject of an internal debate at the end of 2018 (see EUROPE 12131/14), should nevertheless make it possible to pacify the coexistence between the two delegations.
The Spanish delegation is also well equipped, with 6 deputies, but it has lost 4 seats compared to the current mandate.
The trends will have to be clarified at the group's meetings on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 June. The deadline for the appointment of MEPs to the various positions and the election of the next president has been set for 27 June.
The name of the group could also be the subject of negotiations, some hoping to have a more legible name than the current one. The idea of creating a 'Left Group' had been around for a while. But it had provoked an outcry among the Scandinavian parties united under the banner ‘Nordic Green Left’ who wanted to differentiate themselves. (Original version in French by the editors)