English abbr. EFDD | French abbr. ELDD | |
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Name Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Formal name Europe of freedom and direct democracy Group Ideology Euroscepticism
Populism European parties Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe | ||
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD2) is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group is a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group that existed during the Seventh European Parliament, with significant changes to group membership.
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Formation for the 8th European Parliament
Following the 2014 European parliament elections, the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group faced difficulties reforming for the 8th European Parliament, with various member parties and MEPs of the previous term's EFD either defecting to different parliamentary groups or failing to be re-elected.
On 4 June 2014, the Danish People's Party (Denmark) and Finns Party (Finland) were admitted into the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and therefore were no longer attached to the EFD.
On 12 June 2014, the Five Star Movement (M5S) of Italy, having been rejected by the Greens/EFA and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe groups, offered its activists a limited-choice online referendum to choose a European Parliament group for the party, in which 78% of participating activists voted for the EFD.
On 16 June 2014, Dutch MEP Bas Belder of the Reformed Political Party (SGP) moved from the EFD to the ECR group.
The EFD group was reformed on 18 June 2014 with MEPs from existing member parties: the UK Independence Party (United Kingdom) and the Order and Justice (Lithuania), in addition to new affiliates: the Five Star Movement, the Sweden Democrats (Sweden), the Party of Free Citizens (Czech Republic), the Latvian Farmers Union (Latvia) and a French independent MEP, formerly of the National Front.
On 24 June 2014, the EFD group name was revised to Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), and David Borrelli of the Five Star Movement was chosen as the incoming group's new co-president.
Events during 8th European Parliament
On 16 October 2014, it was announced that Iveta Grigule MEP from the Latvian Farmers Union had defected from EFDD to,the ALDE group, resulting in the collapse of the group because it was no longer composed of representatives from at least a quarter of the EU's Member States. The criterion was restored on 20 October, with one Polish MEP, Robert Iwaszkiewicz from Congress of the New Right (KNP), joining the group, although the other party's MEPs remained Non-Inscrits. On 24 January 2015, Amjad Bashir was suspended from UKIP pending a party investigation into financial fraud: Bashir defected to the Conservative Party within an hour of his suspension. On 20 March 2015, Janice Atkinson was suspended from UKIP and later expelled on 23 March for alleged financial fraud. Atkinson joined the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group at its launch on 15 June 2015.
On 8 April 2016, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Beatrix von Storch left the ECR group to join EFDD.
On 24 October 2016, Steven Woolfe left the group to sit as Non-Inscrits, followed by Diane James on 20 November 2016.
On 9 January 2017, the Five Star Movement voted in an online referendum to leave EFDD in order to join the ALDE group; however, they were rejected by ALDE later the same day. In the aftermath, two MEPs left the group, with Marco Affronte defected to the Greens/EFA group, and Marco Zanni to the ENL group. Other Five Star Movement MEPs pulled out of switching parliamentary group after threatened by party leader Beppe Grillo with a fine of €250,000.
8th European Parliament, 2014
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy has 42 elected members as follows: