European Radical Alliance

The Group of the European Radical Alliance (ERA) was a heterogeneous political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1994 and 1999. It was formed by regionalist parties from the former Rainbow Group,[8] although its largest and dominant member party was the French Energie Radicale.[9][10]

European Radical Alliance
European Parliament group
ERA logo
NameEuropean Radical Alliance
English abbr.ERA[1]
French abbr.ARE[2]
Formal nameGroup of the European Radical Alliance[3][4]
IdeologyRegionalism[5]
Associated organisationsEuropean Free Alliance
From19 July 1994[6]
To20 July 1999[2]
Preceded byRainbow Group
Succeeded byGreens–European Free Alliance
Chaired byCatherine Lalumière[7]
MEP(s)19 (19 July 1994),
21 (5 May 1999),
13 (13 June 1999)

History

In 1989[6][2] the Rainbow Group split. The Greens went off to form the Green Group, whilst the Regionalists stayed in the rump of Rainbow Group. The 1994 elections saw a considerable reduction in Regionalist representation in the Parliament, with only the Canary Isles autonomists, Lega Nord, the Scottish National Party (SNP) and People's Union (VU) keeping their MEPs.[11] But Lega Nord had been suspended from the European Free Alliance following its decision to join the coalition Italian government alongside the right-wing National Alliance.[11] Given this reduction in numbers, the weakened EFA were no longer able to maintain their own group.

The French Energie Radicale were considered centrist enough to be possible members of the ELDR Group[12] (their successors, the Radical Party of the Left, became observers in the ELDR Party in 2006[13]) but instead they allied themselves with the members of the Pannella-Reformers List and the rump EFA to form the Group of the European Radical Alliance.[2]

The ERA stayed in existence until 1999, when a loss of support forced the European Free Alliance members of the ERA to rejoin with the Green Group to create the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group.[2]

Member parties on 19 July 1994
Member state Party MEPs Notes
France Energie Radicale[11][14] 13[11][14]
United Kingdom Scottish National Party[11][14] 2[11][14]
Italy Pannella-Reformers List[11][14] 2[11][14]
Belgium People's Union/Flemish Free Democrats[11][14] 1[11][14]
Spain Canarian Coalition[15] 1 Isidoro Sánchez García[15]

Sources
  • "Regionalist Parties in Western Europe", ISBN 0-415-16437-0, de Winter & Türsan 1998 [11]
  • Democracy in the European Parliament[1]
  • Development of Political Groups in the European Parliament[6]
  • Group names 1999[3]
  • Europe Politique[2]
  • European Parliament MEP Archives[4][7][15]
  • European Union Basics FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout[14]
  • OneEurope magazine[12]
  • ELDR[13]

References
  1. Democracy in the European Parliament
  2. G/EFA on Europe Politique
  3. "INFO". www.europarl.europa.eu.
  4. "European Parliament profile of Jaak Vandemeulebroucke".
  5. James Mitchell (1998). "Member State or Euro-Region? The SNP, Plaid Cymru, and Europe". In David Baker; David Seawright (eds.). Britain for and Against Europe: British Politics and the Question of European Integration. Clarendon Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-19-828078-1.
  6. Development of Political Groups in the European Parliament Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "European Parliament profile of Catherine Lalumière".
  8. Colin Pilkington (2001). Britain in the European Union Today. Manchester University Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-7190-5791-5.
  9. Julie Smith (1999). Europe's Elected Parliament. A&C Black. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-85075-999-7.
  10. Luciano Bardi (2002). "Transnational Trends: The Evolution of the European Party System". In Bernard Steunenberg; J. J. A. Thomassen (eds.). The European Parliament: Moving Toward Democracy in the EU. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-7425-0126-3.
  11. de Winter, Lieven; Türsan, Huri (1998). Regionalist Parties in Western Europe. Routledge. pp. 190–201. ISBN 0-415-16437-0.
  12. "OneEurope magazine, issue 11" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2008.
  13. "ELDR State of the Party: Activity Report of the ELDR Party, April 1999 - October 2006" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2008.
  14. "European Union Basics (FAQ), Part3/8". www.faqs.org.
  15. "European Parliament profile of Isidoro Sánchez García".
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