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The political groups of the European Parliament are the parliamentary groups of the European Parliament. The European Parliament is unique among supranational assemblies in that its members (MEPs) organise themselves into ideological groups like in traditional national legislatures. The members of other supranational assemblies form national groups.〔 The political groups of the European Parliament are sometimes the formal representation of a European political party in the Parliament. In other cases, they are political coalitions of a number of European parties, national parties, and independent politicians. These groups are not parties, but looser coalitions. They are strictly forbidden to campaign during the European elections since this is the exclusive responsibility of the Europarties. Each political group is assumed to have a set of core principles, and political groups that cannot demonstrate this may be disbanded (see below). ==Requirements and privileges== Working together in Groups benefits European political parties: for example, the European Free Alliance (5 MEPs in sixth Parliament) and the European Green Party (37 MEPs in sixth Parliament) have more power by working together in the European Greens–European Free Alliance Group (42 MEPs) than they would have as stand-alone parties, bringing their causes much-needed additional support. Further incentives for co-operating in Groups include financial subsidies from the Parliament and guaranteed seats on committees〔 which are not afforded to Independent MEPs. For a Group to be formally recognised in the Parliament, it must fulfil the conditions laid down in the relevant European Parliament Rule of Procedure.〔("Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, 7th parliamentary term – July 2009, Rule 30: Formation of political groups" ) 1 July 2009, from (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ )〕〔("Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, 16th edition – March 2009, Rule 29: Formation of political groups" ) 6 April 2009, from (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ )〕 That Rule lays down the minimum criteria a Group must meet to qualify as a Group. Provided those criteria are met, MEPs can theoretically create any Group they like. This was put to the test when MEPs attempted to create a far-right Group called "Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty" (ITS). This generated controversy and there were concerns about public funds going towards a far-right Group. Attempts to block the formation of ITS were unsuccessful, but ITS were blocked from leading positions on committees, a privilege usually afforded to all Groups. These events spurred MEPs, mainly from the largest two groups, to approve a rise in the threshold for groups for the 2009–2014 term to a minimum of 25 MEPs from at least seven states. This was opposed by many MEPs, including the Liberal group, for being detrimental to democracy and the two other smallest groups in Parliament, whilst supporters argued that the change made it harder for the far right to claim EU funds whilst still enabling 2.5% of MEPs to form a group. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Political groups of the European Parliament」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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