Political groups

in the European Parliament and the parties from Ireland and Malta

In the European Parliament, Members form political groups according to their political affiliation, not their nationality; a group needs at least 23 Members elected in at least one quarter of the Member States. According to Parliament’s list of Members as of 22 October 2026, there are eight political groups; of the MEPs from Ireland and Malta, those of Fine Gael and the Partit Nazzjonalista belong to the EPP Group, those of Ireland’s Labour Party and the Partit Laburista to the S&D Group, those of Fianna Fáil to the Renew Europe Group, together with two independent Irish MEPs, and those of Sinn Féin to The Left group, together with one independent Irish MEP. No MEP from Ireland or Malta belongs to any of the other four groups, and none is non-attached.

What is a political group?

Under Rule 33 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, Members may form groups according to their political affinities. It is therefore the individual Member who belongs to a group, not a national party, and a Member may belong to only one political group.

According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), 214 national parties were represented in the 2019 to 2024 Parliament (as of 1 April 2024), and the vast majority of them were linked with a political group. The EPRS also distinguishes political groups from European political parties, whose funding is separate from that of the groups.

Members forming a group declare this to the President of Parliament, giving the name of the group, a political declaration, its Members and its bureau. All Members of the group declare in writing that they share the same political affinity. The formation and the dissolution of a group are announced in plenary.

Minimum size and Member States

A political group needs at least 23 Members, and they must have been elected in at least one quarter of the Member States (Rule 33(2)). With 27 Member States, that means seven.

If a group falls below either threshold, the President may, with the agreement of the Conference of Presidents, allow it to continue to exist until the next constituent sitting. The conditions are that its Members still represent at least one fifth of the Member States and that the group has existed for more than one year. The President does not apply this exception where there is sufficient evidence to suspect that it is being abused (Rule 33(3)).

Non-attached Members

Members who do not belong to any political group are non-attached. They are provided with a secretariat, and the Bureau lays down their status and parliamentary rights (Rule 37). Together they do not form a political group, not even a “mixed group” of the kind found in some national parliaments (EPRS).

In committees, the groups’ coordinators prepare decisions such as the appointment of rapporteurs (Rule 220). Non-attached Members cannot appoint coordinators, but their access to information must be guaranteed, including through the presence of a member of their secretariat at coordinator meetings (interpretation of Rule 220).

Rights and resources of political groups

Among other things, the Rules of Procedure provide the following for political groups:

  • Groups have a secretariat, administrative facilities and appropriations from Parliament’s budget (Rule 34).
  • The group chairs and the President make up the Conference of Presidents. The Conference seeks a consensus; where none is reached, it votes with a weighting based on the number of Members in each group. One non-attached Member attends without a vote (Rule 26).
  • Where speaking time in a debate is allocated, one share of the time for the first part is divided equally among the groups and another in proportion to their number of Members. The non-attached Members receive an overall speaking time in proportion to their number, counted up to 23, the minimum size of a group (Rule 178).
  • Candidates for President, Vice-President and Quaestor may be nominated only by a political group or by at least one twentieth of Parliament’s component Members. According to the EPRS, that has meant 36 Members since 16 July 2024 (Rules 15 and 186).

According to the EPRS, belonging to a political group is of particular relevance for the allocation of key positions, such as committee and delegation chairs and rapporteurships on important dossiers. Groups also receive more funding for their staff and parliamentary activities than non-attached Members.

According to Parliament, a group discusses its position internally, but no Member can be forced to vote in a particular way. How cohesively the Members of a group vote is shown on the page Groups and countries.

Changes of group

Members may switch to another group or become non-attached during the term, and no provision of the Rules limits how often they may do so (EPRS). Parliament’s Open Data Portal records each group membership with its start date and, once it has ended, its end date.

On OpenRCV, the section Changes since July 2024 shows who has changed group and who has taken up a seat as a replacement. If a Member has changed group, their profile also shows their group history; profiles can be reached from the list of MEPs.

Political groups and the parties from Ireland and Malta

The list gives each political group with its official name, its short name and the number of its Members in office, in a fixed order with the non-attached Members at the end. Under each group are the parties from Ireland and from Malta whose MEPs belong to it, with their short name, full name and the number of those MEPs. The names link to the OpenRCV overviews of the groups and parties. The figures are based on the list of Members from Parliament’s Open Data Portal; its date is given below the list.

Membership list as of 5 November 2026. 720 MEPs in office, 14 from Ireland and 6 from Malta.

Sources

Source: European Parliament open data (CC BY 4.0), prepared by OpenRCV.

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