European Free Alliance
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist,[1][2][3] separatist[4] and ethnic minority[3] political parties in Europe. Member parties call either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region.[5] The party has generally limited its membership to centre-left and left-wing parties;[6][7] therefore, only a few of European regionalist parties are members of the EFA.
European Free Alliance | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Lorena Lopez de Lacalle (EA) |
| Secretary-General | Jordi Solé (ERC) |
| Treasurer | Anke Spoorendonk (SSW) |
| Founded | 9 July 1981 |
| Headquarters | Boomkwekerijstraat 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium |
| Think tank | Coppieters Foundation |
| Youth wing | European Free Alliance Youth |
| Ideology | Regionalism Separatism Ethnic minority interests |
| European Parliament group | Greens/EFA (6 MEPs) ECR (N-VA, 3 MEPs) |
| Colours | Purple |
| European Parliament | 9 / 705 |
| European Council | 0 / 27 |
| Website | |
| e-f-a | |
Since 1999, the EFA and the European Green Party have joined forces within Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, although some EFA members have joined other groups from time to time.
The EFA's youth wing is the European Free Alliance Youth, founded in 2000.
As of 2024, four European regions are led by EFA politicians: Scotland with Humza Yousaf of the Scottish National Party, Flanders with Jan Jambon of the New Flemish Alliance, Corsica with Gilles Simeoni of For Corsica, and Catalonia with Pere Aragonès of the Republican Left of Catalonia.
References
change- ↑ David Hanley (2007). "Parties, Identity and Europeanisation: An Asymmetrical Relationship?". In Marion Demossier (ed.). The European Puzzle: The Political Structuring of Cultural Identities at a Time of Transition. Berghahn Books. pp. 152–. ISBN 978-0-85745-863-6.
- ↑ Richard Corbett (2012). "Democracy in the European Union". In Elizabeth Bomberg; John Peterson; Richard Corbett (eds.). The European Union: How Does it Work?. Oxford University Press. pp. 155–. ISBN 978-0-19-957080-5.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ↑ "The European Free Alliance and the International Issues". ecpr.eu.
- ↑ "What's EFA and history". Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
- ↑ Gupta, Devashree (April 2008). "Nationalism across borders: transnational nationalist advocacy in the European Union". Comparative European Politics. 6 (1): 61–80. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110127. S2CID 144152782.
- ↑ David Hanley (2008). Beyond the Nation State: Parties in the Era of European Integration. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 132. ISBN 9781139867757.
Center-left and left-wing regionalist parties are typically associated with EFA. An exception is the Nieuwe-Vlaamse Alliantie, one of the heirs of the Flemish Volksunie, which belonged to the European Popular party in the period 2004 through 2009 and later became affiliated with EFA.