Use of the Political Group Membership by National Parties and MEPs to influence Decision-making Process in the European Parliament

Due to the recent adoption of the Lisbon Treaty the role of the European Parliament  in the decision-making process at the supranational level becomes significantly more important. This paper argues the role of the national political parties and their representatives in the European Parliament as members of the political groups of the European Parliament. The author discusses how the national parties can influence the decision-making process on the European level and how the position within the parliamentary structure can be used to fulfill the goals of the national parties in the most efficient way. The paper presents analysis of the currently existing political groups’ composition and the role of political groups within the European Parliament. As a result the author reveals the connection between the parties’ roles at the national and European political arena – namely the fact that the stronger parties at the national level are the bigger and more powerful group they join in the European Parliament. Thus the ruling parties’ and big oppositional parties’ MEPs join the most powerful groups in the European Parliament – the EPP and S&D, who have the majority of members and affiliation with the strong European party federations. On the contrary the smaller parties’ MEPs join less powerful groups with less members and affiliation with one, two European party federation or no affiliation at all. The exception is the ECR political group constituted by MEPs of strong national parties, who founded a corresponding European party federation as a consequence of the formation of this group. To top it all some members of the European Parliament remain non-attached, as either their ideological positions or those of the political groups they seek to join prevent them from joining.