The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region. The party has generally limited its membership to centre-left and left-wing parties; therefore, only a fraction of European regionalist parties are members of the EFA. Since 1999, the EFA and the European Green Party (EGP) have joined forces within Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group in the European Parliament, although some EFA members have joined other groups from time to time, for example the New Flemish Alliance which sits with the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.
European Free Alliance | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | EFA |
| President | Lorena Lopez de Lacalle |
| Secretary-General | Oriol Cases i Vilà |
| Founded | 9 July 1981 |
| Headquarters | Boomkwekerijstraat 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium |
| Think tank | Coppieters Foundation |
| Youth wing | European Free Alliance Youth |
| Membership (26 January 2025) | 2 |
| Ideology | Regionalism Autonomism Separatism |
| Political position | Big tent |
| European Parliament group | Greens/EFA (3 MEPs) ECR (N-VA, 3 MEPs) EPP Group (Manuela Ripa, direct member) The Left (Pernando Barrena, direct member) |
| Colours | Purple |
| European Parliament | 8 / 720 |
| European Commission | 0 / 27 |
| European Council | 1 / 27 |
| European Lower Houses | 41 / 6,229 |
| European Upper Houses | 16 / 1,458 |
| Website | |
| efaparty.eu | |
The EFA is represented in the European Council by Bart De Wever of the New Flemish Alliance, who has served as Prime Minister of Belgium since 2025. Two EU regions are led by EFA politicians: Flanders with Matthias Diependaele of the New Flemish Alliance and Corsica with Gilles Simeoni of Femu a Corsica. Additionally, Scotland is led by John Swinney of the Scottish National Party.
The EFA's youth wing is the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAY), established in 2000.
History
Regionalists have long been represented in the European Parliament. In the 1979 election four regionalist parties obtained seats: the Scottish National Party (SNP), the Flemish People's Union (VU), the Brussels-based Democratic Front of Francophones (FDF) and the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP). The SNP, although being predominantly social-democratic, joined the European Progressive Democrats, a conservative group led by the French Rally for the Republic. The VU and the FDF joined the heterogeneous Technical Group of Independents, while the SVP joined the European People's Party group.
In 1981, six parties (VU, the Frisian National Party, Independent Fianna Fáil, the Party of German-speaking Belgians, the Party for the Organization of a Free Brittany and the Alsace-Lorraine National Association), plus three observers (the Union of the Corsican People, UPC, the Occitan Party and the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia, CDC), joined forces to form the European Free Alliance. Regionalist MEPs continued, however, to sit in different groups also after the 1984 election: the SNP in the Gaullist-dominated European Democratic Alliance; the VU, the Sardinian Action Party (PSd'Az) and Basque Solidarity (EA) in the Rainbow Group, together with Green parties; the SVP in the European People's Party group; the CDC with the Liberal Democrats; and Herri Batasuna among Non-Inscrits.
Only after the 1989 European Parliament election did EFA members form a united group, called Rainbow like its green predecessor. It consisted of three Italian MEPs (two for Lega Lombarda and one for the PSd'Az), two Spanish MEPs (one each for the PNV and the Andalusian Party, PA), one Belgian MEP (for VU), one French MEP (UPC), one British MEP (SNP) and one independent MEP from Ireland. They were joined by 4 MEPs from the Danish left-wing Eurosceptic People's Movement against the EU, while the other regionalist parties, including the SVP, Batasuna and the Convergence and Union of Catalonia (CiU) declined to join.
In the 1994 European Parliament election, the regionalists lost many seats. Moreover, the EFA had suspended its major affiliate, Lega Nord, for having joined forces in government with the post-fascist National Alliance. Also, the PNV chose to switch to the European People's Party (EPP). The three remaining EFA MEPs (representing the SNP, the VU and the Canarian Coalition) formed a group with the French Énergie Radicale list and the Italian Pannella List: the European Radical Alliance.
Following the 1999 European Parliament election, in which EFA parties did quite well, EFA elected MEPs formed a joint group with the European Green Party, under the name Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA). In the event, the EFA supplied ten members: two each from the Scottish SNP, the Welsh Plaid Cymru (PC), and the Flemish VU, and one each from the Basque PNV and EA, the Andalusian PA and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).
In the 2004 European Parliament election, the EFA, which had formally become a European political party, was reduced to four MEPs: two from the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one from PC (Jill Evans) and one from the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC; Bernat Joan i Marí, replaced at the mid-term by MEP Mikel Irujo of the Basque EA). They were joined by two associate members: Tatjana Ždanoka of For Human Rights in United Latvia (PCTVL) and László Tőkés, an independent MEP and former member of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UMDR). Co-operation between the EFA and the Greens continued.
Following the 2008 revision of the EU Regulation that governs European political parties allowing the creation of European foundations affiliated to European political parties, the EFA established its official foundation/think tank, the Coppieters Foundation (CF), in September 2007.
In the 2009 European Parliament election, six MEPs were returned for the EFA: two from the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one from PC (Jill Evans), one from the Party of the Corsican Nation (PNC; François Alfonsi), one from the ERC (Oriol Junqueras), and Tatjana Ždanoka, an individual member of the EFA from Latvia. After the election, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) also joined the EFA. The EFA subgroup thus counted seven MEPs.
In the 2014 European Parliament election, EFA-affiliated parties returned twelve seats to the Parliament: four for the N-VA, two for the SNP, two for "The Left for the Right to Decide" (an electoral list primarily composed of the ERC), one for "The Peoples Decide" (an electoral list mainly comprising EH Bildu, a Basque coalition including EA), one for "European Spring" (an electoral list comprising the Valencian Nationalist Bloc, BNV, and the Aragonese Union, ChA), one from PC, and one from the Latvian Russian Union (LKS). Due to ideological divergences with the Flemish Greens, the N-VA defected to the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and the EH Bildu MEP joined the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group. Thus, EFA had seven members in the Greens/EFA group and four within ECR.
In the 2019 European Parliament election the EFA gained a fourth seat in the United Kingdom, due to the SNP gaining a third seat to add to PC's one. However, the EFA suffered the loss of these seats in January 2020 due to Brexit, which meant SNP and PC MEPs had to leave.
Ideology
In the Brussels declaration of 2000, the EFA codified its political principles. The EFA stands for "a Europe of Free Peoples based on the principle of subsidiarity, which believe in solidarity with each other and the peoples of the world". The EFA sees itself as an alliance of stateless peoples, striving towards recognition, autonomy, independence or wanting a proper voice in Europe. It supports European integration on basis of the subsidiarity-principle. It believes also that Europe should move away from further centralisation and works towards the formation of a "Europe of regions". It believes that regions should have more power in Europe, for instance participating in the Council of the European Union, when matters within their competence are discussed. It also wants to protect the linguistic and cultural diversity within the EU.
The EFA broadly stands on the left wing of the political spectrum. EFA members are generally progressive, although there have been some notable exceptions as the conservative New Flemish Alliance, Bavaria Party, Democratic Party of Artsakh, Schleswig Party and Future of Åland, the Christian-democratic Slovene Union and the national-conservative (and often characterised as far-right) South Tyrolean Freedom, which left over policy disagreements in 2024.
Organisation
The main organs of the EFA organisation are the General Assembly, the Bureau and the Secretariat.
General Assembly
In the General Assembly, the supreme council of the EFA, every member party has one vote.
Bureau and Secretariat
The Bureau takes care of daily affairs. It is chaired by Lorena Lopez de Lacalle (Eusko Alkartasuna), president of the EFA, while Oriol Cases i Vilà (Republican Left of Catalonia) is secretary-general and Anke Spoorendonk (South Schleswig Voters' Association) vice-president and treasurer.
The Bureau is completed by other ten vice-presidents: Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru), Wouter Patho (New Flemish Alliance), Frank de Boer (Frisian National Party), Livia Ceccaldi-Volpei (Fermu a Corsica), Zsolt Szilágyi (Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania), Roberto Visentin (Pact for Autonomy), Lorena López Sánchez (New Canaries), Kerem Aptourachim Oglou (Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace), Lydie Massard (Breton Democratic Union) and Maiken Poulsen Englund (Future of Åland).
Membership
Before becoming a member party, an organisation needs to have been an observer of the EFA for at least one year. Only one member party per region is allowed. If a second party from a region wants to join the EFA, the first party needs to agree, at which point these two parties will then form a common delegation with one vote. The EFA also recognises friends of the EFA, a special status for regionalist parties outside of the European Union.
The following is the list of EFA members and former members.
Full members
| Country | Party | Region / Constituency | MPs | MEPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | Macedonian Alliance for European Integration | Ethnic Macedonians | - | Not in the EU |
| Azerbaijan | Democratic Party of Artsakh | Republic of Artsakh / Ethnic Armenians | – | Not in the EU |
| Austria | Unity List | Carinthia / Ethnic Slovenes | – | – |
| Belgium | New Flemish Alliance | Flanders | 25 / 150 | 3 / 21 |
| Bulgaria | United Macedonian Organization Ilinden–Pirin | Pirin / Ethnic Macedonians | – | – |
| Czech Republic | Moravian Land Movement | Moravia | – | – |
| Denmark | Schleswig Party | Schleswig / Ethnic Germans | – | – |
| Finland | Future of Åland | Åland | – | – |
| France | Breton Democratic Union | Brittany | – | – |
| Catalan Unity | Northern Catalonia | – | – | |
| Let's Make Corsica | Corsica | 2 / 577 | – | |
| Occitan Party | Occitania | – | – | |
| Our Land | Alsace | – | – | |
| Party of the Corsican Nation | Corsica | 1 / 577 | – | |
| Germany | Bavaria Party | Bavaria | – | – |
| South Schleswig Voters' Association | Schleswig-Holstein / Ethnic Danes / Frisians | 1 / 736 | – | |
| Greece | Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace | Western Thrace / Ethnic Turks | – | – |
| Italy | Free Sicilians | Sicily | – | – |
| Now Tuscany | Tuscany | – | – | |
| Pact for Autonomy | Friuli-Venezia Giulia | – | – | |
| Valdostan Union | Aosta Valley | 1 / 600 | – | |
| United Romagna | Romagna | – | – | |
| Netherlands | Frisian National Party | Frisians / Friesland | – | – |
| Romania | Hungarian Alliance of Transylvania | Transylvania / Ethnic Hungarians | 1 / 330 | – |
| Serbia | League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina | Vojvodina / Ethnic minorities (e.g. Hungarians) | – | Not in the EU |
| Spain | Andalusia by Herself | Andalusia | – | – |
| Aragonese State | Aragon | – | – | |
| Aragonese Union | 1 / 350 | – | ||
| Basque Solidarity | Basque Country | – | – | |
| Galician Nationalist Bloc | Galicia | 1 / 350 | 1 / 61 | |
| More–Commitment | Valencian Country | 1 / 350 | 1 / 61 | |
| More for Menorca | Menorca | – | – | |
| New Canaries | Canary Islands | – | – | |
| Republican Left of Catalonia | Catalonia / Catalan Countries | 7 / 350 | 1 / 61 | |
| Socialist Party of Majorca | Balearic Islands | – | – | |
| United Kingdom | Mebyon Kernow | Cornwall | – | Not in the EU |
| Plaid Cymru | Wales | 4 / 32 | Not in the EU | |
| Scottish National Party | Scotland | 9 / 57 | Not in the EU | |
| Yorkshire Party | Yorkshire | – | Not in the EU |
Individual members
The EFA also includes a number of individual members, although, as most other European parties, it has not sought to develop mass individual membership.
Below is the evolution of individual membership of the EFA since 2019.
| Country | Name | Region/constituency | Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland | Harry Jansson MP | Åland | Åland Centre |
| Germany | Manuela Ripa MEP | – | Ecological Democratic Party |
| Spain | Pernando Barrena MEP | Basque Country | Sortu / EH Bildu |
Former members
| Country | Party | Region / Constituency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | Party of German-speaking Belgians | German Community | Merged into ProDG in 2008 |
| People's Union | Flanders | Split into the New Flemish Alliance and Spirit | |
| Pro German-speaking Community | German Community | No longer a member since 2018 | |
| Social Liberal Party | Flanders | Dissolved in 2009 | |
| Walloon Popular Rally | Wallonia | Dissolved as party in 2011 | |
| Croatia | List for Rijeka | Rijeka | No longer a member since 2023 |
| Czech Republic | Moravané | Moravia | No longer a member since 2018 |
| France | Alsace-Lorraine National Association | Alsace / Lorraine | Dissolved |
| Party for the Organization of a Free Brittany | Brittany | Dissolved in 2000 | |
| Savoyan League | Savoy | Dissolved in 2012 | |
| Savoy Region Movement | Savoy | No longer a member since 2025 | |
| Union of the Corsican People | Corsica | Merged into the PNC in 2002 | |
| Germany | The Frisians | Frisians / East Frisia | No longer a member since 2018 |
| Lusatian Alliance | Lusatia / Sorbs | No longer a member since 2023 | |
| Greece | Rainbow | Ethnic Macedonians | No longer a member since 2023 |
| Hungary | Renewed Roma Union Party of Hungary | Romani people | Dissolved in 2012 |
| Ireland | Independent Fianna Fáil | United Ireland | Dissolved in 2006 |
| Italy | Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology | Aosta Valley | Merged into Valdostan Alliance in 2019 |
| Citizens' Union for South Tyrol | South Tyrol | Expelled in 2008 for opposition to the Bilbao declaration | |
| Emilian Free Alliance | Emilia | Dissolved in 2010 | |
| Friulian Homeland | Friuli | No longer a member after 2022 congress | |
| Lombard League | Lombardy | Joined Lega Nord in 1991 | |
| Movement for the Independence of Sicily | Sicily | No longer a member after 2022 congress | |
| Northern League | Padania | Suspended in 1994, left in 1996 and joined ELDR | |
| Pro Lombardy Independence | Lombardy | No longer a member after 2022 congress | |
| Sardinian Action Party | Sardinia | Expelled in 2020 for allying with the Lega Nord | |
| Slovene Union | Ethnic Slovenes | No longer a member since 2023 | |
| The Other South | Southern Italy | No longer a member after 2022 congress | |
| Tuscany Freedom Committee | Tuscany | No longer a member in 2024 | |
| South Tyrolean Freedom | South Tyrol | Left in 2024 | |
| Valdostan Alliance | Aosta Valley | Merged into Valdostan Union in 2024 | |
| Venetian League | Veneto | Joined Lega Nord in 1991 | |
| Venetian Republic League | Veneto | No longer a member after 2022 congress | |
| Latvia | Latvian Russian Union | Ethnic Russians | Expelled in 2022 |
| Lithuania | Lithuanian Polish People's Party | Ethnic Poles | Dissolved in 2010 |
| Poland | Kashubian Association | Kashubia / Kashubians | No longer a member since 2023 |
| Silesian Autonomy Movement | Upper Silesia / Silesians | No longer a member since 2023 | |
| Romania | Transylvania–Banat League | Transylvania (incl. Banat) | Dissolved |
| Slovakia | Hungarian Christian Democratic Association | Ethnic Hungarians | Merged into Most–Híd 2023 in 2023 |
| Hungarian Federalist Party | Ethnic Hungarians | De-registered in 2005 | |
| Slovenia | The Olive Tree – Slovene Istria Party | Slovene Istria | No longer a member since 2025 |
| Spain | Andalusian Party | Andalusia | Dissolved in 2015 |
| Aralar Party | Basque Country | Dissolved in 2017 | |
| Basque Nationalist Party | Basque Country | Left in 2004 and joined the EDP | |
| Canarian Coalition | Canary Islands | Left in 1999 and joined the ELDR Group | |
| Democratic Convergence of Catalonia | Catalonia / Catalan Countries | Joined the LDR Group in 1987 |
Funding
As a registered European political party, the EFA is entitled to European public funding, which it has received continuously since 2004.
Below is the evolution of European public funding received by the EFA.
In line with the Regulation on European political parties and European political foundations, the EFA also raises private funds to co-finance its activities. As of 2025, European parties must raise at least 10% of their reimbursable expenditure from private sources, while the rest can be covered using European public funding.
Below is the evolution of contributions and donations received by the EFA.
Representation in European institutions
| Organisation | Institution | Number of seats |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | European Parliament | 8 / 720 (1%) |
| European Commission | 0 / 27 (0%) | |
| European Council (Heads of Government) | 1 / 27 (4%) | |
| Council of the European Union (Participation in Government) | ||
| Committee of the Regions | 17 / 329 (5%) | |
| Council of Europe | Parliamentary Assembly |
See also
- List of regional and minority parties in Europe
- List of active separatist movements in Europe
- Political parties of minorities
- Regionalism (politics)
- Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum
- European political party
- Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations
- European political foundation
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