European Parliament: ECR & EFD groups online

About two weeks ago, we remarked on the lack of web existence for the two right wing nationalist groups in the European Parliament: the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD).



We then returned to the anti-EU ECR and the Europhobe EFD a few days later, but both political groups were still leading a nonline existence. There were still no traces of the ECR on 2 October 2009.

There have now been improvements.

***

Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD)



The Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EDF) has now managed to produce a web site under construction, with a link to a list of its 32 members and what should have been a link to its political platform (but it did not work).

There was nothing about the activities and initiatives of the EDF.

The link from the box with Political groups on the European Parliament’s web site still does not work.

***

European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR)



The European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) has now produced a professional web site.

The contents are still slim, but approaching those of the other political groups in the European Parliament.

The link from the European Parliament’s main page does work.

The ECR pages exist only in English, whereas the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) offers a wide selection of languages, and the centre-left S&D group and the liberal ALDE have a selection of the most widely spoken languages.

***

Three months after the political groups were established, they have made their appearance on the web, although the presence of the EFD Group is almost theoretical and the profile of the ECR Group is monolingual.

The undoubted residual attraction of the 19th and 20th century main ideology, nationalism, should encourage further presentational improvements.

The groups have a total of 86 members, almost 12 per cent of the seats in the European Parliament (736), so there is surely wider European interest in what they are doing.

The EDF and the ECR should not let matters rest there.

***

EP political groups



By the way, here is a link to the overview web page of the European Parliament on the political groups. (It is undated, and instead of the “7th parliamentary term”, the editors could have used years, which every reader understands.)



Ralf Grahn