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EU: The far-right in the European Parliament: what have they done?

20 June 2016

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A new analysis by VoteWatch Europe examines the European parliamentary efforts of the far-right group Europe of Nations and Freedom between 1 August 2015 and early June 2016. The group is made up of the National Front (France), Flemish Interest (Belgium), the Northern League (Italy), the Austrian Freedom Party, the Party for Freedom (Netherlands), and the Congress of the New Right (Poland).

The report examines six key findings about the activities of the group:

  • High participation, particularly in justice and home affairs
  • ENF is united on social policy, divided on economic policy
  • Significant divergences within the group on digital policy, international trade and nuclear energy
  • ENF is most likely to vote with EFDD overall, but coalesce with the far-left and the Greens on trade and environment
  • Le Pen’s group won only a few votes, mostly on agriculture and fisheries
  • ENF legislative performance: few reports assigned, all the amendments rejected

    This last point shows that, whether for reasons of principle or not, other parliamentary groups have sidelined the ENF in parliamentary procedures: members of the group have only been assigned two rapporteur roles in files under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (in which the Council of the EU and the Parliament jointly decide on new laws).

    Furthermore:

    "Even worse was the performance of the amendments tabled by the group in the plenary voting. The rate of approval of these amendments was an astonishing 0%... This is despite the group tabling a relatively high number of amendments (92). In fact, the group tabled more amendments than S&D and ALDE, and way less than the far-left GUE-NGL, which presented more than 400 amendments."

    See: One year of far-right group in the EP: high participation, low success rate in shaping EU policies (VoteWatch Europe, link)

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