Lokale partijen uit diverse landen vormen één lijst voor EP-verkiezingen (en)

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - The European Free Alliance, which currently forms a group with the Greens in the European Parliament, will become a fully-fledged European party.

The political parties' members in the EFA will meet on the 24-25 March in Barcelona to create "a new European Free Alliance", Nelly Maes, President of the EFA group said on Tuesday.

The EFA is currently represented in the European Parliament by nine MEPs coming from the party of Wales, Spirit (Flanders), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, the Scottish National Party, Bloque Nacionalista Galego and the Partido Aragones.

The political parties which are members of the European Free Alliance, and also its observer parties, come from the present EU states but also from the acceding and candidate countries.

The EFA, which was founded in 1981, unites nationalist, regionalist and autonomist parties in the European Union.

Its move to create a European party follows the one made by the Greens last month, where they launched what they called "the first real European party" ahead of the June elections.