Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy

Europe of Freedom
and Direct Democracy
European Parliament group
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group logo
NameEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy
English abbr.EFDD
French abbr.ELDD
Formal nameEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group in the European Parliament
IdeologyEuroscepticism
Right-wing populism[1]
Direct democracy[2]
Political positionRight-wing[3] to far-right[6]
European partiesAlliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (2014–16)
From24 June 2014
To26 June 2019
Preceded byEurope of Freedom and Democracy
Chaired byNigel Farage (UKIP/BXP)
David Borrelli (M5S) (until 2017)
Websitehttp://www.efddgroup.eu/

Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic[7][8][9][10] and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group that existed during the Seventh European Parliament, with significant changes to group membership.

In 2017, it was one of the seven political groups of the parliament. This group was opposed to European integration.[11] Twenty-four out of its 47 MEPs were from the United Kingdom, representing the UK Independence Party.

Its president was British politician Nigel Farage, who was first elected for the UK Independence Party, and then became an independent in 2018 before becoming leader of the Brexit Party in 2019. David Borrelli of the Italian Five Star Movement was co-president until January 2017,[11] when he had to resign the co-presidency after a failed attempt by his party to transfer to the ALDE group.[12]

The parliamentary group was originally linked to the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE); however, the Alliance later ceased activities in 2016 after an auditors' inquiry found misspending of EU funds and was eventually dissolved on 24 May 2017.[13][14] Nonetheless, the group continued its activities until 26 June 2019, when it was also dissolved following the 2019 European Parliament election.[15]

  1. ^ "The Year of Populism: Europe's Right Wing Takes Aim at the EU". Spiegel Online. 4 January 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Europa United Euro election guide – EFDD group". Europa United. 30 March 2019. Archived from the original on 22 May 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  3. ^ Burnett, Stephanie (18 April 2019). "EU Parliament poll: Farage's Brexit Party surges as Eurosceptic groups rise". euronews. Retrieved 5 June 2019. Two right-wing groups in Parliament, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) […]
  4. ^ "European elections: What we know". BBC News. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019. two far-right groupings, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) and Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF).
  5. ^ "The 2019 European election: How anti-Europeans plan to wreck Europe and what can be done to stop it". www.ecfr.eu. European Council on Foreign Relations. 11 February 2019. anti-establishment, far-right Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy EP group
  6. ^ [4][5]
  7. ^ Wouter Wolfs; Jef Smulders (26 January 2018). "Party finance at the level of the European Union – Party finance reform to vitalise the EU's proto-party system". In Jonathan Mendilow; Eric Phélippeau (eds.). Handbook of Political Party Funding. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-78536-797-7.
  8. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  9. ^ Morris, Chris (1 July 2014). "Realpolitik: EU dominated by German power play". BBC.com. BBC News. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  10. ^ Christian B. Jensen (2015). "European elections 2014 and the USA: Is American indifference justified?". In Michael Kaeding; Niko Switek (eds.). Die Europawahl 2014: Spitzenkandidaten, Protestparteien, Nichtwähler. Springer-Verlag. p. 399. ISBN 978-3-658-05738-1.
  11. ^ a b "Groups in the European Parliament". BBC Democracy Live. 26 June 2014.
  12. ^ "Farage chiede e ottiene la testa di Borrelli". www.ilfoglio.it.
  13. ^ "Defunct Eurosceptic party linked to Ukip asked to repay €1.1m". The Guardian. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  14. ^ "Registered entity data | CBE Public Search". kbopub.economie.fgov.be. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  15. ^ "Brexit Party misses first deadline to form political group in European Parliament". POLITICO. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2021.