Non-attached members

Non-attached members (also known by the French term Non-Inscrits, French: [nɔn‿ɛ̃skʁi], NI) are members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who do not belong to one of the recognised political groups.

These MEPs may be members of a national party, or of a European political party; however, for a political grouping to be formed in the European Parliament there need to be 23 MEPs from seven different countries. Being part of a group grants access to state funds and committee seats, but the group members must be ideologically tied. Groups of convenience, such as the Technical Group of Independents, previously existed, but are no longer allowed, and the minimum requirements for group formation have been raised, forcing parties and MEPs without ideological similarity to already existing groupings to sit as non-inscrits. Whilst some groups of MEPs who sit as non-inscrits may share similar views and express an intention to form new groupings between themselves in the future, non-inscrits as a whole have no specific ties to each other, other than their mutual lack of a political grouping.