The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party. It consists of various European political parties which advocate either full political independence (statehood), or some form of devolution or self-government for their country or region. The alliance has generally limited its membership to progressive parties.[1] Therefore not all European regionalist parties are members of EFA. It participates in the European Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament.

The EFA sees itself as an alliance of stateless peoples, which are striving towards independence or autonomy. It supports European integration on basis of the subsidiarity-principle. It believes however that Europe should move away from further centralization. It works towards the formation of a Europe of Regions. It believes that regions should have more power in Europe, for in stance participate in the Council of the European Union, when matters within their competence are discussed. It also wants to protect the linguistic and cultural diversity within the European Union.

The European Green Party (or European Greens or EGP) is the Green political party at European level. As such it is a federation of green parties in Europe. The European Greens have always been committed to basic tenets of Green politics, such as environmental responsibility, individual freedom, inclusive democracy, diversity, social justice, gender equality, global sustainable development and non-violence.

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party is a liberal party, mainly active in the European Union, composed of 55 national parties from across Europe. Having developed from a loose confederation of national political parties in the 1970s, the ELDR is now a recognised European political party incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law. Despite this legal status, the ELDR Party has yet to achieve significant grassroots involvement and retains much of the character of a mere confederation of national political parties.

As of 2006, the ELDR is the third-largest political party represented in EU institutions, with 74 MEPs and 9 members of the European Commission.
In her mission statement for the party presidency, Annemie Neyts declared: “The most fundamental tenets of ELDR, liberalism, the spread of freedom, democracy and economic development by virtue of integration into the EU and the EU herself are being questioned as seldom before. The need for a strong, well-articulated, future-oriented answer from ELDR, the European political party that embodies liberalism has never been greater. I intend to spend a large amount of my time helping ELDR meet the huge challenges it is faced with.

The European People’s Party (EPP) is a christian democratic, liberal conservative and conservative European political party. Founded in 1976, the EPP has 72 member-parties from 39 countries, 13 EU and 6 non-EU heads of government, 10 European Commissioners (including the President), and the largest group in the European Parliament with 288 members. The EPP is “the family of the political centre-right, whose roots run deep in the history and civilization of the European continent and has pioneered the European project from its inception.”

The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a European political party comprising of thirty-three socialist, social democratic and labour parties from each European Union member state and Norway. The PES is led by President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen MEP.

The PES forms a parliamentary group in the European Parliament, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, which is the second largest grouping with over 200 MEPs. The PES Group is currently led by Martin Schulz MEP. It puts forward six priorities to take Europe in a new Direction.

1. Relaunching the economy, ensuring employment and preventing new financial crises
2. New Social Europe – giving people a fairer deal
3. Transforming Europe into the leading global force against climate change
4. Championing gender equality in Europe
5. Developing an effective European migration policy
6. Enhancing Europe’s role as a partner for peace, security and development