European Free Alliance (EFA)

The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political coalition that consists of various regionalist political parties in Europe. Members parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region. The alliance has generally limited its membership to progressive parties, therefore, only a fraction of European regionalist parties are members of the EFA.

Since 1999 the EFA and the European Green Party (EGP) have joined forces within Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group in the European Parliament, albeit some EFA members have joined other groups from time to time.

The EFA's youth wing is the European Free Alliance Youth (EFAY), founded in 2000.

Organisation

The main organs of the EFA organisation are the General Assembly, the Bureau and the Secretariat.

General Assembly

In the General Assembly, the supreme council of the EFA, every member party has one vote.

Bureau and Secretariat

The Bureau takes care of daily affairs. It is chaired by François Alfonsi (Party of the Corsican Nation), president of the EFA, while Jordi Solé (Republican Left of Catalonia) is secretary-general and Lorena Lopez de Lacalle (Basque Solidarity) treasurer and first vice-president. The Bureau is completed by other nine vice-presidents: Olrik Bouma (Frisian National Party), Chantal Certan (ALPE), Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru), Anders Eriksson (sv) (Future of Åland), David Grosclaude (Partit Occitan), Flemming Meyer (SSW Landesverband), Ana Miranda (Galician Nationalist Bloc), Wouter Patho (New Flemish Alliance) and Natalia Pinkowska (Silesian Autonomy Movement).

Member parties

This is a list of EFA member parties.

Full members

Before becoming a member party, an organization needs to have been an observer of the EFA for at least one year. Only one member party per region is allowed. If a second party from a region wants to join the EFA, the first party needs to agree, at which point these two parties will then form a common delegation with one vote. The EFA also recognises friends of the EFA, a special status for regionalist parties outside of the European Union.

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined (Observer/Member)	MEPs
Austria	Unity List	ethnic Slovenes	2005/2006	0
Belgium	New Flemish Alliance	Flanders	2010	4
Bulgaria	United Macedonian Organization Ilinden–Pirin	ethnic Macedonians	2006/2007	0
Czech Republic	Moravané	Moravia	2006	0
Croatia	List for Rijeka	Rijeka	2009/2010	0
Denmark	Schleswig Party	ethnic Germans in North Schleswig	2011	0
Finland	Future of Åland	Åland	2005/2006	0
France	Savoy Region Movement	Savoie	1991	0
France	Occitan Party	Occitania	1982	0
France	Party of the Corsican Nation	Corsica	1981	0
France	Breton Democratic Union	Brittany	1987	0
France	Our Land	Alsace	1991	0
France	Catalan Unity	Northern Catalonia, Catalan Countries	1991	0
Germany	Bavaria Party	Bavaria	2007/2008	0
Germany	The Friesen	East Frisia	2008/2009	0
Germany	Lusatian Alliance	Sorbs, Lusatia	2009/2013	0
Germany	South Schleswig Voters' Association	ethnic Danes,  North Frisia	2009/2010	0
Greece	Rainbow	ethnic Macedonians	1999/2000	0
Italy	South Tyrolean Freedom	South Tyrol	2009	0
Italy	Liga Veneta Repubblica	Veneto	1999/2000	0
Italy	Sardinian Action Party	Sardinia	1984	0
Italy	Slovene Union	ethnic Slovenes	1991	0
Italy	Autonomy Liberty Participation Ecology	Aosta Valley	2007/2011	0
Netherlands	Frisian National Party	Friesland	1981	0
Poland	Silesian Autonomy Movement	Upper Silesia	2002/2003	0
Romania	Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania	ethnic Hungarians	2015/2016	0
Slovakia	Hungarian Christian Democratic Association	ethnic Hungarians	2008/2009	0
Spain /  France	Aralar Party	Basque Country	2012/2013	0
Spain /  France	Basque Solidarity	Basque Country	1986	1
Spain /  France	Republican Left of Catalonia	Catalonia, Catalan Countries	1989	2
Spain	Aragonese Union	Aragon	2003/2004	0
Spain	Socialist Party of Majorca	Balearic Islands, Catalan Countries	2000/2008	0
Spain	Galician Nationalist Bloc	Galicia	1994/2000	0
Spain	Valencian Nationalist Bloc	Valencia, Catalan Countries	2012/2013	1
United Kingdom	Mebyon Kernow	Cornwall	2003	0
United Kingdom	Plaid Cymru	Wales	1983	1
United Kingdom	Scottish National Party	Scotland	1989	2
United Kingdom	Yorkshire Party	Yorkshire	2015/2016	0

Observer members

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined (as observer)	MEPs
Italy	The Other South	Sicily	2014	0
Italy	Pro Lombardy Independence	Lombardy	2015	0
Latvia	Latvian Russian Union	ethnic Russians,  Latgalians	2010	1
Poland	Kashubian Unity	Kashubia	2016	0
Spain	New Canaries	Canary Islands	2013	0
Greece	Party of Friendship, Equality and Peace	ethnic Turks in  Western Thrace	2015	0

Associate members

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined (as associate)	MEPs
Azerbaijan	Democratic Party of Artsakh	Nagorno-Karabakh	2015	0
Serbia	League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina	Vojvodina	2016	0

Former members

Current state(s)	Party	Seeking to represent	Joined (Observer/Member)	Notes
Belgium	People's Union	Flanders	1981	Split into the New Flemish Alliance and SPIRIT
Belgium	Social Liberal Party	Flanders	2001	Ceased activity in 2009
Belgium	Walloon Popular Rally	Wallonia	1982	Ceased activity as party in 2011
Belgium	Party of German-speaking Belgians	German Community	1981	Merged into ProDG in 2008
Belgium	Pro German-speaking Community	German Community	2009/2011
France	Alsace-Lorraine National Association	Alsace,  Lorraine	1981
France	Union of the Corsican People	Corsica	1981	Merged into the PNC in 2002
France	Party for the Organization of a Free Brittany	Brittany	1981	Ceased activity in 2000
France	Savoyan League	Savoie	1999/2000	Ceased activity in 2012
Hungary	Renewed Roma Union Party of Hungary	Romani people	2009	Ceased activity in 2012
Ireland	Independent Fianna Fáil	Ireland	1981	Ceased activity in 2006
Italy	Lega Lombarda	Lombardy	1989/1990	Joined Lega Nord in 1991
Italy	Liga Veneta	Veneto	1989/1990	Joined Lega Nord in 1991
Italy	Lega Nord	Padania	1991	Suspended in 1994, left in 1996 and joined ELDR
Italy	Emilian Free Alliance	Emilia	1999/2000	Ceased activity in 2010
Italy	Movement for the Independence of Sicily	Sicily	2009
Italy	Valdostan Union	Aosta Valley		Expelled in 2007 after lack of activity in EFA structures
Lithuania	Lithuanian Polish People's Party	ethnic Poles	2003/2004	Ceased activity in 2010
Italy	Union for South Tyrol	South Tyrol		Expelled in 2008 for opposition to the Bilbao declaration
Romania	Transilvania–Banat League	Transylvania, Banat		Ceased activity
Slovakia	Hungarian Federalist Party	ethnic Hungarians		Banned in 2005
Spain	Democratic Convergence of Catalonia	Catalonia	1981	Joined the LDR Group in 1987
Spain	Canarian Coalition	Canary Islands	1994	Left in 1999 and joined the ELDR Group
Spain /  France	Basque Nationalist Party	Basque Country	1999	Left in 2004 and joined the EDP
Spain	Andalusian Party	Andalusia	1999	dissolved in 2015