Union for Europe of the Nations

Union for Europe of the Nations (UEN)^[26][27] was a national-conservative, Eurosceptic political group that operated in the European Parliament between 1999 and 2009. At its height in February 2008, it had 44 MEPs. UEN was affiliated with the Alliance for Europe of the Nations political party.

Union for Europe of the Nations
European Parliament group
Formal name	Union for Europe of the Nations Group[1]
Ideology	National conservatism[2][3][4] Conservatism[5] Euroscepticism[6][7]
Political position	Right-wing[8][9][10]
European parties	Alliance for Europe of the Nations
From	20 July 1999[11][12]
To	1 July 2009
Preceded by	Union for Europe
Chaired by	Charles Pasqua,[1] (99-04) Brian Crowley,[13] (04-09) Cristiana Muscardini,[14] (04-09)
MEP(s)	31[15] (20 July 1999) 30[16] (22 July 1999) 23[17] (30 April 2004) 30[18] (5 May 2004) 27[19][20] (4 June 2004) 27[15][21] (20 July 2004) 44[22][23] (10 February 2008) 35[24][25] (11 June 2009)
Website	uengroup.org

UEN was formed as the successor of the Union for Europe group. Its members were parties such as the Rally for France, Italian National Alliance and Lega Nord, Irish Fianna Fáil, and Polish Law and Justice. After the 2009 European Parliament election, UEN was dissolved due to its member parties opting to switch to other groups.

History

UEN was formed on 20 July 1999^[11] for the 5th European Parliament, supplanting the earlier Union for Europe.^[5] Its member parties Fianna Fáil (FF) and the National Alliance (AN) were the driving forces behind the group, despite their being alone in the group in their support for the proposed European Constitution. Gianfranco Fini, leader of AN, was a member of the Convention which drafted the Constitution, while Bertie Ahern, leader of FF, negotiated the treaty as President of the European Council in 2004.

UEN was a heterogeneous group: broadly Eurosceptic and national-conservative, it included some parties which were either uncomfortable with this characterisation or eventually evolved into something different. More specifically, FF was a "catch all" centre-right party and later joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, AN was a conservative party which eventually joined the European People's Party through The People of Freedom, and Lega Nord was supportive of a "Europe of Regions".^[28]

After the 2009 European elections the group officially had 35 members but this figure included parties such as AN and FF, which had already committed to leave.^[29] UEN members migrated to other groups after the elections in June 2009 and before the Seventh European Parliament term started on 14 July 2009. FF had already left for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group, For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK and Law and Justice MEPs went to the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR Group), and Lega Nord, the Danish People's Party and Order and Justice MEPs went to Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) Group. With this loss of members, the UEN group was dissolved by default.

Membership

1999–2004

Country	Name			Ideology	MEPs
France		Rally for France	RPF	Gaullism National conservatism	12 / 87
Italy		National Alliance	AN	National conservatism Post-fascism	8 / 87
		Segni Pact	PS	Christian democracy Economic liberalism	1 / 87
Ireland		Fianna Fáil	FF	Irish republicanism Conservatism	6 / 15
Portugal		CDS – People's Party	CDS–PP	Conservatism Christian democracy	2 / 25
Denmark		Danish People's Party	DF	Danish nationalism Right-wing populism	1 / 16

2004–2009

Country	Name			Ideology	MEPs[22][23]
Denmark		Danish People's Party	DF	Danish nationalism Right-wing populism	1 / 14
Ireland		Fianna Fáil	FF	Irish republicanism Conservatism	4 / 13
Italy		National Alliance	AN	National conservatism Post-fascism	8 / 78
		Lega Nord	LN	Regionalism Right-wing populism	4 / 78
		The Right	LD	Neo-fascism National conservatism	1 / 78
Latvia		For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK	TB/LNNK	National conservatism Economic liberalism	4 / 9
Lithuania		Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union	LVLS	Social conservatism Agrarianism	1 / 13
		Order and Justice	TT	National conservatism Right-wing populism	1 / 13
Poland		Law and Justice	PiS	National conservatism Right-wing populism	8 / 54
		League of Polish Families	LPR	National conservatism Political Catholicism	5 / 54
		Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland	SRP	Agrarian socialism Left-wing populism	3 / 54
		Polish People's Party "Piast"	PSL Piast	Christian democracy Agrarianism	3 / 54

2009

Country	Name			Ideology	MEPs[24][25]
Denmark		Danish People's Party	DF	Danish nationalism Right-wing populism	2 / 13
Poland		Law and Justice	PiS	National conservatism Right-wing populism	15 / 50
Italy		Lega Nord	LN	Regionalism Right-wing populism	9 / 72
Ireland		Fianna Fáil	FF	Conservatism Populism	3 / 12
Latvia		For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK	TB/LNNK	National conservatism Economic liberalism	1 / 9
Lithuania		Order and Justice	TT	National conservatism Right-wing populism	2 / 12
Slovakia		Slovak National Party	SNS	Ultranationalism Right-wing populism	1 / 13

References

1. "European Parliament profile of Charles Pasqua". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
2. Daniela Pîrvu (2012). Corporate Income Tax Harmonization in the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-137-00092-7.
3. Alexander H. Trechsel (2013). Towards a Federal Europe. Taylor & Francis. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-317-99818-1.
4. Christophe Gillissen (2010). Ireland: Looking East. Peter Lang. p. 157. ISBN 978-90-5201-652-8.
5. Neill Nugent (2006). The Government and Politics of the European Union. Duke University Press. p. 265. ISBN 0-8223-3870-X.
6. Christina Schori Liang (2007). Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-7546-4851-2.
7. Senem Aydin-Düzgit (2012). Constructions of European Identity: Debates and Discourses on Turkey and the EU. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-230-34838-7.
8. "European Parliament elections results in brief". Politico. 10 June 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
9. Pankowski, Rafal (2010). The Populist Radical Right in Poland: The Patriots. Routledge. p. 149. ISBN 9781135150976.
10. Crum, Ben. Party Stances in the Referendums on the EU Constitution: Causes and Consequences of Competition and Collusion. doi:10.1177/1465116507073286. S2CID 53533845.
11. "UFE on Europe Politique". Europe-politique.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
12. "UEN on Europe Politique". Europe-politique.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
13. "European Parliament profile of Brian Crowley". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
14. "European Parliament profile of Cristiana Muscardini". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
15. Unie pro Evropu národů/Union for Europe of Nations, 2005 article by Pavla Papírníková, in the Central European Political Studies Review, from the International Institute of Political Science, Masaryk University.
16. "Seats in the EP 22 July 1999 has UEN with 30 seats". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
17. "Seats in the EP 30 April 2004 has UEN with 23 seats". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
18. "Seats in the EP 5 May 2004 has UEN with 30 seats". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
19. "Seats in the EP 30 June 2004 has UEN with 27 seats". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
20. "Seats in the EP 30 June 2004 by party has UEN with 27 seats". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
21. "Europe Politique Seats in the EP 20 July 2004 by party has UEN with 27 seats". Europe-politique.eu. 17 February 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
22. "Leaflet Group" (PDF). Retrieved 30 December 2009.
23. About UEN MEPs
24. "Seats by political group in each Member State" Archived 11 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine 11 June 2009
25. "Make-up of new EU parliament and turnout rates" Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
26. "Democracy in the European Parliament" (PDF). Retrieved 30 December 2009.
27. "Development of Political Groups in the European Parliament". CVCE. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
28. "Sintesi posizioni Lega Nord sull'Unione Europea" (PDF). Lega Nord. 10 March 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011.
29. "Full Text: Taoiseach Brian Cowen at the official Opening of 72nd Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis - Part 1" Archived 3 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Fianna Fáil website, posted 27 February 2009

External links

• Table of all groups and the number of MEPs from countries
• UEN