Spain

Remember, the scorecard is a first step in finding your way through party jargon. It is based on party manifestos, but we also encourage you to look at articles and dig deeper to get a better understanding of what the parties do when they put word into action. It might also be useful to check up which EU group your party belongs to, and the EU parties' manifestos.

EU political groups & parties, what are they?

Have you been struggling to understand the difference between EU political groups and EU political parties? Don’t worry, below is a short explanation to clear up all the confusion between the two!

EU political groups

You might have heard your national politicians speak about what political group in the European Parliament they are in? In the European Parliament, all the elected national politicians come together in clusters, well groups, based on issues and common political analysis, and not by nationality. There are currently 8 recognised groups in the EU Parliament: European People’s Party (Christian Democrats);Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament;European Conservatives and Reformists;  Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe; Nordic Green Left; Greens/European Free Alliance; Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy; Europe of Nations and Freedom. To be officially recognized, a group needs at least 25 member states to be part of it. In the future there might also be a feminist group recognised under the EU Parliament, as some politicians in the EU have come together to set up a network called: FUN Europe, Feminists United Network Europe. You do not vote on the groups. This is very important to understand. They are not legal bodies that take decisions, but they are the networks bringing together decision-makers with similar political leanings. We called around, and the political groups do not have common manifestos, or position papers, but the members of the groups do strategise together on how to vote in parliament. Learn more, visit:www.euparl.europa.eu

EU parties

Some parties exist in several countries, and they have a European level network that brings them together. The parties have common manifestos that are translated to apply to the national contexts by the national branches. All members of these networks are part of the same party. Some of the groups have the same names as some of the political parties. This is really where it gets a little bit tricky. The groups with the same name as a political party is not limited to only politicians from that party. So in short, groups consists of decision-makers from different political parties with similar political agendas, while EU parties consists of national affiliations of the same party.

Why does it matter to me as a voter?

It’s good to have an understanding of the group and/or European level party your MEP (Member of the European Parliament) is part of to better understand what compromises they might need to do.

Find out which group your MEP belongs to

Sustainable development

The demands used on this scorecard are based on the issues that matters to us based on the work we do on Agenda 2030 and sustainable development. We have work on climate justice (SDG 13), sustainable energy solutions (SDG 7, 13, 15), a toxic free and healthy environment (SDG 3, 8, 11, 12), safe and clean water and menstruation (SDG 4, 6, 8, 16) through a gender equality (SDG 5) and human rights lens.

Learn more about the scorecard

Informed decisions matter

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