Rainbow Group

Rainbow Group may refer to two political groups of the European Parliament:

Rainbow Group (1984–89)

The Rainbow Group, officially the Rainbow Group: Federation of the Green Alternative European Links, Agalev-Ecolo, the Danish People's Movement against Membership of the European Community, and the European Free Alliance, in the European Parliament was a green and regionalist political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1984 and 1989.

History

The Rainbow Group, was formed in 1984 as a coalition of Greens, Regionalists and other parties of the left unaffiliated with any of the international organizations.

The German Greens and the Dutch Green Progressive Alliance were used a principle of rotation used by the Germany and Dutch parties, requiring its MEPs to sit for only half their five-year term.

In 1989 the Rainbow Group split. The green parties formed the Green Group, whilst the regionalist parties stayed a continuing Rainbow group, with the shorter official name of the Rainbow Group in the European Parliament.

Member Parties

Nomenclature

The formal name of the 84-89 Rainbow was "Rainbow Group: Federation of the Green Alternative European Links, Agalev-Ecolo, the Danish People's Movement against Membership of the European Community, and the European Free Alliance, in the European Parliament". This is the longest name of any European Parliament Group to date.

Rainbow Group (1989–94)

The Rainbow Group in the European Parliament was a regionalist political group in the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994.

History

In 1989 the previous Rainbow Group split. For the third term of the European Parliament, the green parties formed The Green Group, whilst the regionalist parties stayed in the remaining Rainbow Group.

This second Rainbow Group was the highpoint of the European Free Alliance (EFA) to that date.

But the 1994 elections saw a considerable reduction in Regionalist representation in the Parliament, with only the Canarian Coalition, Lega Nord, Scottish National Party and People's Union keeping their MEPs. But Lega Nord had been suspended from the EFA following its decision to join the Italian coalition government alongside the right-wing National Alliance. The weakened EFA was no longer able to maintain their own group, and instead allied with members of the French Energie Radicale to form the Group of the European Radical Alliance.

Sources