Article 29 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, concerning the formation of political groups, provides that Members may form themselves into groups according to their political affinities. Following the European elections in June 1999, new political groups were formed in the Parliament for the 1999-2004 legislative period.

The rules of constitution of the Groupe Technique des Députés Indépendants - groupe mixte - (TDI) provided that its Members affirmed their total political independence of one another.

On 14 September 1999 the European Parliament adopted an act on the interpretation of Article 29 of its Rules of Procedure. That interpretation was to the effect that "The formation of a group which openly rejects any political character and all political affiliation between its Members is not acceptable within the meaning of this Rule".

In the three Joined Cases the Members concerned and the Front national requested the Court of First Instance to annul that act of the European Parliament, whereby the rules of the TDI group were declared to be incompatible with the Rules of Procedure.

On an application to suspend the operation of that act, the President of the Court of First Instance ordered on 25 November 1999 the suspension of the operation of that act preventing the formation of a political group. The Court of First Instance delivers its judgment on the main action today.

The Court points out that only acts relating exclusively to the internal organisation of the Parliament's work are precluded from being the subject-matter of an application for annulment.

The act of 14 September 1999, which concerns the interpretation of the Rule concerning the formation of political groups, and the adoption of which in plenary session gave rise to a declaration that the TDI group was not in conformity with the Rules, cannot be deemed, the Court considered, to fall within that category of acts, and must therefore be capable of forming the subject-matter of a review as to its legality by the Community judicature, since it has legal consequences as regards the conditions under which Members may exercise their electoral mandate.

The Court considers that the condition concerning political affinity in the formation of political groups is an imperative one in view, in particular, of the reference consistently made to the political groups in the organisation of the European Parliament. The requirement of political affinity does not preclude the Members from expressing different political opinions on occasion, in accordance with the principle of independence of the European electoral mandate laid down in the 1976 Act on the election of representatives to the European Parliament by universal suffrage.

Such conduct, the Court declares, differs from a declared requirement that there be no political affinity in the formation of a particular group. Members who declare that they are forming a political group must be presumed to share political affinities, however slight, and the Parliament has the power to examine whether such a declaration is properly founded. Any indication that the members of a group seek to avoid any risk of being perceived as sharing political affinities, and the deliberate exclusion of such affinities, is sufficient to warrant the Parliament's finding that the members concerned are openly denying any political affinity.

The Court of First Instance considers that the twofold requirement of political affinity and of belonging to more than one Member State in order to form a political group enables local political particularities to be transcended and to promote the European integration envisaged by the Treaty and the emergence of political parties at European level as a factor in such integration. The Court considers those to be legitimate objectives and the difference in treatment that that implies as between the members of a political group and those who are not members of a group (as regards the rights conferred on groups by other Rules) is not to be regarded as discrimination.

Moreover, whilst the principle of democracy is one of the bases of the European Union it does not prevent Parliament from adopting internal measures of organisation, provided that they are compatible with that principle. Nevertheless, the Court considers that these actions do not seek to determine whether the Parliament's internal provisions conferring certain rights on political groups are compatible with that principle.

It also considers that the requirement to be organised in political groups is an appropriate and necessary means of attaining those objectives bearing in mind the specific features of the Parliament, the conditions under which it must operate and the institutional tasks and objectives attributed to it.

Lastly, the Court considers that those rules do not conflict with the principle of freedom of association laid down in Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, a principle protected by Community law. Similarly, the parliamentary traditions of the Member States do not warrant the conclusion that the formation of a political group by Members declaring that they abjure any political affinity would be possible in most of the national parliaments.

Unofficial document for media use only; not binding on the Court of First Instance. Available in German, English, Italian and French. For the full text of the judgment, please consult our Internet page www.curia.eu.int  at approximately 3 pm today. For further information please contact Fionnuala Connolly: Tel: (00 352) 4303 3355; Fax: (00 352) 4303 2731