Union for Europe of the Nations
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Union for Europe of the Nations (UEN)<ref name="t1s1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="t1s3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.
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.
HistoryEdit
UEN was formed on 20 July 1999<ref name="t1s8"/> for the 5th European Parliament, supplanting the earlier Union for Europe.<ref name="Nugent2006"/> 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".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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.<ref name="FFfull-text-taoiseach-brian-cowen-at-the-official-opening-of-72nd-fianna-fail">"Full Text: Taoiseach Brian Cowen at the official Opening of 72nd Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis - Part 1" Template:Webarchive, Fianna Fáil website, posted 27 February 2009</ref> 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.
MembershipEdit
1999–2004Edit
| Country | Name | Ideology | MEPs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Flag | style="background:Template:Party color"| | Rally for France | RPF | Gaullism National conservatism |
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| Template:Flag | style="background:Template:Party color"| | National Alliance | AN | National conservatism Post-fascism |
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| style="background:Template:Party color"| | Segni Pact | PS | Christian democracy Economic liberalism |
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| Template:Flag | style="background:Template:Party color"| | Fianna Fáil | FF | Irish republicanism Conservatism |
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| Template:Flag | style="background:Template:Party color"| | CDS – People's Party | CDS–PP | Conservatism Christian democracy |
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| Template:Flag | style="background:Template:Party color"| | Danish People's Party | DF | Danish nationalism Right-wing populism |
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