EFA

The new European Parliament will have 751 seats compared to the 766 existing in the old Parliament. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) will remain the largest group with 214 seats, ahead of the 191 for the centre-left Socialists & Democrats, according to the latest count. The rest of the groups present varying degrees of success in the election, as shown in the chart below. This might be one of the most important elections to date to the European Parliament, as although mainstream parties will still have a majority, Europeans have configured a chamber with a significant number of eurosceptic and far-right parties’ representatives from several countries, in particular from France and the United Kingdom.

Will the new Parliament take into account values declared in EFA Manifesto? EFA is happy to announce that to date our Manifesto has gained support 1,032 people including 24 members of newly elected European Parliament and 23 former candidates. EFA will continue its efforts to encourage representatives to use this new European Parliament term to: 1.       Develop an EU strategy on chronic diseases with disease specific chapters 2.       Invest in prevention 3.       Help ensuring equal access to care for each patient Changes in European politics are not over though: in the coming months the European Parliament will elect its President for the next 2.5 years and the European Commission President, followed by Parliament’s approval of new college of commissioners in Autumn 2014.