The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) is a political group of the European Parliament composed primarily of green political parties.
The group consists of European Green Party (EGP), part of the European Free Alliance (EFA), and members of Volt Europa and European Pirate Party political alliances.
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Until 2019, 751 MEPs were elected to the European Parliament, which has been directly elected since 1979. Since the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020, the number of MEPs, including the president, has been 705. No other EU institution is directly elected, with the Council of the European Union and the European Council being only indirectly legitimated through national elections. While European political parties have the right to campaign EU-wide for the European elections, campaigns still take place through national election campaigns, advertising national delegates from national parties.
The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is a transnational, European political party representing national parties from across Europe who share Green values.
The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) parliamentary group in the European Parliament which is formed by elected Green party members along with the European Free Alliance, European Pirate Party and Volt Europa. The European Greens' partners include its youth wing the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG), the Green European Foundation (GEF) and the Global Greens family.
The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region. The party has generally limited its membership to centre-left and left-wing parties; therefore, only a fraction of European regionalist parties are members of the EFA. Since 1999, the EFA and the European Green Party (EGP) have joined forces within Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group in the European Parliament, although some EFA members have joined other groups from time to time, for example the New Flemish Alliance which sits with the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.
The EFA is represented in the European Council by Bart De Wever of the New Flemish Alliance, who has served as Prime Minister of Belgium since 2025. Two EU regions are led by EFA politicians: Flanders with Matthias Diependaele of the New Flemish Alliance and Corsica with Gilles Simeoni of Femu a Corsica. Additionally, Scotland is led by John Swinney of the Scottish National Party.
The Green European Foundation is a European political foundation funded by the European Parliament. It is linked to, but independent of, other European Green actors such as the European Green Party and Greens–European Free Alliance.