Q&A on membership
Who can apply?
Political parties or organisations can become full, candidate or associate members of the European Free Alliance.
Elected members of a regional, national or state assembly can join EFA as individual members.
What are the conditions for requesting membership?
Political parties and organisations shall have legal personality and need to be politically active at state, national or regional level.
Individual members must hold an elected office and shall not be a member of an EFA member party or organisation.
Which is the procedure for political parties and organisations to apply for membership?
Any political party or organisation wishing to become a member of the Party shall send an official request by registered post to the registered office of EFA or by registered email to “info@e-f-a.org”. The applicant shall submit with the official request the following documents:
A letter of motivation addressed to the President expressing the applicant’s commitment to respect, follow and agree with the values on which the European Union is founded, including but not limited to the content of Article 3 of the TEU, as well as the Statutes, the EFA Charter and the political manifesto of EFA;
A copy of the applicant’s statutes or by-laws, translated into English;
The current political program of the applicant;
A description of the applicant’s internal organisation and decision-making processes, if not provided for in the statutes or by-laws;
A report on any and all measures, criteria and actions that have been implemented by the applicant to ensure gender equality;
A list of elected representatives, if any;
The results of the most recent elections in which the party or organisation has taken part;
A representative sample of some recent publications, if any.
More specific information on how to become a member of EFA can be consult in Article 2 “Membership” of the Rules of Internal Order.
Which is the procedure for elected individuals to apply for membership?
The candidate shall address a written request for membership to the Bureau, stating the reasons for its application and declaring to not be a member of any other European political party.
Who will assess the membership requests?
Every membership application is assessed by the Bureau of EFA which conducts the appropriate assessment of the documents received in cooperation with the Secretariat.
The Bureau may directly meet or ask further information to the candidates.
Is there a procedure to approve membership requests?
The Bureau transmits all membership requests of political parties and organisations to the General Assembly of EFA and gives a non-binding advice over each candidature on the basis of the assessment of the documents received.
Individual membership requests are discussed and approved by the Bureau of EFA.
In both cases the Bureau informs the EFA members exercising their activity in the same territory or Member State of the candidate, if any, to allow them to give, within thirty (30) days, a binding opinion regarding the acceptance of the new members.
Who decides upon the acceptance of new members?
The General Assembly has sovereign power to decide on any application for membership.
The Bureau of EFA approves the individual membership requests but the General Assembly can, at any moment, repeal the decision of the Bureau.
What happens when a new member is accepted?
The positive vote of the General Assembly or of the Bureau confers immediately the quality of candidate, associate or individual member respectively.
Candidate members may apply for full membership after having held the candidate membership for a minimum period of one (1) year.
Are there membership fees?
Membership fees are levied according to the contribution scheme attached to the Rules of Internal Order.
In principle, individual members are exempted from the payment of fees, but the General Assembly can decide otherwise.
Please click here to see the Statutes and Rules of Internal Order of EFA