European Union Parties in the European Parliament

[Frodo]

And here are brief (Wiki) descriptions of each party:

European People's Party

The European People's Party (EPP) is the largest European political party.  Founded in 1976, the EPP includes Christian Democratic and conservative parties in Europe.

In the European Parliament, the EPP cooperates with the more conservative and eurosceptic European Democrats faction to form the EPP-ED Group.

According to its website, the EPP is "a family of the political centre whose roots are deep in the history of European civilization. It unites like-minded national parties, in EU Member States and in EU applicant countries and we maintain close contact with decided probable candidate countries."

The EPP has a youth political party called the Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP). The European Democratic Students (EDS) is a group of student political parties associated with the EPP.

The Party of European Socialists

The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a European political party whose members are 33 social democratic, socialist and labour parties of the European Union member states as well as Bulgaria, Romania and Norway.

PES was founded in 1992 in The Hague to succeed the Confederation of Socialist Parties of the European Community. It is an associated organisation of the Socialist International. Ecosy is the youth organisation of PES.  With 200 members the PES's "Socialist Group" is the second largest group in the European Parliament.

European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (founded in 1993) is a liberal party, mainly active in the European Union, composed of 49 national liberal and centrist parties from across Europe.

Having developed from a loose confederation of national political parties in the 1970s, the ELDR is now a recognised European political party incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law. Despite this legal status, the ELDR Party has yet to achieve significant grassroots involvement and retains much of the character of a mere confederation of national political parties.

As of 2006, the ELDR is the third-largest political party represented in EU institutions, with 62 MEPs and 8 members of the European Commission.

The Party is politically represented in the European Parliament by the ALDE Group, formed in conjunction with the centrist European Democratic Party.

European Free Alliance

The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a grouping of various political parties in Europe who believe in either full political independence (statehood), or some form of devolution or self-government for their country or region.

The group has five Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

European Green Party

The European Green Party (or European Greens) is the Green political party at European level. It was founded at the Fourth Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties on February 20-22, 2004 in Rome in a party convention with over 1,000 delegates. Thirty-two green parties from all over Europe joined this new pan-European party. The foundation of the new party was finished with a signing of the treaty constituting the party in the Capitol of Rome.

Until February 21, 2004, only federations of party organizations existed, such as the European Federation of Green Parties and similar federations of conservative, social-democratic or liberal parties.

The program of the European Greens emphasizes typical green topics such as nuclear energy, consumer safety and women's liberation. In the area of Internet politics, the EFA/The Greens parliament faction became famous for the strong support of proponents for a free information infrastructure, especially in their work on the directive against software patents in 2003.
 

[Frodo]

And here are the others:
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Alliance for Europe of the Nations

The Alliance for Europe of the Nations is a pan-European political party that gathers nationalist parties from across the continent. MEPs elected from its member-parties are expected to sit in the affiliated Union for Europe of the Nations group in the European Parliament.

Party of the European Left

The European Left party is a political party at European level and an association of socialist and communist political parties in the European Union. It was formed in January 2004 for the purposes of running in the 2004 European Parliament elections. It was founded on May 8, 2004 in Rome.

Its first congress took place on October 8, 2005 in Athens.

Several of the member and observer parties participate also in the more radical European Anticapitalist Left.

European Democratic Party

The European Democratic Party (EDP) is a centrist European political party very strongly in favour of European integration ("europeanist"). It was initiated on April 16, 2004 and formally founded on December 9 in Brussels. François Bayrou of France's UDF and Francesco Rutelli of Italy's Margherita Party serve as the first two co-presidents.

The EDP was founded in reaction to the rising influence of eurosceptic parties within European institutions. It drew europhillic centre-right parties from the European People's Party and centre-left parties from the Party of European Socialists to form a new centrist multinational bloc.

The reformism is another the principal standard of the party and in fact the PDE assembles center reformists in a transverse way, either if they are of social Christian or social democratic or a mixture does not matter.

Its cofounder François Bayrou (UDF) described it as a party for people being neither conservative nor socialist, like the United States Democratic Party.

Alliance of Independent Democrats in Europe

The Alliance of Independent Democrats in Europe (most commonly represented in French, as Alliance des Démocrates Indépendants en Europe) is an apparent European political party, whose existence is claimed by both itself and by the EUDemocrats[1]. Little, however, is known about the composition of the ADIE or whether it genuinely does operate as an EU-funded pan-European organization. As of June 2006, the group appears to operate a French-language website with relatively fragmentary information.

The group's site implies the existence of British, Czech, French, Irish, Italian, Greek and Polish delegations, speaks of association with the Independence and Democracy group of the European Parliament, and identifies Movement for France (MpF) MEP Patrick Louis as its president. This might suggest a membership encompassing the MpF, along with the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Independent Democrats of the Czech Republic, the Italian Northern League, the Popular Orthodox Rally of Greece, the League of Polish Families and independent MEP Kathy Sinnott.

The EUDemocrats have described it as the centre-right faction of the eurosceptic IND/DEM group, with EUD appearing to be acting as the centre-left faction of that group.

EU Democrats

EUDemocrats (EUD) is an alliance of parties, movements and political organisations operating as a transnational Party at a European level (European political party), and incorporating members from both the centre-left and the centre-right.

The party was set up under Danish law on 7 November 2005 and founded as a European Party in Brussels on 8 November 2005. The first congress was held in Brussels on 24 February 2006. EUD's platform is not concerned with right or left ideologies since it believes that such politics are best left under the democratic control of the citizens of member states and regions. Veteran Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde was the inspiration behind the creation of the EUD.

According to its political platform, the EUD believes in decision-making at the lowest possible levels, giving an effective voice to the citizens of the member states, regions and national minorities. It aims to unite those who are critical of the EU for its undemocratic development and its ever-centralising political features.

EUD is opposed to the centralisation of EU power, especially the empowerment for the EU to self-empower, which it describes as a sad development in the history of democracy in Europe. EUD urges for the peoples’ scrutiny and control over EU institutional powers and actions, recalling what history teaches us of past undemocratic systems of government in Europe.

The operational aim of EUD is to act as an effective political platform and a campaigns organisation that is able to influence pan-European politics towards democratic development. It is also EUD's aim to have affiliated candidates elected in European elections on its political platform.

[Democratic Hawk]

Being Labour, the Party of European Socialists, I suppose. That said I don't think I'm a 'socialist' in the strictest sense of the word

Indeed, I'd probably fit in with the European People's Party too (its more centrist wing anyway)

Dave

[Jens]

The Greens since EUL-NGL has moved very radically to the extreme with the inclusion of unreformed commies from Czech rep and Cypres. I just don't like them. But then again I'm not a classic green soooo?

[Jake]

Alliance for Europe of the Nations

[bullmoose88]

Liberals

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Greens since EUL-NGL has moved very radically to the extreme with the inclusion of unreformed commies from Czech rep and Cypres. I just don't like them. But then again I'm not a classic green soooo?

The commies in Cyprus are unreformed? That's interesting considering they are the largest party. What's the reason for all this?

Still I largely agree here, plus I'm disgusted by their inclusion of Sinn Fein. Hence I voted for Party of European Socialists. I stand somewhere between most European mainstream social democratic parties and "Left" parties. However I usually go with the mainstream since the "Left" parties often contain unsavory types I'd rather simply not be associated with. Give me Schroeder over Galloway any day.

[Colin]

ELDR probably or maybe of the less extreme nationalist groups.

[Jens]

The Greens since EUL-NGL has moved very radically to the extreme with the inclusion of unreformed commies from Czech rep and Cypres. I just don't like them. But then again I'm not a classic green soooo?

The commies in Cyprus are unreformed? That's interesting considering they are the largest party. What's the reason for all this?

Still I largely agree here, plus I'm disgusted by their inclusion of Sinn Fein. Hence I voted for Party of European Socialists. I stand somewhere between most European mainstream social democratic parties and "Left" parties. However I usually go with the mainstream since the "Left" parties often contain unsavory types I'd rather simply not be associated with. Give me Schroeder over Galloway any day.

Don't really know. But I do know that SF's member of parliament broke with party policies and left EUL because of the Czechs and Cypriots. If you bother AKEL has a web page in english http://www.akel.org.cy/English/akel.html
By just skimming through it, they look pretty unreformed. I suspect one of the reasons for their support is their strong stance on cypriotic independence.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Alliance of Independent Democrats in Europe

[Silent Hunter]

PES, who I support in all EU elections (i.e. I support the member parties)