New MEPs head to Brussels for first meetings in European Parliament

The UK’s new MEPs are heading to Brussels for their first engagements in the European Parliament.

The next term of the parliament does not begin until July 2, but the newly elected MEPs must meet their transnational political groups first.

Many of those meetings are expected to take place this week, with some MEPs travelling to Brussels already on Tuesday morning.

The Green Party’s seven MEPs will travel by train to meet their pan-European sister party, the Greens-European Free Alliance, on Wednesday.

They will be the third largest national group of Green MEPs.

Nigel Farage is expected to arrive in Brussels on Tuesday, but it is not known when he will be joined by the other 28 MEPs from the Brexit Party.

The Brexit Party MEPs, like former UKIP MEPs, will sit in the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy political group of right-wing Eurosceptic parties.

One of the biggest stories of the 2019 European election was the reduction in size of the largest political group in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP), and Britain will not send any MEPs to join the group.

The Conservative Party withdrew from the EPP under the leadership of David Cameron in 2009.

Once the political groups for the new session of the European Parliament are finalised, MEPs will meet in Strasbourg for the opening session on July 2.

There, they will elect various officials including the president and 14 vice-presidents for the upcoming term.