The European Parliament is expected shortly to approve a procedure that could result in Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) being stripped of its status as a “European political party”, which would also mean the loss of funding.

In a vote scheduled for Tuesday, both the European People’s Party (EPP), the Social Democrats (S&D) and the liberals Renew are expected to consent to the initiation of an investigation into ESN to determine whether the group “complies with the EU’s core values”, EU system officials tell Euronews.

The ESN group, which was established in 2024 and has 27 members in the current European Parliament, consists among others of the German AfD, the French Reconquête, the Italian Futuro Nazionale (FN) and the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), and is referred to by both system media and old power parties as “far right” or “extreme right”.

The initiative for the investigation comes from the French EU bureaucrat Pascal Schonard, who is head of a little-known EU body called the Authority for European Political Parties and Foundations (APPF), which functions as a kind of party supervisory authority.

In a previous letter to the European Parliament, the EU Council and the EU Commission, Schonard claims to have evidence that ESN does not comply with EU values,

which include “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities”.

The APPF’s 294-page dossier of evidence, to which Euronews has gained access, contains court rulings, statements and social media posts from ESN members that may constitute evidence of breaches of EU values.

The document highlights antisemitic, anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant rhetoric, including calls for the remigration of European citizens with foreign backgrounds and the equating of homosexuality with paedophilia.

Other reported incidents include racist banners put up by the Czech SPD party, an action by the Bulgarian party “Revival” to stop the screening of a film with scenes showing homosexuality, and a ruling by a German court that considers the AfD party’s political programme to be “in conflict with human dignity and freedom of religion”.

The process fits into a pattern of the political establishment’s attempts to delegitimise Europe’s new right.

“The ESN party is accused of not respecting ‘European values’ simply because it addresses real problems affecting Europeans,” an ESN spokesperson told Euronews. “Freedom of speech is a fundamental EU value. Political disagreement should be met with debate.”

If the European Parliament votes as expected, a political-administrative process will be set in motion:

When the Parliament initiates the procedure, the APPF must send its submissions to ESN, which may implement corrective measures. The Authority must then decide whether ESN should be deregistered as a European political party or not.
After the final decision has been made, the Parliament and the Council can still overturn it.

In the USA’s National Security Strategy, which was published in December 2025, it states:

Among the major challenges Europe faces are the activities of the EU and other transnational bodies that undermine political freedom and sovereignty, an immigration policy that is changing the continent and creating unrest, censorship of freedom of speech and the suppression of political opposition, sharply declining birth rates as well as the loss of national identity and self-confidence.