Editing Union for Europe of the Nations (section)

==History==
UEN was formed on 20 July 1999<ref name="t1s8"/> for the [[Fifth European Parliament|5th European Parliament]], supplanting the earlier [[Union for Europe]].<ref name="Nugent2006"/> Its member parties [[Fianna Fáil]] (FF) and the [[National Alliance (Italy)|National Alliance]] (AN) were the driving forces behind the group, despite their being alone in the group in their support for the proposed [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitution]]. [[Gianfranco Fini]], leader of AN, was a member of the Convention which drafted the Constitution, while [[Bertie Ahern]], leader of FF, negotiated the treaty as [[Presidency of the Council of the European Union|President of the European Council]] in 2004.

UEN was a heterogeneous group: broadly Eurosceptic and [[National conservatism|national-conservative]], it included some parties which were either uncomfortable with this characterisation or eventually evolved into something different. More specifically, FF was a "[[big tent|catch all]]" centre-right party and later joined the [[Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party|Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe]], AN was a conservative party which eventually joined the [[European People's Party]] through [[The People of Freedom]], and [[Lega Nord]] was supportive of a "Europe of Regions".<ref>{{cite web |title=Sintesi posizioni Lega Nord sull'Unione Europea |url=http://www.padaniaoffice.org/pdf/affari_istituz/doc_politici/Punti_LN_Europa.pdf |publisher=Lega Nord |date=10 March 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727161710/http://www.padaniaoffice.org/pdf/affari_istituz/doc_politici/Punti_LN_Europa.pdf |archive-date=27 July 2011 }}</ref>

After the [[2009 European Parliament election|2009 European elections]] the group officially had 35 members but this figure included parties such as AN and FF, which had already committed to leave.<ref name="FFfull-text-taoiseach-brian-cowen-at-the-official-opening-of-72nd-fianna-fail">[http://www.fiannafail.ie/feature/entry/full-text-taoiseach-brian-cowen-at-the-official-opening-of-72nd-fianna-fail/ "Full Text: Taoiseach Brian Cowen at the official Opening of 72nd Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis - Part 1"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303163833/http://www.fiannafail.ie/feature/entry/full-text-taoiseach-brian-cowen-at-the-official-opening-of-72nd-fianna-fail/ |date=3 March 2009 }}, Fianna Fáil website, posted 27 February 2009</ref> UEN members migrated to other groups after the elections in June 2009 and before the [[Seventh European Parliament]] term started on 14 July 2009. FF had already left for the [[Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group|Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe]] (ALDE) Group, [[For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK]] and [[Law and Justice]] MEPs went to the [[European Conservatives and Reformists Group]] (ECR Group), and [[Lega Nord]], the [[Danish People's Party]] and [[Order and Justice]] MEPs went to [[Europe of Freedom and Democracy]] (EFD) Group. With this loss of members, the UEN group was dissolved by default.