Parliamentary groups of the Parliament of Catalonia

The parliamentary groups of the Parliament of Catalonia(Catalan:"grups parlamentaris") are groups of deputies in the
Parliament of Catalonia organized by political party or by coalition of parties. Their function is both political and administrative. The deputies in a group are expected to cooperate in promoting the policies of the group, while the group is allocated offices and technical support by the
Board of Parliament, and may hire additional support for its members at its own expense (or that of its parent party).

At least five deputies are required to form a parliamentary group, who must all come from the same party or electoral coalition and must not all have been elected in the same
constituency. Only one parliamentary group may be formed per party or coalition. Deputies who cannot join a normal parliamentary group—for example, because they have left their party, or because their party does not have at least five deputies in at least two constituencies—are organized into the "mixed group" (Catalan: "Grup Mixt") for administrative purposes.

Each parliamentary group designates a spokesperson (Catalan:"portaveu") to represent the group in general matters. The Committee of Spokespersons (Catalan: "Junta de Portaveus") regroups these representatives along with the Predident of Parliament and one of the Secretaries of the Board of Parliament to decide certain questions of a more or less technical nature, such as the designation of the appropriate committee to consider a proposed piece of legislation.

Parliamentary groups of the current (Eighth) legislature

:"See Parliamentary groups of the Eighth legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia"The current Parliament with the 135 deputies elected in the 2006 election has six parliamentary groups: Convergence and Union grouping both CDC and UDC (48 seats), Socialists' Party of Catalonia-CpC (37 seats), Republican Left of Catalonia (21 seats), People's Party (14 seats), Initiative for Catalonia Greens-United and Alternative Left (12 seats) and the mixed group having only members of Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (3 seats).

Parliamentary groups of previous legislatures

*Parliamentary groups of the Seventh legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (2003–6)
*Parliamentary groups of the Sixth legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (1999–2003)
*Parliamentary groups of the Fifth legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (1995–99)
*Parliamentary groups of the Fourth legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (1992–95)
*Parliamentary groups of the Third legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (1988–92)
*Parliamentary groups of the Second legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (1984–88)
*Parliamentary groups of the First legislature of the Parliament of Catalonia (1980–84)

References

*cite web|url=http://www.parlament-cat.net/portal/page?_pageid=34,34096&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL |title=Parlament de Catalunya - Òrgans |language=Catalan |accessdate=2007-01-03