Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some form of devolution or self-governance for their country or region.

The EFA is represented in the European Council by Bart De Wever of the New Flemish Alliance, who has served as Prime Minister of Belgium since 2025.

The SNP, although being predominantly social-democratic, joined the European Progressive Democrats, a conservative group led by the French Rally for the Republic.

[17] Only after the 1989 European Parliament election did EFA members form a united group, called Rainbow like its green predecessor.

In the event the EFA supplied ten members: two each from the Scottish SNP, the Welsh Plaid Cymru, and the Flemish VU, and one each from the Basque PNV and EA, the Andalusian PA and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).

[20] In the 2004 European Parliament election, the EFA, which had formally become a European political party,[21] was reduced to four MEPs: two from the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one from Plaid Cymru (Jill Evans) and one from the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC; Bernat Joan i Marí, replaced at the mid-term by MEP Mikel Irujo of the Basque EA).

[22] In the 2009 European Parliament election, six MEPs were returned for the EFA: two from the SNP (Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith), one from Plaid Cymru (Jill Evans), one from the Party of the Corsican Nation (PNC; François Alfonsi), one from the ERC (Oriol Junqueras), and Tatjana Ždanoka, an individual member of the EFA from Latvia.

[23] In the 2014 European Parliament election, EFA-affiliated parties returned twelve seats to the Parliament: four for the N-VA, two for the SNP, two for "The Left for the Right to Decide" (an electoral list primarily composed of the ERC), one for "The Peoples Decide" (an electoral list mainly comprising EH Bildu, a Basque coalition including EA), one for "European Spring" (an electoral list comprising the Valencian Nationalist Bloc, BNV, and the Aragonese Union, ChA), one from Plaid Cymru, and one from the Latvian Russian Union (LKS).

"[28] The EFA sees itself as an alliance of stateless peoples, striving towards recognition, autonomy, independence or wanting a proper voice in Europe.

It is chaired by Lorena Lopez de Lacalle (Basque Solidarity), president of the EFA, while Jordi Solé (Republican Left of Catalonia) is secretary-general and Anke Spoorendonk (South Schleswig Voters' Association) vice-president and treasurer.

[37] The Bureau is completed by other twelve vice-presidents: Peggy Eriksson (Future of Åland), Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru), Fernando Fuente Cortina (More—Commitment), David Grosclaude (Occitan Party), Wouter Patho (New Flemish Alliance), Frank de Boer (Frisian National Party), Patrik Peroša (The Olive Tree – Slovene Istria Party), Livia Ceccaldi-Volpei (Femu à Corsica), Zsolt Szilágyi (Hungarian Alliance of Transylvania), Ana Miranda (Galician Nationalist Bloc), Roberto Visentin (Pact for Autonomy) and Lorena López Sánchez (New Canaries).