Profile of the leaders of Parliament's political groups

Co-Chair Nigel Farage (45) from London was a commodity broker until he became a professional politician.

From his early youth until the resignation of Margaret Thatcher he was active in the Conservative Party.

In 1993 he became on of the founding members of the United Kingdom Independence Party which seeks withdrawal from the European Union and a Europe with little political integration.

He was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009.

Since 2006 he leads the UKIP party and he was co-chair of the Independence and Democracy Group in the previous term of the EP.

Co-Chair Francesco Enrico Speroni (62) from Lombardy was elected to the EP for the fourth time in June 2009.

Before the June elections of this year he was vice-chair of the Legal Affairs Committee.

He was a member of local, regional and the Italian national parliament for Lega Nord since the 1980s and in 1994 was Minister for Institutional reforms within the first government of Silvio Berlusconi.

He is known for positions critical of critical of further European integration and enlargement, notably towards Turkey.

He holds a degree in political sciences and law, and a trained flight engineer.