It’s only 1 or 2 out of 730+ seats, but the Pirate Party of Sweden gaining such a minute number of seats from their party list in the European Parliament is no big feat. It may not directly pose an earthquake-strength challenge to the status quo of intellectual property law in most of the 27 member states of the European Union, but the mere thought of explicitly pro-P2P file sharing, pro-copyleft politicians being present in one of the largest legislative bodies in the world is a sign of changes to come in the supranational congregation’s dealings with the economically-sensitive topic.

Thus, the news that the Pirate Party crossed the 4% threshold in Sunday’s EP election in Sweden, gaining at least 7.1%, is slowly being welcomed by blogs and European news sites as a historic moment in the EP’s evolution, even with the news that this election achieved both the lowest turnout since the legislature’s founding and a huge upsurge in the electoral fortunes of right wing nationalist-populist(-Eurosceptic-conspiracist-nativist) movements competing for seats in the body.

The same news of the PP’s entrance into the EP also comes with questions about its parliamentary group affiliations come the inauguration of MEPs to office: major news sources have hinted at an affiliation with either the Greens-EFA (which has already made clear its pro-file-sharing stance) or the ALDE (a liberal group, given that the lead candidate on the PP’s list is formerly of the Liberal People’s Party of Sweden), or, otherwise, sitting as "non-inscrits" (the EP’s rough equivalent of "independent", or one who doesn’t sit with any of the parliamentary groups, even if they identify with such-and-such minor party). I don’t even think the left-wing or left-green parliamentary groups have even entered into the question regarding the PP’s affiliations (which may be due to the severely deprecated reputation of the traditional Eurosocialist left at all levels – European, national and local – translating into the aforementioned upsurge in fortunes of right-wing parties, including the much-derided British National Party).

This seems like a lot about the EU is slated for change within the next few years, with the "fringe" both gaining in capital and clout within EU politics. Furthermore, such fringes will be allocated taxpayer money to build up their campaigns (both electoral and legislatorial) and, if they are constituted as European parties, their own "Eurofoundations" (or European-level Europarty-affiliated think tanks). Of course, making too much of a spending spree may cost a sitting party, as has happened to the well-monied, loosely-organized Libertas party headed by Irish millionaire and anti-Lisbon Treaty activist Declan Ganley (who is likely to not gain a seat this time around, and whose Europarty may only gain one seat – in France).

Thus, pitfalls – both obvious and unforeseen – await the young Pirate Party in the EP. There are opportunities to build up aspirant Pirate Parties in other member states for the next EP elections in 2014 – and for national elections in between – but it is a long and slow shot to build the party away from being a young, populist, ideologically one-trick pony of a party to a recognisable, multi-concern presence that doesn’t fear outright parliamentary extinction but can still take a hint (switch out leadership, switch out ideological components, etc.) when it takes a licking at the polls. People have seen what can happen to minor, often fringe parties in the EP when they forge flimsy alliances and parliamentary groups that only last a good year due to infighting and ideological incoherence among members (i.e., ….uhhhh, for what did we form this group/alliance/party again?)

Furthermore, the party may not be touched at first by the perception of the public regarding corruption and graft in the EP, which has become a significant talking point for Eurosceptics and right-wingers in the EU within the last decade, but PP doesn’t have long to clearly set itself apart from that previous history of the EP; the Republican effect, as we’ve seen here in the US, may be felt in the EP with the rise of the center-right’s share of seats, and the PP, having gained entrance at the same time as the BNP and other right-wing parties (some with more authoritarian tendencies), may have entered into the legislature at the politically-strangest time to be considered a "pirate" in the legislature.

There seems to be much to follow, much to hope, much to discuss about the PP in the EP. One of those hopes is that we’re not seeing a political train wreck, although that is taking second or third place to the hope that we will see a redressing of intellectual property law in the European Union’s member states. Hopefully, the PP – and, of they’re to be believed by their campaigns, the Greens-EFA – heralds such an endeavor in an even-handed, non-top-down manner.