Sinn Féin's European grouping: Sinn Féin's new MEPs are likely to join a radical grouping in the European Parliament that includes the former ruling communist parties of what were East Germany and Czechoslovakia, it has emerged.
A Sinn Féin spokeswoman said party officials had held extensive discussions, including informal contact, with various groupings but that no decision had been made on what position the new MEPs would take.
However, she acknowledged that members of the Unified Left had travelled to Dublin in March for talks with Sinn Féin.
The Unified Left, along with the Nordic Green Left, is one of seven groups in the Parliament. It includes a range of radical parties, including the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) in Germany, the successor to the SED party which controlled East Germany for 40 years.
It has also emerged that none of the other groupings is likely to accept a membership application from Sinn Féin.
A spokesman for the Socialist Group, of which the Labour parties of Ireland and Britain are members, said that only members of the Party of European Socialists could join.
"Sinn Féin is not a member of that group," he said.
The United Left also includes the Communist Party for Bohemia and Moravia, which emerged out of the communist party that ran Czechoslovakia, and the communist parties of France and Italy.
Sinn Féin is due to make a decision at its Ard Comhairle meeting this weekend on what grouping it will seek to join.
Although it could decide to remain non-aligned, membership of a group includes attractive benefits, including increased power, committee positions and resources.
Unified Left officials also said Sinn Féin had "close ties" with a number of the parties that make up the Unified Left.
The current members of the grouping have returned 39 members to the European Parliament.
The European Free Alliance, which consists of small nationalist parties, had been mooted as another possible European home for Sinn Féin.
However, sources close to the alliance, which formed a grouping with the Greens for the last parliament, including the Irish Green Party, said this was unlikely.
"The Scottish Nationalist Party and Plaid Cymru in Wales are members and it would be practically impossible for them to sit alongside Sinn Féin," said one source.
"Labour and the Tories would capitalise on it at home."
The other four groups are not seen as in any way compatible with Sinn Féin.
They include the Christian Democrat group of which Fine Gael is a member, the Liberal group, and the small right-wing Europe for a Union of the Nations group, which includes Fianna Fáil.
There is likely to be a considerable shake-up and realignment of the parties, especially among the smaller groups.
However, the Unified Left is expected to remain relatively intact.