European People's Party–European Democrats

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European People's Party– European Democrats European Parliament group
EPP-ED logo
Name	European People's Party–European Democrats
English abbr.	EPP-ED
French abbr.	PPE-DE
Formal name	Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats
Ideology	Christian democracy Conservatism Centre-Right
European parties	European People's Party
Associated organizations	European Democrats
From	1999
To	present
Chaired by	Joseph Daul MEP
MEP(s)	288 (3 May 2008)
Website	http://www.epp-ed.eu/

The European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats (EPP-ED) is a political group of the European Parliament comprising the European People's Party and the non-party subgroup European Democrats.

The group is a parliamentary group of Christian democrats and conservative MEPs. Most belong to the core People's Party, but the more eurosceptic conservative groups are in the European Democrat sub-group. The two groups were previously separate until 1992 when the latter parties, led by the British Conservative Party, joined the EPP as associates and then formed the Democrat subgroup. The European Democrats should not be confused with the centrist European Democratic Party or the nationalist EUDemocrats

Since the 1999 election when it won 268 of the 732 seats, the EPP-ED has been the largest party in the European Parliament. Since the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU in January 2007, it now has 276 of the 785 seats (35%). The present chair of the group is Joseph Daul MEP, elected in 2007 after the previous chair, Hans-Gert Pöttering, was elected President of the European Parliament.

[edit] History

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The present-day EPP-ED group began life as the Christian Democrat group, founded with the establishment of the Common Assembly in 1952. The European People's Party was founded in 1976 which became the core of the group, renamed after the new party, and in 1992 it took in eurosceptic parties from the former European Democrats. It renamed itself to its present name following the 1999 elections where for the first time since elections began in 1979 it became the largest party in Parliament.

[edit] Early development

The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community first met on 1952-09-10, the next day saw the unofficial founding of the Christian Democratic group with Maan Sassen as President. The group held 38 of the 78 seats, two short of an absolute majority. On 1932-06-23 the founding document of the group was published, it then held 40 members. From 1954 to 1962 the Presidents of the Assembly all belonged to this group. The Assembly eventually became the European Parliament and covered all three European Communities.^[1] The Luxembourg compromise of 1966 set out a right of national veto, which was never accepted by the Christian Democrat Group.^[2] 
On 1973-01-01 the Community was enlarged for the first time with Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom entering the union. The Irish political party Fine Gael joined the Christian Democrats, however the British Conservatives and Danish Conservatives formed their own group, the "European Conservative Group" (later the European Democrats). In 1973 Alfred Bertand was elected chairman of the Christian-Democratic Group.^[3]

On 1976-04-29 the European People's Party was founded by seven Christian Democrat parties in Brussels: the German CDU/CSU, Belgian PSC and CVP, French CDS, Irish Fine Gael, Italian DC, Luxembourgish CSV and Dutch KPV und CHU and ARP. In 1977 CD member Emilio Colombo was elected President of the Parliament and on 5 May Egon Klepsch was elected chair of the CD Group. The following year, the group changed its name to the "Christian-Democratic Group (Group of the European People's Party)".^[3]


[edit] Elections


The first Parliamentary elections were held on 7-1979-06-10 with the EPP Group winning 107 seats from 32.8 million votes (29.6%). They were second behind the Socialist Group who won 112 seats but held a lower share of the vote 29.5 million (26.6%). Following the election the group changed its name to the "Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrat Group)" and supported the election of Simone Veil MEP as the Parliament's first female President.^[3]

In 1981, following Greece's accession to the Community, the Greek Nea Demokratia joined the EPP making the EPP 117 MEPs strong. Paolo Barbi was elected EPP Chairman on 1982-01-20. In the second Parliamentary elections, the EPP won 110 seats and on 1984-07-24, EPP MEP Pierre Pflimlin was elected President of the Parliament. In 1986 Portugal and Spain joined the community, the EPP grew by 9 members to 119 with the Portuguese CDS, the Spanish UCF, UDC and PNV as well as a single French MEP who joined later that year.^[4]

In 1987 the Single European Act came into force and the People's Party began co-operation with the Socialist Group in order to generate the majorities demanded under the cooperation procedure. In the third Parliamentary elections, the EPP won 122 seats. These include those of the Spanish Partido Popular which had crossed from the European Democrats to join the EPP.^[4] On 1992-01-14, the chair of the EPP Group, Egon Klepsch, was elected President of the Parliament, Leo Tindemans succeeded him as chair of the EPP.^[5]

[edit] European Democrats

On 1992-05-01 the British Conservatives, Danish Conservatives and some French UDF MEPs joined the EPP group as allied members (dissolving the European Democrats group) enlarging the group to 162 members. A further four UDF MEPs crossed from ELDR to the EPP later in the year. In 1994 the Committee of the Regions was established and the People's Party established a group of 85 members in that body under Jos Chabert (Belgian CVP). Later that year on the 9 to 12 of June, the fourth Parliamentary elections were held, with the People's Party winning 125 seats, with 157 including the British, Danish and French MEPs who had joined the group in 1992. They elected Wilfried Martens as Chair of the group.^[5]

With the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995, the EPP grew by sixteen MEPs, as five new parties from those states joined: the Austrian Österreichische Volkspartei, the Swedish Kristdemokratiska Samhällspartiet (now called Kristdemokraterna) and Moderata Samlingspartiet (Moderaterna), the Finnish Kansallinen Kokoomus and the Danish Konservative Folkepart. In 1996, the Portuguese PSD joined the People's Party, enlarging the EPP group to 180 MEPs and in 1997, EPP MEP José María Gil-Robles was elected President of the European Parliament. In June 1998, Forza Italia joined the EPP group.^[5]

In 1999 during the budget crisis, the People's Party withdrew support from the Commission at an early state and, while it was seen at first as a political move again PES ahead of the 1999 elections, it was instrumental in bringing down the Santer Commission.^[6] When the elections were held, on the 10-1999-06-13, the EPP won 233 seats making it the largest party in Parliament. The Socialists held only 180 seats. Hans-Gert Pöttering was elected Chair and the group was renamed as the "Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats". Members of the RPR (Gaullist) Party allied to the group and EPP MEP Nicole Fontaine was elected President of the European Parliament.^[5]

[edit] Recent history

The French RPR and Italian UDEUR joined the EPP on 2001-12-06 with the Hungarian MDF becoming an associate member. A year later on 2002-11-17 the French UMP was founded, becoming a member of the EPP. On 20 December of that year Otto von Habsburg MEP became the first honorary member of the group following a formal celebration of his birthday by the EPP–ED on 20 November.^[7]

Pending the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, observers from the new countries joined the Parliament and 69 parties associated to the EPP–ED group were welcomed in an official ceremony by the group. The following elections on 10-2004-06-13 saw a second EPP–ED victory gaining 278 members. It was the only group in Parliament to have MEPs from every European Union member state and to have more than 200 members. The following month the Czech SNK–ED joined the EPP while the ED group was joined by the Czech ODS, Portugese Partido Popular and Italian Partito Pensionati. In 2006 the independent Lars Wohlin MEP joined, at this point there were now 264 members.^[7]

In 2006, the new leader of the British Conservatives, David Cameron, stated his intention to take his party out of the EPP–ED group and form their own, more eurosceptic, grouping. He needs to assemble 20 MEPs from six countries but his main ally, the Czech Civic Democratic Party indicated it would not leave until after the 2009 elections.^[8]

Followin on from the coalition deal struck with the Socialist Party in 2004, Hans-Gert Pöttering was elected President of the Parliament with Joseph Daul succeeding him as EPP–ED chair. 2007 also saw new parties from Romania and Bulgaria joining the group bringing it to 278 members: the Bulgarian UDF, DSB, DP and GERB and Romanian PD, DP, UDMR and DRDR.^[7]

[edit] Historical leaders

Chairpersons of the parliamentary group and its predecessors from 1953 onwards;^[9]

Chairperson		State	National party	Term
1.	Maan Sassen	Netherlands	Katholieke Volkspartij (Catholic People's Party)	1953	1958
2.	Pierre Wigny	Belgium	Parti Social-Chrétien (Social Christian Party)	1958	1958
3.	Alain Poher	France	Mouvement Républicain Populaire (Popular Republican Movement)	1958	1966
4.	Joseph Illerhaus	West Germany	Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)	1966	1969
5.	Hans Lücker	West Germany	Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)	1969	1975
6.	Alfred Bertrand	Belgium	Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian People's Party)	1975	1977
7.	Egon Klepsch	West Germany	Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)	1977	1982
8.	Paolo Barbi	Italy	Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy)	1982	1984
*	Egon Klepsch (2nd term)	West Germany  Germany	Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)	1984	1992
9.	Leo Tindemans	Belgium	Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian People's Party)	1992	1994
10.	Wilfried Martens	Belgium	Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian People's Party)	1994	1999
11.	Hans-Gert Pöttering	Germany	Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)	1999	2007
12.	Joseph Daul	France	Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement)	2007	present

[edit] Organisation

The group is overwhelmingly based around the European People's Party, the first transnational European political party with 253 MEPs. The remaining 36 members sit as the European Democrats attached to the group. The Group is represented by its Chairman, currently Joseph Daul MEP, who speaks for the group in debates and chairs the governing body - the Group Chairman is also ex officio Vice President of the Party. The governing body is a presidency of ten vice-chairpersons including a treasurer. He is supported by co-ordinators on each of the committees of the European Parliament and its delegations (in which the group is well represented due to its size). The group is supported by a secretariat and it also runs a think tank, the European Ideas Network.^[10]

Due to the Group's large weight in Parliament, it has had considerable influence over proceedings. Since it began co-operating with the Group of Party of European Socialists, the two have dominated Parliament as a grand coalition. Combined the two groups have continuously held between 50 and 70 percent of seats,^[11] however voting in Parliament is increasingly split between left and right^[12] and in 1999 the two parties took on a government-opposition over the Santer Commission crisis.^[6]

[edit] Current MEPs

The EPP-ED Group is currently made up of parliamentarians from the following national parties (as of October 2007). Members from the EPP are in white and members of the ED are in grey;^[13][14][15]

State	Party	MEPs	Section
Austria	Österreichische Volkspartei (Austrian People's Party)	6	EPP
Belgium	(Flanders): Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (Christian Democratic & Flemish)	3	EPP
	(Flanders): Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (New Flemish Alliance)	1	EPP
	(Wallonia): Centre démocrate Humaniste (Humanist Center Democrats)	1	EPP
	(German): Christlich Soziale Partei (Christian Social Party)	1	EPP
Bulgaria	Граждани за европейско развитие на България (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria)	5	EPP
Cyprus	Dimokratikos Sinagermos (Democratic Rally)	2	EPP
	Gia tin Evropi (For Europe)	1	EPP
Czech Republic	Evropští demokraté (European Democrats)	2	EPP
	Křesťansko-demokratická unie - Československá strana lidová (Christian Democratic Union - Czechoslovak People's Party)	2	EPP
	Občanská demokratická strana (Civic Democratic Party)	9	ED
	SNK sdružení nezávislých (Union of Independents)	1	EPP
Denmark	Det Konservative Folkeparti (The Conservative People's Party)	1	EPP
Estonia	Isamaaliit (Fatherland Union)	1	EPP
Finland	Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party)	4	EPP
France	Union pour un Mouvement Populaire	17	EPP
Germany	Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union)	40	EPP
	Christlich Soziale Union in Bayern (Christian Social Union in Bavaria)	9	EPP
Greece	Nea Demokratia (New Democracy)	11	EPP
Hungary	Fidesz - Magyar Polgári Szövetség (Hungarian Civic Union)	12	EPP
	Magyar Demokrata Fórum (Hungarian Democratic Forum)	1	EPP
Ireland	Fine Gael	5	EPP
Italy	Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e Democratici di Centro (Union of Christian and Centre Democrats)	5	EPP
	Forza Italia (Forward Italy)	16	EPP
	Alleanza Popolare-UDEUR (Popular Alliance)	1	EPP
	Partito dei Pensionati (Pensioners' Party)	1	ED
	Südtiroler Volkspartei (South Tyrol People's Party)	1	EPP
Latvia	Jaunais Laiks (New Era Party)	2	EPP
	Tautas Partija (People's Party)	1	EPP
Lithuania	Tėvynės sąjunga -Lietuvos konservatoriai ((Homeland Union-Lithuanian Conservatives))	2	EPP
Luxembourg	Chrëstlich Sozial Vollekspartei (Christian Social People's Party)	3	EPP
Malta	Partit Nazzjonalista (Nationalist Party)	2	EPP
Netherlands	Christen-Democratisch Appèl (Christian Democratic Appeal)	7	EPP
Poland	Platforma Obywatelska (Citizens Platform)	14	EPP
	Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Polish People's Party)	1	EPP
Portugal	Partido Social Democrata (Party of Social Democrats)	7	EPP
	Partido Popular (People's Party)	2	ED
Romania	Partidul Democrat-Liberal (Democratic Liberal Party)	16	EPP
	Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România (Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania)	2	EPP
Slovakia	Magyar Koalíció Pártja (Party of the Hungarian Coalition)	2	EPP
	Kresťansko-demokratické hnutie (Christian Democratic Movement)	3	EPP
	Slovenská demokratická a kresťanská únia (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union)	3	EPP
Slovenia	Nova Slovenija (New Slovenia, Christian People's Party)	2	EPP
	Slovenska demokratska stranka (Slovenian Democratic Party)	2	EPP
Spain	Partido Popular (People's Party)	24	EPP
Sweden	Moderata samlingspartiet (Moderate Party)	4	EPP
	Kristdemokraterna (Christian Democrats)	2	EPP
United Kingdom	(Great Britain): Conservative Party	26	ED
	(Northern Ireland): Ulster Unionist Party	1	ED

[edit] See also

• Political parties of the world
• Members of the European Parliament 2004-2009
• Movement for European Reform

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• EPP-ED Group official site
• European People's Party official site