European People's Party

European People's Party
Europäische Volkspartei
Parti Populaire européen
Partito Popolare Europeo
Partido Popular Europeo
Europese Volkspartij
Il-Partit Popolari Ewropew
Europejska Partia Ludowa
Európai Néppárt
Partido Popular Europeu
Avrupa Halk Partisi
Европейска народна партия
Páirtí Pobail na hEorpa
Evropská lidová strana
President Wilfried Martens
Founded 1976 (1976)
Headquarters Rue du Commerce / Handelsstraat 10, Brussels, B-1000
Ideology Liberal conservatism,
Christian democracy,
Pro-Europeanism
International affiliation Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union
European Parliament Group Group of the European People's Party
Official colours Blue, gold
Website
http://www.epp.eu/
Politics of the European Union
Political parties
Elections

The European People's Party (EPP) is a centre-right European political party. Founded in 1976, the EPP has 72 member-parties from 39 countries, 15 EU and 5 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 European Commissioners (including the President), the President of the European Council and the largest group in the European Parliament with 265 members.

Contents

History

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According to its website, the EPP is "the family of the political centre-right, whose roots run deep in the history and civilization of the European continent and has pioneered the European project from its inception."[1]

EPP traces its ancestry to the Nouvelles Equipes Internationales in 1946[2] or 1948,[3] via the European Union of Christian Democrats founded in 1965,[2] although it has been argued that it ultimately descends from the Secretariat International des partis démocratiques d'inspiration chrétienne founded in 1925.[3]

EPP manifesto

The EPP 2009 manifesto calls for:

Structure

Organisation

Its current President is former Belgian Prime Minister Wilfried Martens. Martens was re-elected President at the December 2009 EPP Congress in Bonn for a 3-year term. In the same Congress, Commissioners Antonio Tajani (PdL) and Michel Barnier (UMP), were also elected as well as Finnish Deputy Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen (KOK), Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Fidesz), German State Secretary Peter Hintze (CDU), Irish opposition leader Enda Kenny (FG), Bulgarian MP Rumiana Jeleva (GERB), and MEPs Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (PO), Mario David (PSD), and Corien Wortmann-Kool (CDA). Also, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, and EPP Group Chairman Joseph Daul (UMP) are ex officio EPP Vice-Presidents. CSU politician Ingo Freidrich is the Treasurer.

Activity

The European People's Party is active horizontally with the main EU institutions.

By invitation of the EPP President, the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Council, the President of the European Parliament and the EPP heads of state and government (and leaders of the opposition) customarily meet a few hours prior to the Summit of the European Council at the 'Académie Royale' in Brussels for the EPP Summit to form common positions.

For the past two years the Party organizes on a regular basis EPP Ministerial meetings prior to the meetings of the Council of the European Union. The meetings of EPP Ministers are usually hosted in the Party headquarters. The EPP organizes a total of ten different Ministerial meetings: Foreign Affairs, Economy and Finance, Employment and Social Affairs, Industry, Defence, Agriculture, Environment, Justice and Home Affairs, Transport, Energy.

The EPP also organizes on a ad hoc basis meetings with its affiliated members of the European Commission and it also invites individual Commissioners to the EPP Summit meetings and/or to EPP Ministerial meetings.

Following the 2007 amendment of the the EU Regulation that governs Europarties, the EPP is solely responsible for organizing the pan-European campaign for the European elections every five years. According to the Lisbon Treaty, the EPP (like all Europarties) must present, as part of the campaign for the European elections, a candidate for President of the European Commission; the EPP already did this prior to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, by endorsing for a second term Jose Manuel Barroso in April 2009.

Warsaw Congress, 30 April 2009: EPP Prime Ministers endorse Jose Manuel Barroso and launch campaign for the European elections

In the European institutions

The EPP currently holds the Presidencies of all three main EU institutions: the European Commission led by President José Manuel Barroso (PSD), ), the European Council led by Herman Van Rompuy (CD&V) - who was nominated by EPP as its first permanent President - and the European Parliament led by President Jerzy Buzek (PO).

European Council

The EPP currently has 15 out of the 27 heads of State or Government in the European Council:

The EPP also has 6 heads of State or Government who do not normally take part in the European Council since that responsibility belongs to the other leaders of their countries: Bronisław Komorowski (Poland, PO), Christian Wulff (Germany, CDU), Pál Schmitt (Hungary, Fidesz), Aníbal Cavaco Silva (Portugal, PSD), François Fillon (France, UMP) and Traian Băsescu (Romania, PD-L).

European Commission

The EPP during its 2009 European elections campaign, re-nominated at its April 2009 Congress in Warsaw Jose Manuel Barroso as its candidate for re-election as Commission President if it won the elections. Because the EPP won, Barroso's nomination was endorsed by the European Council and was elected by an absolute majority in the European Parliament for a second term.

On November 27, 2009, Barroso unveiled the 'Barroso II Commission' which includes a total of 13 (out of 27) EPP Commissioners. In January 2010 Rumiana Jeleva was replaced by Kristalina Georgieva:

European Parliament

Main article: European People's Party (European Parliament group)

In the European Parliament the EPP has the largest parliamentary group - the EPP Group - with 265 MEPs. In every European election, candidates elected on lists of member-parties of the EPP are obliged to join the EPP Group in the European Parliament. In the current parliamentary term, the EPP is the only Europarty that has a fully corresponding parliamentary group. According to the statutes of the EPP, the Chairman of the EPP Group is an ex officio Vice President of the EPP.

Beyond the EU

EPP, through its associate parties, also has 5 heads of State or Government from non-EU countries: Jadranka Kosor (Croatia, HDZ), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey, AKP), Sali Berisha (Albania, DP), Nikola Gruevski (Macedonia, VMRO-DPMNE), and Mikheil Saakashvili (Georgia, UNM).

EPP also has parliamentary groups in the parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe, Chaired by Luca Volontè (Italy, UDC), and the OSCE, Chaired by Walburga Habsburg Douglas (Sweden, MSP).

In recent years, the EPP has been developing beyond Europe bilateral relations with major conservative and like-minded parties. Due its firm transatlantic orientation, North America has been a particular focus of the Party's international activities. The EPP has close relations with the International Republican Institute (IRI).

The EPP is the European wing of two centre-right global multilateral organizations: the Christian Democrat International (CDI) and the International Democrat Union (IDU). EPP is also a member of the European Movement international.

Elected Representatives of Member Parties

European institutions

At present the European People's Party is the largest political grouping in the European Parliament and amongst national leaders.

Organisation Institution Number of seats
 European Union European Commission
13 / 27
 European Union Council
(Heads of Government)
15 / 27
 European Union European Council
(Participation in Government)
18 / 27
 European Union European Parliament
265 / 736
 Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
105 / 318

EPP's Official Think Tank

Following the 2008 revision of the EU Regulation that governs European political parties allowing the creation of European foundations affiliated to Europarties, the EPP established in the same year its official foundation/think tank, the Centre for European Studies (CES). The CES includes as members all the major national think tanks and foundations affiliated to EPP member parties: Konrad Adenauer Foundation (CDU), Hanns Seidel Foundation (CSU), Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies (PP), Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy (ND), Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation (MOD), and others. During the 2009 European elections campaign, the CES launched a successful web-based campaign module 'tellbarroso.eu' to support Jose Manuel Barroso, the EPP candidate, for re-election as Commission President.

Member parties

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 Austria

 Belgium

 Bulgaria

 Cyprus

 Czech Republic

 Denmark

 Estonia

 Finland

 France

 Germany

 Greece

 Hungary

 Ireland

 Italy

 Latvia

 Lithuania

 Luxembourg

 Malta

 Netherlands

 Poland

 Portugal

 Romania

 Slovakia

 Slovenia

 Spain

 Sweden

Associate members

 Croatia

 Norway

 Serbia

 Switzerland

Observer members

 Albania

 Belarus

 Bosnia and Herzegovina

 Finland

 Georgia

 Macedonia

 Italy

 Moldova

 Norway

 San Marino

 Serbia

 Turkey

 Ukraine

References

  1. ↑ EPP | European People's Party
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Trans-European Party Groupings: Emergence of New and Alignment of Old Parties in the Light of Direct Elections to the European Parliament" by Paul-H Claeys and Nicole Loeb-Mayer, from "Government and Opposition", Volume 14, issue 4, page 455-478
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "On the road towards transnational party cooperation in Europe" by Steven van Hecke in "European View", Volume 3, 2006, from the Centre for European Studies
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 EPP Manifesto – European Elections 2009
  5. ↑ Parties and Elections in Europe

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