Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats
The Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED) was a political group in the European Parliament that existed from 1999 to 2009. It consisted of the Christian Democratic European Party European People's Party (EPP) and from the European Democrats had (ED), an association of conservative parties that are not the status of a European party.
The group was created in 1999 as the successor to the EPP group. The European Democrats, who had previously formed their own parliamentary group, joined forces as early as 1992. While the EPP comprised the Christian Democratic and Conservative parties of most European countries, the ED consisted mainly of the British Conservatives and a few smaller parties. With a total of 28.9% of the vote and 181 seats, the EPP-ED was the second largest group in the 1994 European elections after the Social Democrats. In the 1999 European elections , it became the strongest parliamentary group with 233 of the 626 MPs, which it was able to defend in the 2004 European elections . At the end of the 2004-09 legislative period, it had 288 members.
The last chairman of the parliamentary group was the Frenchman Joseph Daul ( UMP ) since January 9, 2007 . He succeeded the CDU politician Hans-Gert Pöttering , who was elected President of the European Parliament . The Austrian Othmar Karas was elected 1st Vice President and Treasurer .
However, there were repeated tensions within the EPP-ED, particularly in connection with the reform of the EU's political system . While the EPP essentially pursued an integration-friendly course, the ED members were much more Eurosceptic and largely rejected the Lisbon Treaty , for example . Before the European elections in 2009 , leading members of the ED, namely the British Conservatives and the Czech ODS , announced the creation of a new organization, the Movement for European Reform , which would again lead to the creation of a separate group in the European Parliament. For this plan they also won the Polish PiS , a leading member of the national-conservative European parliamentary group Union for a Europe of Nations . After the election, the new group was created under the name of the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists . For its part, the EPP again formed a single political group, the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) .
National parties in the group
In the 2004-2009 legislative period, the EPP-ED Group comprised the following parties:
Individual evidence
- ↑ EurActiv June 2, 2009: New pan-European Eurosceptic alliance takes shape .
- ↑ EurActiv, 23 Jun 2009: Anti-Federalist Group in Parliament: A Fragile Coalition? .