European People's Party (European Parliament group)

The Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats ) is a Group in the European Parliament. You belong mainly to MEPs of the European People's Party ( EPP), a Christian Democrat and conservative European party. With 275 members, it is for the legislative period 2009-14 the largest political group in the European Parliament (as of October 4, 2013 ).

The EPP Group in the European Parliament existed - first under the name Christian Democratic faction since the establishment of the Parliament in 1952 From 1992 to 2009 European elections it also included the members of the European Democrats, a conservative party alliance, to, . Therefore, the fraction contributed from 1999 to 2009 the name of the European People's Party - European Democrats. 2009 founded the member parties of the European Democrats, however, together with other parties, the new European Conservatives and Reformists, so the EPP again formed only a fraction. However, there are still some in the fraction national parties belonging to the European level no European party, so not the EPP.

Except in the European Parliament also carries a fraction in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of the name.

Member parties

The EPP Group in the European Parliament in the legislative period in 2009 includes 48 parties from all EU member states except the United Kingdom, as well as two non-party deputies. Specifically, these are the following (as of October 4, 2013 ):

Highlighted in gray are members of the Group who are not members of the EPP. (*) The party has observer status in the EPP.

History

From 10 to September 13, 1952 met for the first time, as part of the European Coal and Steel Community ( ECSC), a parliamentary assembly, consisting of 78 national deputies who were elected by the national parliaments. The Christian Democrats presented in this meeting 38 MPs and thus reached 48.7 % of the seats. On June 23, 1953, she founded the " Christian-Democratic Group ", whose first chairman of the Dutch Emmanuel Sassen was. The German Hans Joachim Opitz was elected on 1 January 1954 for the first General of the Group. On 11 May, Alcide De Gasperi, also a member of the Christian Democratic faction, elected the first President of Parliament.

After the founding of the European People's Party in 1979 named the Group into " EPP " to. Decided in 1992, the MEPs of the European Democrats (especially the conservative parties from the UK and Denmark as well as some members of the French UDF), the EPP to join as associate members. This thus increased to 162 members and changed its name to the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP- ED). Since the European elections of 1999 she was consistently the strongest group in the European Parliament. However, after the 2009 European elections, the alliance fell apart again, so that the EPP again formed only a fraction.

Chairman of the EPP Group

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