European People's Party (European Parliament Group) - History

History

The Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (the predecessor of the present day European Parliament) first met on 10 September 1952 and the first Christian Democratic group was unofficially formed the next day, with Maan Sassen as President. The group held 38 of the 78 seats, two short of an absolute majority. On 16 June 1953 the Common Assembly passed a resolution enabling the official formation of political groups, and on 23 June 1953 the constituent declaration of the group was published and the group was officially formed.

The Christian Democrat group was the biggest group at formation, but as time wore on it lost support and was the second-biggest group by the time of the 1979 elections. As the European Community expanded into the European Union, the dominant centre-right parties in the new member states were not necessarily Christian democratic, and the EPP (European People's Party, the pan-continetal political party founded in 1976 which all group members are now affiliated to) feared being sidelined. To counter this, the EPP expanded its remit to cover the centre-right regardless of tradition and pursued a policy of integrating conservative parties.

This policy lead to Greek New Democracy and Spanish People's Party MEPs joining the EPP Group. The British and Danish Conservatives tried to maintain a group of their own called the European Democrats (ED), but lack of support and the problems inherent in maintaining a small group forced ED's collapse in the 1990s, and its members crossed the floor to join the EPP Group. The parties of these MEPs also became full members of the EPP (with the exception of the British Conservatives who did not join the Party) and this consolidation process of the European centre-right throughout the 1990s with the acquisition of members from the Italian party Forza Italia. However, the consolidation was not unalloyed and a split emerged with the Eurosceptic MEPs who congregated in a subgroup within the group, also called the European Democrats (ED).

Nevertheless the consolidation held through the 1990s, assisted by the group being renamed to the European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED Group), and after the 1999 European elections the EPP-ED reclaimed its position as the largest group in the Parliament from the PES Group.

Size was not enough, however: the group did not have a majority. It continued therefore to engage in the Grand Coalition (a coalition with the PES Group, or occasionally the Liberals) to generate the majorities required by the cooperation procedure under the Single European Act. This coalition has held, although occasionally the group adopts a government-opposition dynamic with the other groups, notably during the budget crisis when it opposed the PES and brought about the resignation of the Santer Commission.

Meanwhile the parties in the European Democrats subgroup were growing restless and finally left following the 2009 elections, when the Czech Civic Democratic Party and British Conservatives formed their own right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group on 22 June 2009, abolishing the European Democrats subgroup from that date. The EPP-ED Group reverted to its original name - EPP Group - almost immediately.

The EPP Group remains for the 7th European Parliament the largest parliamentary group with 265 MEPs. It is currently the only political group in the European parliament to fully represent its corresponding European political party, i.e. the European People's Party. The United Kingdom is now the only EU member state not to have representation in the EPP Group.