The
European Democratic Party (EDP) is a
centristIn politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...
European political partyA European political party, formally a political party at European level, informally a Europarty, is a type of political party organization operating transnationally in Europe and in the institutions of the European Union. They are regulated and funded by the European Union and are usually made up...
in favour of
European integrationEuropean integration is the process of industrial, political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe...
. It was initiated on April 16, 2004 and formally founded on December 9 in
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
François BayrouFrançois Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
of the
Union for French DemocracyThe Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
(UDF) and
Francesco Rutelli of
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
's Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy serve as the first two co-presidents.
The EDP was founded in reaction to the rising influence of
euroscepticEuroSceptic is the second album of British singer Jack Lucien. It was released in October 2009.Due to being an album influenced by Europop, it features songs with parts in different languages...
parties within European institutions. It drew
pro-EuropeanPro-European is a subjective term applied to a person who supports the idea of European unification and generally supports further 'deepening' of European integration, specifically in the context of political argument over the current and future status of the EU and its policies.-The Pro-European...
centrist parties from the
European People's PartyThe European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...
to form a new centrist multinational bloc.
Its cofounder
François BayrouFrançois Bayrou is a French centrist politician, president of Union for French Democracy since 1998 and was a candidate in the 2002 and 2007 French presidential elections. In the first round, he received 18.6% of the vote, finishing in 3rd place and therefore was eliminated from the race....
described it as a party for people being
neither conservative nor socialist, like the United States Democratic Party.
Member parties
- Citizens' Movement for Change
Citizens' Movement for Change is a Christian Democratic political party in the French Community of Belgium founded by Gérard Deprez. It is a component of the Mouvement Réformateur....
()
- European Party
The European Party is a centrist political party in Cyprus founded in 2005, largely out of the parties New Horizons and European Democracy....
(), formerly New HorizonsThe New Horizons was a political party in Cyprus.At the legislative elections, 27 May 2001, the party won 3.0 % of the popular vote and 1 out of 56 seats. In 2005, the party merged with politicians from Evropaiki Dimokratia to form Evropaiko Komma....
()
- Path of Change
Path of Change is a small liberal party in the Czech Republic. Its current president is Jiří Lobkowicz...
()
- Party for the Open Society
The Party for the Open Society is a tiny social liberal political party in the Czech Republic....
()
Basque Country
- Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...
()
- Democratic Movement
The Democratic Movement , MoDem) is a centrist, social liberal and pro-European French political party that was founded by centrist politician François Bayrou to succeed his Union for French Democracy and to contest the 2007 legislative election, after his strong showing in the 2007 presidential...
(), formerly Union for French DemocracyThe Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
()
- Alliance for Italy
Alliance for Italy is a centrist political party in Italy.The party, which is described in its manifesto as "democratic, liberal, popular" as opposed both to "right-wing populism" and the "social-democratic left, an experience with high and memorable value, yet by now run out", was launched on 11...
(), Rutelli's new party
- Labour Party
The Labour Party , or DP, is a centrist political party in Lithuania. It was founded in 2003 by the Russian-born millionaire Viktor Uspaskich....
()
- Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, formerly member of Civic Platform.-History:The party was established on April 15, 1939...
()
- People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia ()
- European Democratic Party ()
Additionally, other independent MEP's have also integrated into the EDP:
- Marian Harkin
Marian Harkin is an Irish politician and is currently a Member of the European Parliament for the North-West constituency....
, Independent MEP
Former parties
- Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy ()a
aNow merged into the Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Italy, that is the second-largest in the country. The party is led by Pier Luigi Bersani, who was elected in the 2009 leadership election....
()
European institutions
| Organisation | Institution | Number of seats |
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European Commission The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
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European Council The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy...
(Heads of Government) |
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Council of the EUThe Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...
(Participation in Government) |
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European Parliament The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
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Parliamentary AssemblyThe Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...
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Cooperation with ELDR
The meeting of the Parliamentary Group of the liberal
European Liberal Democrat and Reform PartyThe European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party is a European political party mainly active in the European Union, composed of 56 national-level liberal and liberal-democratic parties from across Europe...
which took place in
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
on July 13, 2004 approved a recommendation to unite the ELDR Group and the EDP Group into the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for EuropeThe Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe is the current liberal/centrist political group of the European Parliament...
Group. Although their
MEPsA Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
currently sit together, these two European political parties remain separate parties.