European People's Party Group

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; further, on 23 June 1953 the constituent declaration of the group was published and the group was officially formed. To counter this, the EPP expanded its remit to cover the centre-right regardless of tradition and pursued a policy of integrating liberal-conservative parties. and finally left following the 2009 elections, when the Czech Civic Democratic Party and British Conservative Party formed their own right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) group on 22 June 2009, abolishing the European Democrats subgroup from that date. The EPP-ED Group reverted to its original name – the EPP Group – immediately. 7th European Parliament (2009) In the 7th European Parliament, the EPP Group remained the largest parliamentary group with 275 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 was the only member state to not be represented in the group; this state of affairs ceased temporarily on 28 February 2018, when two MEPs suspended from the British Conservative Party left the ECR Group and joined the EPP. The two MEPs later joined a breakaway political party in the UK, The Independent Group. 8th European Parliament (2014) After twelve member parties in the EPP called for Hungary's Fidesz's expulsion or suspension, Fidesz's membership was suspended with a common agreement on 20 March 2019. The suspension was applied only to the EPP but not to its group in the Parliament. On 3 March 2021, Fidesz decided to leave the EPP group, after the group's new rules, however still kept their membership in the party. On 18 March 2021, Fidesz decided to leave the European People's Party. 9th European Parliament (2019) In the 9th European Parliament, the EPP won 182 seats out of a total of 751. They formed a coalition with Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and Renew Europe to elect Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission. 10th European Parliament (2024) On June 18, 6 new parties joined the group, including the Hungarian Respect and Freedom Party (TISZA) and their 7 MEPs, the Dutch Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) and Czech Mayors and Independents (STAN), each with 2 MEPs, as well as the Danish Liberal Alliance, Dutch New Social Contract (NSC), and the German Family Party, each with 1 MEP. Combined, the group expanded by 14 MEPs. Later that day, the Hungarian Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) announced their departure from the EPP Group, due to the admission of the Tisza Party. On 19 June, the group re-elected Manfred Weber as chairman of the group, and the 10 vice-chairpersons. ==Membership at formation==

The 38 members in the group on 11 September 1952 were as follows: ==Structure==

Organisation The EPP Group is governed by a collective (referred to as the Presidency) that allocates tasks. The Presidency consists of the Group Chair and a maximum of ten Vice-Chairs, including the Treasurer. The day-to-day running of the EPP Group is performed by its secretariat in the European Parliament, led by its Secretary-General. The Group runs its own think-tank, the European Ideas Network, which brings together opinion-formers from across Europe to discuss issues facing the European Union from a centre-right perspective. The EPP Group Presidency includes: The chairs of the group and its predecessors from 1952 to 2024 are as follows: == MEPs ==

10th European Parliament 9th European Parliament Former members 7th and 8th European Parliament ==Activities==

In the news Activities performed by the group in the period between June 2004 and June 2008 include monitoring elections in Palestine and Ukraine; encouraging transeuropean rail travel, telecoms deregulation, energy security, a common energy policy, the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Union, partial reform of the CAP and attempts to tackle illegal immigration; denouncing Russian involvement in South Ossetia; supporting the Constitution Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty; debating globalisation, relations with China, and Taiwan; backing plans to outlaw Holocaust denial; nominating Anna Politkovskaya for the 2007 Sakharov Prize; expelling Daniel Hannan from the Group; the discussion about whether ED MEPs should remain within EPP-ED or form a group of their own; criticisms of the group's approach to tackling low turnout for the 2009 elections; the group's use of the two-President arrangement; and the group's proposal to ban the Islamic Burka dress across the EU. Parliamentary activity profile for sources). The debates and votes in the European Parliament are tracked by its website and categorised by the groups that participate in them and the rule of procedure that they fall into. The results give a profile for each group by category and the total indicates the group's level of participation in Parliamentary debates. The activity profile for each group for the period 1 August 2004 to 1 August 2008 in the Sixth Parliament is given on the diagram on the right. The group is denoted in blue. Publications The group produces many publications, which can be found on its website. ==See also==