At Europe's Service The Origins and Evolution of the European People
The European People's Party, the largest political party in Europe, has roots that run deep in history. Founded in 1976 as a Christian Democratic federation, the European People's Party is now a strong centre-right movement and a leading European politica
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Thomas Jansen • Steven Van Hecke
At Europe’s Service The Origins and Evolution of the European People’s Party
Thomas Jansen [email protected]
Dr. Steven Van Hecke University of Antwerp Sint-Jacobstraat 2 2000 Antwerp Belgium [email protected]
Centre for European Studies, Rue du Commerce 20, B-1000 Brussels The Centre for European Studies (CES) is the official think-tank of the European People’s Party dedicated to the promotion of Christian Democrat, Conservative and like-minded political values. For more information please visit the CES website: www.thinkingeurope.eu.
This publication receives funding from the European Parliament. The European Parliament assumes no responsibility for facts or opinions expressed in this publication or their subsequent use.
ISBN 978-3-642-19413-9 e-ISBN 978-3-642-19414-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-19414-6 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011927265 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH Photograph on the cover: European People’s Party 2009 Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
This year the European People’s Party (EPP) celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary – an excellent moment to look back on what has been achieved thus far. From its birth on 8 July 1976 as the Federation of Christian Democratic parties of the European Communities, the EPP has been a factor in shaping European integration. At the time of its origins, it was one of three partly overlapping party organisations of Europe’s centre right, along with the older, continental European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD) and the European Democratic Union (EDU), a loose association of rightof-centre parties. It was by no means clear in 1976 that by the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century the EPP would have grown far beyond its original Christian Democratic core, absorbing the other two organisations and continuing as the strongest political force, both in the European Parliament (EP) and in most of the European Union Member States. Consequently, it has not only become the definitive party family on the c
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