The Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats has been the largest political group in the now 785-strong European Parliament since July 1999.

288 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) sit in the EPP-ED Group, representing some 37 per cent of the total. The Group unites Christian Democrat, Conservative and other mainstream centre and centre-right political forces from across the 27-member European Union. The EPP-ED Group is the only one of the seven political groups in the Parliament to contain MEPs from all 27 Member States.

The Chairman of the EPP-ED Group is Joseph Daul MEP. He chairs its governing body - a Presidency of ten Vice-Chairmen, including a Treasurer - and speaks for the Group in keynote debates in the European Parliament. He is supported by coordinators on each of the Parliament's 20 committees and by heads of the national delegations represented in the Group. The operational needs of the Group are serviced by a Group secretariat, providing policy and organisational support. The Group runs its own think-tank - the European Ideas Network - which brings together opinion-formers from the worlds of politics, business, academia and civic society across Europe, to discuss the major policy issues facing the European Union.

Originally founded in June 1953 as the Christian Democrat Group in the embryonic Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (comprised of nominated members of national parliaments), the Group has been centrally involved at every stage in the history of the European Union, from its earliest beginnings to date.

Very many of the parties represented in the EPP-ED Group also belong to the European People's Party, the first-ever transnational political party to be formed at European level. Others form the European Democrats and sit as allied Members of the Group. All work together to resist the political priorities of the left in Europe and to advance the goal of a more competitive and democratic Europe, closer to its citizens.

As the largest political group in a Parliament where non-socialist parties now enjoy a clear majority, the EPP-ED Group is in a stronger position than any other to set that body's political agenda and to win its most critical votes. This strength is reflected in the fact that, since 1999, the EPP-ED Group has been on the winning side of more votes than any other group in the European Parliament's monthly plenary sessions.

Strength of numbers also ensures that EPP-ED Group Members hold a range of key positions within the Parliament - including the chairmanships of nine of the EP's 22 committees or subcommittees, seven of its 14 Vice-Presidencies, and three of its five Quaestorships. Within the parliamentary committees, EPP-ED Group Members are best placed to secure the right to author the EP's position on key pieces of draft legislation and other major reports: the Group gets more of these rapporteurships on more important subjects, than any other group.

In seeking to maximise its influence, the EPP-ED Group has been able to draw on the fact that the European Parliament has become an increasingly powerful political institution within the European Union system.

Source: http://www.epp-ed.eu/home/en/aboutus.asp