The European People’s Party (EPP) is a 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 the European parties. It has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999, the European Council since 2002 and is also by far the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission are both from the EPP. Many of the Founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that would later form the EPP. Outside the EU, the party also controls a majority in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The EPP includes major parties such as the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU), French Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Italian People of Freedom (PdL), Spanish People’s Party (PP), and Polish Civic Platform (PO), but has member parties in almost all EU states. It has no member party in the United Kingdom, as the British Conservative Party do not agree with the EPP’s federalist policies, and formed the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.
