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European Democratic Party

The European Democratic Party (EDP) is a centrist European political party in favour of European integration. It was initiated on April 16 2004 and formally founded on December 9 in Brussels. François Bayrou of France's UDF and Francesco Rutelli of Italy's Democracy is Freedom – Daisy serve as the first two co-presidents.

The EDP was founded in reaction to the rising influence of eurosceptic parties within European institutions. It drew pro-European centrist parties from the European People's Party to form a new centrist multinational bloc.

The reformism is another the principal standard of the party and in fact the PDE assembles center reformists in a transverse way, either if they are of social Christian or social-democratic or a mixture does not matter.

Its cofounder François Bayrou (UDF) described it as a party for people being neither conservative nor socialist, like the United States Democratic Party.

Current Members are:

Citizens' Movement for Change (Mouvement des Citoyens pour le Changement)

European Party (Ευρωπαϊκό Κόμμα), formerly New Horizons (Νέοι Ορίζοντες)

Path of Change (Cesta změny)

Democratic Movement (Mouvement démocrate), formerly Union for French Democracy (Union pour la Démocratie Française)

Marian Harkin, Independent MEP

Daisy—Democracy is Freedom (La Margherita - Democrazia è Libertà)*

Labour Party (Darbo Partija)

Popular Alliance (Alleanza Popolare)

Basque Country: & :

Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea)

*=Now merged into the Democratic Party (Partito democratico)

Between May 2006 and April 2008, Margherita was in government a core member of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's Olive Tree federation within The Union, and the Lithuanian Labour Party is the largest party in the Lithuanian Seimas.

Cooperation with ELDR

The meeting of the Parliamentary Group of the liberal European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party which took place in Brussels on July 13, 2004 approved a recommendation to unite the ELDR Group and the EDP Group into the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group. Although their MEPs currently sit together, these two European political parties remain separate parties.