Europeans United for Democracy

Europeans United for Democracy - Alliance for a Europe of Democracies
President Patricia McKenna
Founded 8 November 2005 (2005-11-08)
Headquarters 113-115, rue du Trône/Troonlaan, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Ideology Euroscepticism[1]
Eurorealism
Political position Big tent
European Parliament group European United Left/Nordic Green Left,
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Colours Orange and blue
Website
www.europeansunitedfordemocracy.org www.eudemocrats.org

Europeans United for Democracy - Alliance for a Europe of Democracies, formerly known as EUDemocrats, is a Eurosceptic[2][3][4] and self-described eurorealist alliance of parties[5] and movements from 15 European countries. It operates as a transnational party at a European level (European political party),[6] according to Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003.[7] It incorporates members from both the centre-left and the centre-right of the political spectrum.

Overview

The party was set up under Danish law on 7 November 2005 and founded as a European Party in Brussels on 8 November 2005. Its first congress was held on 24 February 2006. Former Danish MEPs Jens-Peter Bonde and Hanne Dahl inspired the EUD’s creation and first years. In January 2009, Swedish economist and former MEP Sören Wibe succeeded Bonde as President of the EUD. Following Wibe's sudden death in December 2010, former Irish Green MEP Patricia McKenna was named president of the EUD and Lave Knud Broch from People's Movement against the EU as vice president.

The EUD’s platform is not concerned with matters of right or left wing ideology because it believes that such issues are best considered by national and regional parliaments under their citizens’ democratic control. It is committed to enhancing transparency, subsidiarity, diversity and most importantly budget control in the European Union.

In 2009, four of its affiliated MEPs were members of the Independence and Democracy group in the European Parliament. Also, two affiliated MEPs - Roger Helmer and Daniel Hannan, both British Conservatives - sat as independents. Hannan left EUD in October 2009 to join the newly formed Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, while Helmer defected from the British Conservatives to British party UKIP. From 2010 to 2014 EUD had one member in the European Parliament: Rina Ronja Kari (replaced Søren Søndergaard 5 February 2014), who sits as an associate member of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group. In the 2014 European Parliament elections two EUD members Rina Ronja Kari and Iveta Grigule were elected.

Ten members of national and regional parliaments from ten countries are also members of the EUD.(2014)

Political platform

The political aim of the EUDemocrats is to reform the present structures of the European Union. According to its political platform,[8] the EUD believes that decisions should be made at the lowest possible level (subsidiarity), thus giving an effective voice to the citizens of member states, regions and national minorities. It aims to unite those who are critical of the EU for its undemocratic development and its ever-more centralising political features.

The EUD is opposed to the centralisation of political power in EU institutions, and demands democratic scrutiny and control over EU institutional powers and actions by national and regional assemblies.

Its four political core objectives are:

The operational aim of EUD is to act as an effective political platform and campaigning organisation which is able to influence pan-European politics towards extending democratic structures in the EU. The EUD also seeks to have candidates elected in European elections from both center-right and center-left that share its core eurorealist political ideas and thus influence politics in the European Parliament itself.

Campaigns

In March 2011, the EUDemocrats launched a campaign against the idea of direct-tax income for the European Union (including a tax on citizens, the banking sector, or the air traffic sector. The campaign was launched as www.noeutax.com.

In an effort to bring balance to the euro debate in the Baltics, EUDemocrats has started a Latvian web information campaign at www.parlatu.lv.

Membership

 Belgium:

 Denmark:

 Finland:

 France:

 Ireland:

 Italy:

 Latvia:

 Slovakia:

 Slovenia:

 Sweden:

Notes

  1. ↑ Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck
  2. ↑ Rafal Pankowski (25 February 2010). The Populist Radical Right in Poland: The Patriots. Routledge. pp. 149–. ISBN 978-1-135-15097-6.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Bomberg; John Peterson; Richard Corbett (2012). The European Union: How Does it Work?. Oxford University Press. pp. 155–. ISBN 978-0-19-957080-5.
  4. ↑ Oskar Niedermayer (1 May 2013). Handbuch Parteienforschung. Springer. pp. 831–. ISBN 978-3-531-18932-1.
  5. ↑ Article by Géraud de Ville in Politeia (10/2007): Eurosceptics are Eurocritics or Eurorealists;
  6. ↑ "Political parties at European level". Europarl.europa.eu. 29 March 2004. Retrieved 2011-01-03.
  7. ↑ http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2003R2004:20071227:EN:PDF
  8. ↑ EUD Political Platform http://www.eudemocrats.org/eud/content.php?id=18

References

External links

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