The European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats is a group in the European Parliament. It comprises the European People's Party and the non-party subgroup European Democrats (not to be confused with the centrist European Democratic Party). The abbreviated name is EPP-ED Group.
The EPP-ED Group is a parliamentary faction of Christian democrat and conservative parliamentarians. Virtually all parties represented in the EPP-ED Group belong to the European People's Party (EPP), the first-ever transnational political party to be formed at European level. The remaining parliamentarians, namely the United Kingdom Conservative Party and the Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS) form the European Democrats and sit as allied Members of the Group.
Previously called the 'EPP Group', the EPP-ED nomenclature was adopted in 1999 to accommodate the institutional reservations of the British Conservative Party. After the European Parliament elections in 1999, it became the largest faction with 233 of the 626 seats. After the elections of 2004 elections, it remained the largest party group with 268 of the 732 seats. Since the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU in January 2007, it now has 277 of the 785 seats (35%).
The present chair of the EPP–ED Group is French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Joseph Daul, who was elected to that post on 9 January 2007.
On 13 July 2006, David Cameron, the leader of the British Conservative Party, and Czech Prime Minister-designate Mirek Topolánek, leader of the Civic Democratic Party, announced that their parties will leave the EPP-ED Group and form the Movement for European Reform following the European Parliament elections in 2009. Nevertheless, this attempt has remained limited to these two parties and has been snubbed by all major EPP member-parties. Most analysts doubt that Mr Cameron will be able to surpass the threshold values of MEPs needed from at least six nations, which is required for formal recognition and receipt of funding by the European Parliament.

Chairmen

Political parties of the world
Members of the European Parliament 2004-2009