The European Democratic Alliance (EDA) was a heterogeneous
political group in the European Parliament between 1984 and 1995. It consisted mainly of deputies from the French
Gaullist
Gaullism ( ) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withdrew French forces from t ...
Rally for the Republic
The Rally for the Republic ( ; RPR ) was a Gaullist and conservative political party in France. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR), it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaul ...
(RPR) and the Irish
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland.
Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...
. The grouping had a generally
centre-right
Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...
outlook, and strongly defended the European Union's
Common Agricultural Policy
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Commission. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce ...
.
History
Following the
1984 elections, the Group of
European Progressive Democrats
The Group of European Progressive Democrats was a heterogeneous political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1973 and 1984. It was mostly composed of French Gaullists and Irish Fianna Fáil.
History
The Gaullists had split from ...
renamed itself on 24 July 1984
to the
Group of the European Democratic Alliance
The European Democratic Alliance (EDA) was a heterogeneous political group in the European Parliament between 1984 and 1995. It consisted mainly of deputies from the French Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR) and the Irish Fianna Fáil. The gro ...
.
The European Democratic Alliance merged with the
Forza Europa group (dominated by MEPs from
Forza Italia
(FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...
) to become the "Group
Union for Europe
The Union for Europe (UFE) was a conservative political group that operated in the European Parliament from 1995 to 1999. At its height in May 1999, it had 34 MEPs and it only existed during the European Parliament's 4th term.
UFE was formed ...
" on 6 July 1995.
Nomenclature
The name of the group in English is ''Group of the European Democratic Alliance''
in long form, ''European Democratic Alliance''
in short form, and the abbreviation is ''EDA''.
The equivalents in French are ''Groupe du Rassemblement des Démocrates Européens'', ''Rassemblement des Démocrates Européens'', and ''RDE''.
Those French equivalents are sometimes rendered in English as ''Union of European Democrats'' and ''UED''.
Composition
1984–1989
1989–1994
1994–1995
Sources
Europe Politiqueref name="t1s8">
ref name="t1s6">
European Parliament MEP Archivesref name="t1s33">
on th
European Parliament website
/ref>
Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
ref name="t1s1">
*
CVCE
The Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe (French language, French for "Virtual Centre for Knowledge on Europe "; abbreviated CVCE) is an interdisciplinary research and documentation centre dedicated to European integration studies. It ...
(Previously European NAvigator)
References
{{European Parliament groups
Former European Parliament party groups
Conservatism in Europe