EUDemocrats

For other uses, see European Democrats (disambiguation).

EUDemocrats - Alliance for a Europe of Democracies EUDemokraten - Allianz für ein Europa der Demokratien UEDémocrates - Alliance pour une Europe des Démocraties Demokratiċi Ewropew - Alleanza għall-Ewropa tad-Demokratiċi
President	Patricia McKenna
Founded	November 8, 2005 (2005-11-08)
Headquarters	113-115, rue du Trône/Troonlaan, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Ideology	Eurorealism, Euroscepticism
International affiliation	None
European Parliament Group	Independence and Democracy
Official colours	Orange and blue
Website
www.eudemocrats.org
Politics of the European Union Political parties Elections

The EUDemocrats (EUD) – Alliance for a Europe of Democracies – is a eurorealist alliance of parties and movements from 15 European countries. It operates as a transnational party at a European level (European political party), according to Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003. 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.

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. Helmer and Hannan left EUD in October 2009 to join the newly formed Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. Since 2010, EUD has one member in the European Parliament: Søren Søndergaard, who sits as an associate member of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group.

Eight members of national and regional parliaments from six countries are also affiliated to the EUD network. (March 2009)

Political Platform

The political aim of the EUDemocrats is to reform the present structures of the European Union. According to its political platform, 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:

• enhancing transparency on all political levels, especially in the EU by giving citizens insight into all documents and meetings;
• strengthen real subsidiarity in the EU thus taking decisions at the lowest political level possible;
• improving democracy and accountability by reforming EU institutions and structures making them function more democratically;
• defending diversity in the EU by making it possible for member states to implement politics according to their national reality and by promoting flexible cooperation instead of fixed harmonisation.

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.

Recent activity

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.

Membership

Finland:

• Gun-Mari Lindholm member of the Parliament of Åland
• Danne Sundman member of the Parliament of Åland

France:

• Arise the Republic (Debout la République) 2 MPs: Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and François-Xavier Villain

Ireland:

• National Platform
• People's Movement

Italy:

• Euro Sceptic Party (Euro Scettici – Partito Animalista Italiano)

Latvia:

• Party of Action (Ricibas Partija)
• Normunds Grostins

Portugal:

• New Democracy (Portugal) (Partido Da Nova Democracia) 1 member of the Parliament of Madeira: Baltazar Aguiar

Slovakia:

• Direct Democracy (Slovakia) (Priama Demokracia - Hnutie Domova)
• Vladimir Kostilnik member of the regional parliament of Prešov
• Rudolf Kusy member of the regional parliament of Bratislava
• Peter Kopecký

Slovenia:

• June List (Slovenia) (Junijska lista)
• EUD Slovenia
• Gorazd Drevensek

Sweden:

• June List (Junilistan)

Literature

• Laure Neumayer: Euroscepticism as a political label; in: European Journal of Political Research 2/2007.
• Géraud de Ville: Eurosceptics are Eurocritics or Eurorealists; in: Politeia 10/2007.

External links

• EUDemocrats official site
• Independence and Democracy group in the European Parliament official site
• EUD blog
• EUD Malta official site
• European Referendum Campaign official site
• Article by Géraud de Ville in Politeia: Eurosceptics are Eurocritics or Eurorealists.
• Article by Jens-Peter Bonde in the EUObserver: New composition of the European Parliament should be a wake-up call.