European Christian Political Movement

European Christian Political Movement
AbbreviationECPM
PresidentValeriu Ghilețchi (MD, RO)
Secretary-GeneralMaarten van de Fliert (NL)
FoundedNovember 2002; 22 years ago (2002-11)
HeadquartersBergstraat 33, 3811 NG Amersfoort, Netherlands
Think tankSallux
Youth wingECPYouth
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing
European Parliament groupEuropean Conservatives and Reformists Group[1] (SGP, PNCR)
European People's Party Group (Family Party)
Patriots for Europe (LPV)
Colours  Green
  Blue
European Parliament
5 / 720
European Council
0 / 27
European Commission
0 / 27
Website
ecpm.info Edit this at Wikidata

The European Christian Political Movement (ECPM) is a European political party exclusively working on promoting what it perceives as Christian values.[3] The party unites national parties and individuals from across Europe who share policies influenced by Christianity, largely following the ideals of Christian democracy. The member parties are generally socially conservative and Eurosceptic.

The party was founded in November 2002 in Lakitelek, Hungary. It elected its first board in January 2005, and was registered in the Netherlands in September 2005. The first ECPM president was Peeter Võsu of the Party of Estonian Christian Democrats. The movement brings together over fifty Christian-Democratic political parties, NGOs, think-tanks and individual politicians from over twenty countries within EU and beyond. Youth movements are united in ECPYouth. The youth organisation started in 2004 and elected its first board in the summer of 2005.

During the 2014–2019 term, ECPM had six Members of the European Parliament (MEPs): Peter van Dalen of Christian Union (NL), Bas Belder of the Dutch Reformed Party (SGP) (NL), Branislav Škripek of Kresťanská únia [sk] (SK), Arne Gericke of Bündnis C (DE), Marek Jurek of Right Wing of the Republic (PL) and Kazimierz Ujazdowski (PL). All six MEPs sat with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

After the 2019 European Parliament election, the party got three seats in the EP: Peter van Dalen of the Christian Union, Bert-Jan Ruissen of the SGP, and Helmut Geuking of the Family Party of Germany. Peter Van Dalen and Helmut Geuking sit with the European People's Party Group while Bert-Jan Ruissen sits with the ECR. A fourth MEP, Cristian Terheș, member of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party in Romania, joined the party in May 2020.[4]

  1. ^ a b c Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  2. ^ Costa, Olivier; Brack, Nathalie (29 April 2016). How the EU Really Works. Routledge. p. 120. ISBN 9781317120735.
  3. ^ "European Christian Political Movement - What ECPM is all about". ECPM.
  4. ^ "PSD a pierdut un europarlamentar. Cristian Terheș a trecut la grupul extremiștilor din Parlamentul European". digi24.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 12 May 2020.