Europeans United for Democracy

For other uses, see European Democrats (disambiguation).

Europeans United for Democracy
EUDemokraten – Allianz für ein Europa der Demokratien
UEDémocrates – Alliance pour une Europe des Démocraties
PresidentPatricia McKenna
Founded8 November 2005 (2005-11-08)
Dissolved2017
Headquarters113-115, rue du Trône/Troonlaan, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
IdeologyDecentralization[1]
Euroscepticism[2]
Eurorealism[3]
Political positionLeft-wing[4][5]
Colours  Orange
  Delft blue
Website
www.europeansunitedfordemocracy.org www.eudemocrats.org

Europeans United for Democracy – Alliance for a Europe of Democracies, formerly known as EUDemocrats, was a Eurosceptic[6][7][8] and self-described Eurorealist European political party.[9][10] It sought a radical decentralization or a complete abolition of the EU.[11] It incorporated members from both the right and the left political spectrum; however, it was dominated by left-wing parties and represented ideologically left-wing faction of Euroscepticism.[4] It functioned between 2005 and 2017.

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 founding parties of the party included the Danish June Movement from Jens-Peter Bonde (who also became the first president of the party), the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, the June List from Sweden and the Danish People's Movement Against the EU. The party had to rely on the assistance of individual Members of Parliament in order to reach the representational threshold of seven member states — these members included Roger Helmer, UK Conservative Daniel Hannan, Igor Grazin from the Estonian Reform Party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan from Arise the Republic, Sandor Leszak and Andras Ptiski from FIDESZ, Irish independent Kathy Sinnott, Klaus Buchner from the German Ecological Democratic Party and Iveta Grigule from the Latvian Farmers' Union.[12] These parties and members came from all sides of the political spectrum and were united in their criticism of the EU, although in varying degrees.[13]

Although the EUD's platform was not concerned with specific ideological matters, as it believed that such issues were best dealt with by national and regional parliaments under the democratic control of the people, the party itself was considered left-wing; David Hanley, head of the School of European Studies at Cardiff University, called it a "core statement of left-wing Euroscepticism".[4] The EUD cooperated with other left-wing European parties.[5] The party was committed to increasing transparency, subsidiarity, diversity and budgetary control in the European Union, wanting to limit the Union to a free-trade zone and a safeguard of social and environmentalist standards, with integration efforts being only optional and limited to the minimum. The EU was to be prohibited from dictating a common foreign, economic and security policy to all members, and elements of membership were to be elective, with member states able to choose to participate in the free-trade zone only, without partaking in other elements of the European Union.[12]

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 were also members of the EUD (as of 2014).

  1. ^ Gustavsson, Verker; Oxelheim, Lars; Pehrson, Lars (2009). Hur gemensam är den europeiska gemenskapen? (PDF). Årsbok för Europaforskning inom Ekonomi, Juridik och Statskunskap (in Danish). London, England: Respektive författare/Santérus Förlag. p. 236. ISBN 978-91-7359-029-7. ISSN 1403-3879.
  2. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  3. ^ Calossi, Enrico (2016). Anti-Austerity Left Parties in the European Union. Competition, Coordination, Integration. Pisa: Pisa University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-886741-6653.
  4. ^ a b c Hanley, David (2008). Beyond the Nation State: Parties in the Era of European Integration. Palgrave MacMillan. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-4039-0795-0.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference groen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Rafal Pankowski (25 February 2010). The Populist Radical Right in Poland: The Patriots. Routledge. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-135-15097-6.
  7. ^ Elizabeth Bomberg; John Peterson; Richard Corbett (2012). The European Union: How Does it Work?. Oxford University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-19-957080-5.
  8. ^ Oskar Niedermayer (1 May 2013). Handbuch Parteienforschung. Springer. p. 831. ISBN 978-3-531-18932-1.
  9. ^ de Ville, Géraud (2007). "EUDemocrats: "Eurosceptics" are "EU-critics" or "EU-reformists"". Politeia. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009.
  10. ^ "Political parties at European level". Europarl.europa.eu. 29 March 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  11. ^ Šimák, Vladislav; Novák, Miroslav; Sokol, Petr (2006). "Spolupráce politických stran na nadnárodní úrovni v Evropě a její vývoj" [Cooperation of Political Parties in the European Level and its Developtment] (PDF) (in Czech). Charles University Digital Repository. The EUDemocrats is a group of radical eurosceptics, who wants to reform radically the EU or completely abolish it.
  12. ^ a b Hanley, David (2008). Beyond the Nation State: Parties in the Era of European Integration. Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 188–190. ISBN 978-1-4039-0795-0.
  13. ^ Wolfs, Wouter (2022). European Political Parties and Party Finance Reform. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 238. ISBN 978-3030951740.