A Different Vision for Europe
By the mid-2000s, an important political space had opened up in Europe.
All too often, the choice was presented as being between ever deeper integration and rejecting European cooperation altogether. What was missing was a strong centre-right and conservative voice advocating a different approach: cooperation between European nations where it adds real value, combined with respect for national democracy, subsidiarity, economic freedom, and responsibility.
The ECR was created to fill this political space.
From the beginning, the ECR stood for a different approach to Europe: cooperation where it adds value, without unnecessary centralisation.
In 2005, Europe’s direction was called into question when the proposed European Constitution was rejected in France and the Netherlands, showing that concerns about the direction of European integration could no longer be ignored.
2006, the case for reform takes shape: European conservatives begin building a reform movement around the idea of a less centralised, more flexible and more democratically accountable European Union.
2009: THE ECR IS FOUNDED
The ECR Group is founded with 54 MEPs from eight Member States. Its founding parties adopt the Prague Declaration, setting out the principles that would define the new Group, including economic freedom and competitiveness, national sovereignty, subsidiarity, democratic accountability, controlled immigration, energy security and opposition to excessive bureaucracy.
The new Group begins life in difficult circumstances. Changes to Parliament’s rules had raised the threshold for establishing political groups, while the ECR also faced attempts at political isolation within the Parliament. Keeping the new Group together and establishing it as a durable political force was therefore an achievement in its own right.
2011–2012: BREAKING THROUGH
As the ECR establishes itself, it begins to gain greater institutional recognition. In 2011, for the first time, an ECR Member is elected Vice-President of the European Parliament, marking an important step in the Group’s development.
2014: PARLIAMENT’S THIRD-LARGEST GROUP
Following the 2014 European elections, the ECR grows to 70 MEPs and becomes the third-largest political group in the European Parliament.
2016, BREXIT EXPOSES THE NEED FOR REFORM
The UK’s vote to leave the European Union demonstrates the consequences of allowing concerns about democratic accountability, sovereignty, and excessive centralisation to go unanswered.
For the ECR, Brexit makes meaningful European reform more urgent than ever.
2019: A EUROPEAN MOVEMENT BUILT TO LAST
Ten years after its foundation, the ECR enters a new phase. With new parties joining from across Europe, the Group demonstrates that its conservative and reformist project has developed into a lasting and genuinely European political force.
2024: A STRONGER VOICE FOR REFORM
The ECR emerges from the European elections strengthened, with many of its long-standing priorities — such as competitiveness, secure borders, energy security, subsidiarity and less regulation — increasingly at the centre of European political debate.
2026: A TURNING POINT ON MIGRATION
The ECR helps deliver tougher EU rules on returns and safe countries of origin, advancing long-standing priorities on stronger borders, faster procedures and effective returns.
More relevant than ever
The principles on which the ECR was founded have always been at the heart of what we do: national democracy, subsidiarity, competitiveness, controlled immigration, responsible government, and an EU that focuses on areas where it can genuinely add value.
Today, these principles are more relevant than ever.
A truly European political force
The ECR Group now brings together 84 MEPs from 18 EU member states: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden.