"Dear friends,

"For the past seven years, I have the honour and the privilege to serve as the Secretary General of the European People’s Party. So far, this has been an extraordinary experience for me.

"When I became Secretary General, the EPP and all other European-level parties were struggling to establish the proper legal framework in order to be able to function in a comprehensive and effective manner with the EU institutions, on the one hand, and the ntional member-parties, on the other.

"We’ve come a long way since then. Not only is the legal framework in place, but also the EPP is now horizontally engaged with all the main EU institutions. In the past, our main focus was to organize meetings prior to the European Council with our Prime Ministers in what is known as the EPP Summit. Now, the EPP has expanded its work in the Council with what we call the EPP Ministerial meetings. The EPP currently runs a total of 10 Ministerial meetings: EcoFin, Foreign Affairs, Energy, Employment, Environment, Agriculture, Labour and Social Affairs, Defence, Justice and Home Affairs, and Transport.

"The EPP also organizes meetings with the EPP members of the Commission, which currently number 13, and its President, Jose Manuel Barroso, was the official candidate of the EPP in both 2004 and 2009.

"The EPP also has the mandate to organize pan-European campaigns for the European elections. In 2009 we launched our first Europe-wide campaign, which was humble but effective and victorious. In 2014 we will have the experience and the means to have a broader and even more effective campaign.

"Our new web platform aspires to spearhead our campaign efforts. We look forward to having you take action with us!

Antonio López Istúriz
EPP Secretary General, MEP
 

Welcome video: