The idea of Europe at the origins of the European People’s Party : the making of the European manifesto and of the EPP’s political programme

Abstract

This article aims at reconstructing the theoretical framework, which supported the idea of Europe of the European Christian Democracy during the 1970s. I examined the works of the Ideological Commission of the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD), which elaborated the European Manifesto (1976), and of the workgroup for the political programme of the European People’s Party (EPP), issued at the end of 1977. I argue that Christian Democracy’s idea of Europe was recognizable and distinct, especially for what concerns its connections to a religious worldview, which are still ascertainable in the early stages of the EPP’s history. The Christian democratic political culture was less ideologically structured than others, but also more flexible and expendable in political negotiations. At the same time, the gap between ideas and their implementation was not negligible: cultural elaboration and political action moved at different speed, because of the role played by external factors and diverging interests at national and party level.