European Democrat Students
 |
|
| Formation | 1961 |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Headquarters | Rue du Commerce 10, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium |
|
Chairman
|
Georgios Chatzigeorgiou |
|
Secretary General
|
Ivan Burazin |
|
Parent organization
|
European People's Party (also European Democrat Union) |
| Affiliations | International Young Democrat Union |
| Website | www |
European Democrat Students (EDS) is a pan-European centre-right student and youth political association, and the official student organisation of the European People's Party. Founded in Vienna by Scandinavian, German and Austrian students in 1961, it represents over 1.600.000 students and young people in 40 member organisations from 35 countries in Europe, and is the largest youth organisation in Europe.
Its stated goal is to promote a free, democratic and united Europe through a greater student mobility and comprehensive education policies across the continent. European Democrat Students has been always a frontrunner in integration, fighting for open borders, united Europe and European debate in European politics. The three pillars of EDS originally stood for conservatism, liberalism and christian democracy. Today, EDS grew into a large family which has an outlook that is various, rich and unique, represented by the name 'Democrat': Here, student organisations, political youth organisations and other centre-right organisations come together to shape modern centre-right policies for Europe.
In 1958, a group of Swedish students, members of the Conservative Student League of Sweden, travelled to Vienna, Prague and West Berlin, where they attended the annual meeting of the Association of Christian Democratic Students. A cooperation between the Swedish and West German students was initiated, that was soon extended to include student organisations from the rest of Scandinavia and the United Kingdom.
In response to increasing activities of communist organisations, the liberal-conservative and christian democratic student organisations from these countries saw a need for stronger international cooperation among democratic student organisations in Europe. When the communist International Union of Students organised the "7th World Youth Festival" in Vienna in 1959, christian democratic and liberal-conservative students established the organisation Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neues Leben (Action Committee New Life), the first international organisation of centre-right students in Europe. The new organisation distributed pins with the text "Remember Hungary 1956!"
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Wikipedia