The European Democrat Group (EDG) is a conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

 group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , which held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, can be considered the oldest international parliamentary assembly with a pluralistic composition of democratically elected members of parliament established on the basis of an...

. It was originally founded as the Group of Independent Representatives in 1970 by British and Scandinavian members of PACE, having about 35-40 members from the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Turkey, Sweden and Switzerland.

While it was only the third group to be founded in PACE (after the Socialist Group

Socialist Group

The Socialist Group is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The group comprises of 180 members from 45 states of the Council of Europe. The Group is chaired by Andreas Gross of Switzerland....

 and the Christian Democrat Group), it was the first to have an official secretariat, which was established in 1977. On 6 July 1978, a proposal to rename the group was submitted, leading to the official new name in September 1980.

Membership

As of 24 September 2011, the EDG has the following members:

Country	Party name	Members	Other affiliations
			Europarty	EU Parliament	International
Armenia	Republican Party of Armenia Republican Party of Armenia The Republican Party of Armenia is a national conservative political party in Armenia. It was the first political party in independent Armenia to be founded and registered . It is the largest party of the centre-right in Armenia, and claims to have 140,000 members... (part)	1	None	N/A	None
Azerbaijan	New Azerbaijan Party New Azerbaijan Party The New Azerbaijan Party is the ruling political party in Azerbaijan. It was formed on 18 December 1992 by the former President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, who led it until his retirement and death in 2003...	4	None	N/A	None
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Serbian Democratic Party	1	None	N/A	None
Czech Republic	Civic Democratic Party	5	AECR Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to AECR, is a centre-right anti-federalist European political party defending broader conservative and classical liberal principles. It consists of twelve parties in nine EU member states and Iceland...	ECR European Conservatives and Reformists The European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to ECR, is a conservative anti-federalist political group in the European Parliament. The group currently comprises 57 MEPs, making it the fourth-largest group in the European Parliament....	IDU International Democrat Union The International Democrat Union, abbreviated to IDU, is a centre-right international alliance of conservative and liberal-conservative political parties. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, the IDU comprises 45 full or associate members...
Czech Republic	Public Affairs Public Affairs (political party) Public Affairs , abbreviated to VV, is a conservative liberal political party in the Czech Republic. Led by anti-establishment investigative journalist and writer Radek John, its main platform is transparency and opposing political corruption. It has 24 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.Besides... (part)	1	None	N/A	None
Denmark	Danish People's Party Danish People's Party The Danish People's Party is a political party in Denmark which is frequently described as right-wing populist by political scientists and commentators. The party is led by Pia Kjærsgaard...	2	None	EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. Formed after the European parliamentary election in 2009, it is mostly made up of elements of the now defunct Independence/Democracy and Union for a Europe of Nations groups from the out-going...	None
Georgia (country)	European Democrats	1	None	N/A	None
Greece	Popular Orthodox Rally Popular Orthodox Rally The Popular Orthodox Rally or The People's Orthodox Rally , often abbreviated to ΛΑ.Ο.Σ as a pun on the Greek word for people, is a Greek party. According to its political program LA.O.S...	1	None	EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. Formed after the European parliamentary election in 2009, it is mostly made up of elements of the now defunct Independence/Democracy and Union for a Europe of Nations groups from the out-going...	None
Italy	Lega Nord	4	None	EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. Formed after the European parliamentary election in 2009, it is mostly made up of elements of the now defunct Independence/Democracy and Union for a Europe of Nations groups from the out-going...	None
Italy	The People of Freedom The People of Freedom The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system.... (part)	4	EPP European People's Party The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...	EPP	None
Lithuania	Order and Justice	1	None	EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. Formed after the European parliamentary election in 2009, it is mostly made up of elements of the now defunct Independence/Democracy and Union for a Europe of Nations groups from the out-going...	None
Norway	Progress Party Progress Party (Norway) The Progress Party is a political party in Norway which identifies as conservative liberal and libertarian. The media has described it as conservative and right-wing populist...	2	None	N/A	None
Poland	Law and Justice Law and Justice Law and Justice , abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing, conservative political party in Poland. With 147 seats in the Sejm and 38 in the Senate, it is the second-largest party in the Polish parliament....	8	AECR Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to AECR, is a centre-right anti-federalist European political party defending broader conservative and classical liberal principles. It consists of twelve parties in nine EU member states and Iceland...	ECR European Conservatives and Reformists The European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to ECR, is a conservative anti-federalist political group in the European Parliament. The group currently comprises 57 MEPs, making it the fourth-largest group in the European Parliament....	None
Poland	Poland Comes First Poland Comes First Poland Comes First , also rendered as Poland is the Most Important, and abbreviated to PJN, is a centre-right, conservative liberal, political party in Poland. It was formed as a breakaway group from Law and Justice...	1	AECR Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to AECR, is a centre-right anti-federalist European political party defending broader conservative and classical liberal principles. It consists of twelve parties in nine EU member states and Iceland...	ECR European Conservatives and Reformists The European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to ECR, is a conservative anti-federalist political group in the European Parliament. The group currently comprises 57 MEPs, making it the fourth-largest group in the European Parliament....	None
Portugal	Democratic and Social Centre – People's Party	1	EPP European People's Party The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...	EPP	IDU International Democrat Union The International Democrat Union, abbreviated to IDU, is a centre-right international alliance of conservative and liberal-conservative political parties. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, the IDU comprises 45 full or associate members...
Russia	United Russia United Russia United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...	24	None	N/A	CDI Centrist Democrat International The Centrist Democrat International was until 2001 the Christian Democrat International and before that the Christian Democrat and People's Parties International...
Russia	Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Liberal Democratic Party of Russia The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Liberal'no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii is a political party in Russia. Since its founding in 1991, it has been led by the charismatic and controversial figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky... (part)	3	None	N/A	None
Slovakia	Slovak National Party	2	None	EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy is a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. Formed after the European parliamentary election in 2009, it is mostly made up of elements of the now defunct Independence/Democracy and Union for a Europe of Nations groups from the out-going...	None
Slovenia	Slovenian National Party Slovenian National Party The Slovenian National Party is a extreme nationalist political party in Slovenia, led by Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti. The party is renowned for its euroscepticism and opposes Slovenia's membership in NATO...	1	None	N/A	None
Turkey	Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party (Turkey) The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament... (part)	8	EPP European People's Party The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...	N/A	None
Turkey	Nationalist Movement Party Nationalist Movement Party The Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...	4	None	N/A	None
Ukraine	Party of Regions Party of Regions The Party of Regions is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine. It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others... (part)	2	None	N/A	None
United Kingdom	Conservative Party Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...	17	AECR Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to AECR, is a centre-right anti-federalist European political party defending broader conservative and classical liberal principles. It consists of twelve parties in nine EU member states and Iceland...	ECR European Conservatives and Reformists The European Conservatives and Reformists, abbreviated to ECR, is a conservative anti-federalist political group in the European Parliament. The group currently comprises 57 MEPs, making it the fourth-largest group in the European Parliament....	IDU International Democrat Union The International Democrat Union, abbreviated to IDU, is a centre-right international alliance of conservative and liberal-conservative political parties. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, the IDU comprises 45 full or associate members...
United Kingdom	Democratic Unionist Party Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...	1	None	Non-Inscrits Non-Inscrits Non-Inscrits are Members of the European Parliament who do not sit in one of the recognized political groups....	None
One of the three members of the Republican Party of Armenia sit with the EDG. The other two members sit with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. One of the two members of Public Affairs sits with the EDG. The other member sits with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Four of the fourteen members of the People of Liberty sit with the EDG. The other ten members sit with the European People's Party European People's Party The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of... . Three of the four members of Liberal Democratic Party sit with EDG. The other member sits with the Socialist Group Socialist Group The Socialist Group is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The group comprises of 180 members from 45 states of the Council of Europe. The Group is chaired by Andreas Gross of Switzerland.... . Eight of the fifteen members of the Justice and Development Party sit with the EDG. The other seven sit with the European People's Party European People's Party The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of... . Two of the eight members of Party of Regions sit with the EDG. Four sit with the Socialist Group and two sit with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Unaffiliated members: Andrey Molchanov, Alexander Pochinok, Ganira Pashayeva

Ganira Pashayeva

Ganira Pashayeva, is a Member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan -Life:Born in the village of Düz Qırıqlı of Tovuz Rayon, March 24, 1975; Graduated from the Pediatrics Department at Azerbaijan State Medical University, and the Department of International Law at Azerbaijan State University in...