European Election win for the European People's Party: for the 3rd time running, the EPP is the driving force of the European Parliament

For the third time in a row, European citizens have placed their trust in the European People's Party and its member parties to make their parliamentary representatives the most influential European parliamentary Group for the 2009-2014 parliamentary term. With some 260 seats, the EPP is, by far, the largest political Group in the European Parliament.

They have decided to make the road map from the EPP manifesto for the next five years their own.

The message that European citizens want to pass to their politicians is crystal clear: they must put ambition and political will back at the heart of European action to meet the daily concerns of citizens and to ensure Europe's place in the world.

The EPP political family has already demonstrated in the past that this is possible.

Throughout European history, from Europe's Founding Fathers to the recent French Presidency of the European Union, we have shown that the values embodied by the EPP - freedom, solidarity, responsibility, humanism - are the guarantees of progress, peace and security.

This new parliamentary term will be decisive for the European Parliament. With new, improved working methods, and the statute of co-legislator strengthened by - and we hope as quickly as possible - the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EP will be in a strategic position at the heart of European decision-making.

The EPP parliamentary Group will have a particular responsibility in Parliament in view of its position in this Institution and the weight of the challenges we face both internally and internationally.

The commitments made by the European People's Party will be upheld. We can count not only on the biggest Group in the European Parliament, but also on the Heads of State and Government and Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, who is our candidate for a new 5-year term at the helm of the Commission, and on the other Commissioners from our political family.

Political will and ambition will continue to guide our actions.