Editing European Democrats (section)

===1992–1999===
On 1 May 1992,<ref name="t1s7"/> the ED (now largely composed of UK [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] members) dissolved, and its remaining members were accorded "associated party" status in the [[European People's Party Group]] (EPP Group); that is, being part of the parliamentary group without retaining actual membership in the [[European People's Party]] (EPP) itself. This was considered essential for the Conservatives, as the EPP was generally seen as quite favourable to European integration, a stance at odds with their core ideology. The Conservatives' relationship to the EPP would become a sore point in the following years, particularly for the eurosceptic general membership in Britain. Then-leader of the British Conservative Party [[William Hague]] hoped to put the issue to rest by negotiating a new arrangement in 1999 by which the EPP's parliamentary group would rebrand itself as the [[European People's Party Group|European People's Party–European Democrats]] (EPP-ED), with the "European Democrat" nomenclature returning after a seven-year hiatus.  This was intended to nominally underscore the Conservatives' status apart from the rest of EPP, and it was hoped that with the coming [[enlargement of the European Union]] numerous newly involved [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] parties, averse to the EPP proper for its perceived [[Federal Europe|European federalism]], would be willing to instead enter the ED subgroup, growing the overall alignment.