Posted on 31 July 2018
Maria Pia Di Nonno, PhD student at 'La Sapienza’ University in Rome is receiving this year’s EPP Group Postgraduate Research Grant on Christian Democracy and European Integration.
Di Nonno is the third person awarded this grant, offered by the Group of the European People's Party in the European Parliament (EPP Group). Her research entitled “Role of Christian Democratic Women in the European integration process” aims to shed light on the women elected in the first European elections with universal suffrage in 1979. More specifically the research looks at the number of Christian Democrat women elected, as well as, their role and level of engagement in the European Parliament.
Di Nonno argues that although very few women were present in the European Parliament during this time (16%), their presence was extremely important. With the European elections 2019 fast approaching, she hopes this aspect of European integration history could provide useful insights.
The EPP Group and the Historical Archives of the European Union established the EPP Grant programme in 2016. It supports researchers engaged in research on the history and role of Christian Democracy and its impact on decisive moments in the process of European integration.
Through this grant programme, researchers get access to the historical documents deposited at the Historical Archives in Florence, at the EPP Group’s archives in Brussels and at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) in Sankt Augustin, Bonn.