In the first half of the 1990s, my main task as Secretary General of the European People’s Party was to make the EPP the strongest political force in European elections for the first time. By integrating new partner parties on the basis of the Athens Program, this goal was achieved in the 1999 European elections and the basis was laid for the EPP’s dominance in the European Union for the next quarter century. Its position as the strongest political force was the basis for the Commission presidencies of José Manuel Durão Barroso, Jean-Claude Juncker and Ursula von der Leyen.