In this chapter, former Finnish president Sauli Niinistö reflects on the legacy of the European Democratic Union (EDU), an organisation that played a formative yet often underappreciated role in shaping the European centre–right. Active from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, the EDU served as a vital platform for fostering political cooperation across ideological, geographic and institutional divides—particularly during the Cold War and its aftermath. Niinistö draws on his experience as former EDU chairperson to describe the organisation’s support to democratic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe and its role in connecting non-EU centre–right parties to the broader European political family. He recounts the organisation’s influence on his own party, Finland’s Kokoomus, and its pivotal contribution to preparing new member parties for EU integration. The chapter also details the EDU’s gradual merger with the EPP. Niinistö argues that although the EDU formally dissolved, its mission was fulfilled and its legacy lives on in the EPP’s inclusive, pan-European character.