The largest single contributor of MEPs to the UEN group, the Italian National Alliance, merged with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party to form the People of Freedom (PdL) on 29 March 2009. The combined party belonged to the EPP and the MEPs elected in 2009 sat in that parliamentary grouping. This move came after a series of attempts by National Alliance to abandon more staunchly national conservatism and Eurosceptic parties and move towards the moderate European centre-right, including a previous application for EPP membership.