Ideologically, IND/DEM was strongly opposed to the European Union and positioned on the radical right within the right-wing spectrum.

After the 2009 European Parliament election, IND/DEM lost many of its MPs and was dissolved in favour of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD).

[25][26] 37 MEPs (33[27] on 20 July, with four[28] more the next day) from the UK Independence Party (UKIP), June Movement (Denmark), Movement for France (France), Northern League (Italy), ChristianUnion – Reformed Political Party (Netherlands), Popular Orthodox Rally (Greece), June List (Sweden), Independent Democrats (Czech Republic), the League of Polish Families (Poland) and an Independent MEP from the Republic of Ireland, joined in the first week of the new Parliament to form the Eurosceptic group called "Independence/Democracy" (IND/DEM), succeeding the group called "Europe of Democracies and Diversities" (EDD) that had existed during the European Parliament's 1999–2004 term.

The MEP, Godfrey Bloom, promptly made comments including "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age" and "I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home.

MEP Ashley Mote was expelled from UKIP[30] prior to IND/DEM's formation[31] when it became known that he faced charges for housing benefit fraud.

[32] The Northern League MEPs eventually all left the group after their expulsion from IND/DEM following an incident involving a T-shirt and the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

The leadership was loose, enabling the two subgroups to unite around the broad principles of democracy and transparency[41] which were embodied in its statute and to which IND/DEM MEPs were expected to adhere.

[44] The day-to-day running of the group was performed by its secretariat, and its secretaries-general were Claudine Vangrunderbeeck and Herman Verheirstraeten.

As of December 2007 no member state had more than 13% of its MEPs sitting with IND/DEM and eighteen member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain) had none.