EDS is the oldest debating society in the Netherlands; it was founded in 1989 in Rotterdam when it was created out of great enthusiasm for debating stemming from the founders' experiences at DAPDI, which Erasmus still organises every year. Being the first Dutch debating society, we actively aided other debating societies to come into being and in 1999 took it upon ourselves to restart the European Universities Debating Championships after the initiative had found a quiet end in the early 1990s.

For a long time already, EDS is one of the most successful Dutch debating societies, with ESL champions at Euros 2001 in Ljubljana, 2003 in Zagreb and 2005 in Cork and ESL World Champions in 2006 in Dublin. Erasmus teams have reached the final of the main break in Euros in 2001 and the semi-final in 2006 in Berlin. The Rotterdam debate evenings take place on Mondays and are traditionally held in English in the British Parliamentary style.