Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Hans van Baalen MEP |
| Group leader | Dacian Cioloș MEP |
| Founded | 26 March 1976[1] |
| Headquarters | Rue d'Idalie 11, 1000 Brussels, Belgium |
| Think tank | European Liberal Forum |
| Youth wing | European Liberal Youth |
| Ideology | Liberalism[2] Pro-Europeanism |
| Political position | Centre |
| International affiliation | Liberal International |
| European Parliament group |
|
| Colours | Dark blue, light blue, magenta Yellow (customary) |
| European Parliament | 81 / 751 |
| European Council | 6 / 28 |
| European Lower Houses | 723 / 9,874 |
| European Upper Houses | 244 / 2,714 |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is a European political party composed of 60 national-level liberal parties from across Europe, mainly active in the European Union. On 26 March 1976, it was founded in Stuttgart as a confederation of national political parties under the name Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe and renamed European Liberals and Democrats (ELD) in 1977 and European Liberal Democrats and Reformists (ELDR) in 1986. On 30 April 2004, the ELDR was reformed as an official European party, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR Party).[3] The ALDE Party is affiliated with the Liberal International[4] and a recognised European political party, incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law.
On 10 November 2012, the party chose its current name of ALDE Party, taken from its then-European Parliament group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), which had been formed on 20 July 2004 in conjunction with the European Democratic Party (EDP). Prior to the 2004 European election the European party had been represented through its own group, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) Group. In June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by Renew Europe.
As of 2019[update], ALDE is represented in European Union institutions, with 81 MEPs and four members of the European Commission. Of the 28 EU member states, there are six with ALDE-affiliated Prime Ministers: Mark Rutte (VVD) in the Netherlands, Xavier Bettel (DP) in Luxembourg, Jüri Ratas (Estonian Centre Party) in Estonia, Charles Michel (MR) in Belgium, Marjan Šarec (LMS) in Slovenia, and Andrej Babiš (ANO) in the Czech Republic. Liberals are also in government in three other EU member states: Croatia, Latvia and Lithuania.
ALDE's think tank is the European Liberal Forum. The youth wing of ALDE is the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), which is predominantly based upon youth and student liberal organisations but contains also a small number of individual members. LYMEC is led by Vedrana Gujic (HNS, Croatia), who was elected for a two-year term as LYMEC President in May 2014, and counts 200,000 members.
Contents
Structure[edit]
Bureau[edit]
The day-to-day management of the ALDE Party is handled by the Bureau, the members of which are:[5]
| Office | Name | State member | Party member |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Hans van Baalen |  Netherlands
|
VVD |
| Vice-Presidents | Henrik Bach Mortensen |  Denmark
|
Venstre |
| Dita Charanzová MEP |  Czech Republic
|
ANO | |
| Timmy Dooley TD |  Ireland
|
FF | |
| Fredrick Federley MEP |  Sweden
|
C | |
| Luis Garicano MEP |  Spain
|
Cs | |
| Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP |  Bulgaria
|
MRF | |
| Markus Löning |  Germany
|
FDP | |
| Annelou van Egmond | Netherlands
|
D66 | |
| Treasurer | Gašper Koprivšek |  Slovenia
|
SMC |
| Ex officio members | |||
| Secretary-General | Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen | Denmark
|
Venstre |
| President of Liberal International | Hakima El Haite | - | |
| Group Chair in the PACE | Rik Daems MP |  Belgium
|
OpenVLD |
| Leader in the European Parliament | Guy Verhofstadt MEP | Belgium
|
OpenVLD |
| Leader in the European Committee of the Regions | Bart Somers | Belgium
|
OpenVLD |
| President of the European Liberal Youth | Svenja Hahn MEP | Germany
|
Young Liberals |
Presidents[edit]
- 1978–1981:
Gaston Thorn - 1981–1985:
Willy De Clercq - 1985–1990: Colette Flesch
- 1990–1995: Willy De Clercq
- 1995–2000:
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen - 2000–2005:
Werner Hoyer - 2005–2011: Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck
- 2011–2015:
Graham Watson - 2015–present:
Hans van Baalen
History of pan-European liberalism[edit]
Pan-European liberalism has a long history dating back to the foundation of Liberal International in April 1947. On 26 March 1976, the Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe was established in Stuttgart. The founding parties of the federation were the Free Democratic Party of Germany, Radical Party of France, Liberal Party of Denmark, Italian Liberal Party, Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Democratic Party of Luxembourg.[6] Observer members joining later in 1976 were the Danish Social Liberal Party, French Radical Party of the Left and Independent Republicans, British Liberal Party, and Italian Republican Party.[6] In 1977, the federation was renamed European Liberals and Democrats, in 1986, European Liberal Democrats and Reformists.
It evolved into the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR Party) in 2004, when it was founded as an official European party under that name and incorporated under Belgian law at an extraordinary Congress in Brussels, held on 30 April 2004 the day before the enlargement of the European Union. At the same time the matching group in the European Parliament, the European Liberal Democrats and Reformists Group allied with the members of the newly elected European Democratic Party, forming the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) with a matching ALDE Group in the European Parliament.
On 10 November 2012, the ELDR Party adopted the name of the alliance between the two parties, in order to match the parliamentary group and the alliance.
On 12 June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by a new, enlarged group Renew Europe.[7]
European Council and Council of Ministers[edit]
| Member | Representative | Political party | Member of the Council since | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands
|
Mark Rutte | VVD | 14 October 2010 | 
|
 Luxembourg
|
Xavier Bettel | DP | 4 December 2013 | 
|
| Belgium
|
Charles Michel | MR | 11 October 2014 | .jpg)
|
 Estonia
|
Jüri Ratas | Kesk | 23 November 2016 | 
|
| Czech Republic
|
Andrej Babiš | ANO | 6 December 2017 | 
|
| Slovenia
|
Marjan Šarec | LMŠ | 13 September 2018 | 
|
European Commissioners[edit]
ALDE Member Parties contribute four out of the 28 members of the European Commission:
| State | Commissioner | Portfolio | Political party | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden
|
Cecilia Malmström | Trade | L | 
|
| Slovenia
|
Violeta Bulc | Transport | SMC | 
|
| Czech Republic
|
Věra Jourová | Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality | ANO | 
|
| Denmark
|
Margrethe Vestager | Competition | RV | .jpg)
|
Elected representatives of member parties[edit]
European institutions[edit]
| Organisation | Institution | Number of seats |
|---|---|---|
 European Union |
European Commission | 4 / 28
|
| European Council (Heads of Government) |
6 / 28
| |
| Council of the EU (Participation in Government) |
9 / 28
| |
| European Parliament | 81 / 751
| |
| Council of Europe |
Parliamentary Assembly | 28 / 318
|
National parliaments of European Union member states[edit]
National parliaments outside the European Union[edit]
| Country | Institution | Number of seats | Member parties |
|---|---|---|---|
 Andorra |
General Council | 8 / 28 |
PLA |
 Armenia |
National Assembly | 18 / 132 |
ANC, Bright Armenia |
 Azerbaijan |
National Assembly | 0 / 125 |
Musavat |
 Georgia |
Parliament | 0 / 150 |
Republican, FD |
 Iceland |
Althing | 4 / 63 |
Viðreisn |
 Moldova |
Parliament | 0 / 101 |
PL |
 Montenegro |
Assembly | 1 / 81 |
LPCG |
 Norway |
Storting | 9 / 169 |
Venstre |
 Switzerland |
National Council Lower house |
31 / 200 |
FDP.The Liberals |
| Council of States Upper house |
12 / 46 |
FDP.The Liberals |
Member parties[edit]
Outside the EU[edit]
Liberal Party of Andorra
Armenian National Congress- Bright Armenia
Musavat
Liberal Party of Freedom and Progress
Liberal Democratic Party- Our Party
Free Democrats- Republican Party of Georgia
Reform Party
New Kosovo Alliance
Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Montenegro
Liberal Democratic Party
Liberal Party
People's Freedom Party- Yabloko
FDP.The Liberals- Green Liberal Party of Switzerland[8]
Civil Position- European Party of Ukraine
- Syla Lyudey
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ as "Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe"
- ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ^ "European Liberal Democrats change party name to ALDE Party | ALDE Party". Eldr.eu. Archived from the original on 13 February 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "Members of the ALDE Party Bureau". ALDE. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ a b Dimitri Almeida (2012). The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus. Taylor & Francis. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-1-136-34039-0.
- ^ "Macron-Liberal alliance to be named Renew Europe". Politico. 12 June 2019.
- ^ a b "ALDE Party Council meets in Zürich". ALDE. 28 June 2019.
External links[edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. |
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