European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party

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Template:Infobox European Political Party The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (founded in 1993) is a liberal party, mainly active in the European Union, composed of national liberal and centrist parties from across Europe.

Having developed from a loose confederation of national political parties in the 1970s, the ELDR is now a recognised European political party incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law. Despite this legal status, the ELDR Party has yet to achieve significant grassroots involvement and retains much of the character of a mere confederation of national political parties.

The Party is politically represented in the European Parliament by the ALDE Group, formed in conjunction with the centrist European Democratic Party, which is dominated by ELDR MEPs and led by Graham Watson, a British Liberal Democrat and former leader of the separate ELDR Parliamentary Group.

As of 2006, the ELDR is the third-largest political party represented in EU institutions, with 62 MEPs and 8 members of the European Commission.

Nationally, ELDR member parties participate in the national governments of 10 out of the 25 EU Member States, contributing four prime ministers:

Andrus Ansip (ERP, Estonia)
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Venstre, Denmark)
Matti Vanhanen (Keskusta, Finland)
Guy Verhofstadt (VLD, Belgium)

The youth wing of the ELDR Party is the European Liberal Youth, which is curiously abbreviated to LYMEC, which is predominantly based upon youth and student liberal organisations from across Europe but also contains a small number of individual members. LYMEC is led by Catalan politician Roger Alibinyana i Saigi, who was elected to a two-year term as LYMEC President in April 2004, and has a collective membership of over 170,000 young liberal Europeans.

1 Leadership
2 Structure
3 History of pan-European liberalism
4 European Commissioners
5 Member Parties
6 See also
7 External links

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Leadership

The legal leadership of the ELDR Party is Annemie Neyts, a Flemish MEP for the Belgian VLD. Neyts, who is thought to be a close ally of ALDE Group leader Graham Watson, was elected for a two-year term of office at the meeting of the ELDR Party Congress held in Bratislava in September 2005, defeating former Dutch foreign minister Jozias van Aartsen, parliamentary leader of the Dutch VVD.

Despite possessing legal leadership of the Party, it is commonly believed that the de facto political leadership of the Party resides in ALDE leader Graham Watson, with Annemie Neyts performing a more administrative role akin to that of a party chairman.

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Structure

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Bureau

The day to day management of the ELDR Party is handled by the Bureau, the members of which are:

President

Annemie Neyts MEP (VLD, Belgium): ELDR Party President

Vice-Presidents

Sharon Bowles MEP (Lib Dem, UK)
Wilfried Derksen (D66, Netherlands)
Katarina Gloncakova-Golev (ANO, Slovakia) (ANO Vice-President)
Johannes Lebech (RV, Denmark)
Markus Löning MP (FDP, Germany)
Calin Popescu Tariceanu MP (PNL, Romania) (Prime Minister of Romania)
Androula Vassiliou MP (United Democrats, Cyprus)

Treasurer

Bas Eenhoorn (VVD, Netherlands)

ALDE Group Leaders

Graham Watson MEP (Lib Dem, UK): ALDE Group Leader, European Parliament
Matyas Eörsi MP (SZDSZ, Hungary): ALDE Group Leader, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Ivo Opstelten (VVD, Netherlands): ALDE Group Leader, EU Committee of the Regions

Other Party Officials

Willy De Clercq MEP (VLD, Belgium): Honorary President
Lex Corijn (VLD, Belgium): ELDR Party Secretary-General
Alexander Beels (VVD, Netherlands): ALDE Group Secretary-General
Roger Albinyana i Saigi (Convergencia, Catalonia): President, European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)

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ELDR Congress

The ELDR Congress is the sovereign body of the ELDR aisbl, usually meeting on an annual basis, and as such its primary purposes are to:

Elect members of the ELDR Bureau
Debate, and adopt, resolutions on matters of policy;
Adopt the ELDR Party's electoral manifesto for European Parliament elections
Make amendments to the ELDR Party Statutes

The voting members of the ELDR Congress number around 600-700, and are composed of:

Members of the ELDR Council
A number of representatives nominated by each of the Member Parties based on the number of votes that Party received at the last set of European Parliament elections,
2 representatives nominated by each of the Affiliate Parties, and
10 representatives nominated by the European Liberal Youth.

In addition to the voting members of the ELDR Congress, the following are entitled to attend as non-voting members:

ELDR members of the European Parliament,
ELDR members of the EU Committee of the Regions,
One delegate nominated by each of the liberal democrat groupings in other European parliamentary assemblies, and
One delegate nominated by Liberal International

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ELDR Council

The ELDR Council acts as the ELDR Party's de facto executive committee, meeting inbetween meetings of the ELDR Congress, and is empowered to:

Approve the budget of the ELDR Party;
Approve ELDR membership applications; and
Speak and act on behalf of the ELDR Party inbetween meetings of the ELDR Congress.

The voting members of the ELDR Council number around 100-150 members and are composed of:

Voting members of the Bureau,
Two or more representatives nominated by each of the Member Parties based on the number of votes that Party received at the last set of European Parliament elections, and
One representative nominated by each of the Affiliate Parties, and
One representative nominated by the European Liberal Youth

In addition to the voting members of the ELDR Council, the following are entitled to attend as non-voting members:

Non-voting members of the Bureau,
One representative nominated by each of the liberal democrat groups in European parliamentary assemblies (including the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions), and
One representative nominated by Liberal International

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ELDR Political Leaders Meeting

In addition to the formal structure of the ELDR Party, there are convened at least two meetings a year of the Political Leaders Meeting in order to exchange views on the items on the agenda of the European Council and more general views on the European political situation.

The members of the Political Leaders Meeting are:

The President and Vice-Presidents of the ELDR Party,
ELDR Members of the European Commission,
ELDR Heads of Government,
The political leaders of ELDR Member Parties,
Other ELDR Ministers,
The President of the European Liberal Youth

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History of pan-European liberalism

The Liberalism Series
Part of the Politics series

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Ideas

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Liberal International

ELDR/ALDE
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Politics Portal · ^edit

Pan-European liberalism has a long history dating back to the foundation of Liberal International in April 1947. In March 1976, the Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe was established, which gradually evolved into the ELDR Party with a group in the European Parliament

At an extraordinary Congress in Brussels held on April 30 2004 the day before the enlargement of the European Union, the ELDR Party incorporated itself under Belgian law, being the first step towards legal recognition as a European political party.

It originated as the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party grouping with seats in the European Parliament, but on April 30, 2004 (the day before the enlargement of the European Union) reformed itself as a pan-European political party, although it has yet to organise itself at a grassroots level.

This was followed later that year by the establishment of the ALDE political group in the European Parliament, in collaboration with the newly established EDP Party.

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European Commissioners

ELDR Member Parties contribute 7 out of the 25 members of the European Commission:

Siim Kallas (ERP, Estonia): Vice-President (Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud)
Mariann Fischer Boel (Venstre, Denmark): Agriculture and Rural Development
Neelie Kroes (VVD, Netherlands): Competition
Louis Michel (MR, Belgium): Development and Humanitarian Aid
Olli Rehn (Keskusta, Finland): Enlargement
Andris Piebalgs (Latvian Way, Latvia): Energy
Janez Potočnik (LDS, Slovenia): Science and Research

In addition to the 7 Commissioners contributed by ELDR Member Parties, one Commissioner is contributed by DIKO of Cyprus, which is not affiliated to the ELDR Party but sits with the ELDR within the ALDE Group in the European Parliament: