Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
President	Hans van Baalen MEP
Group leader	Guy Verhofstadt MEP
Founded	26 March 1976
Headquarters	Rue d'Idalie 11,; 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Think tank	European Liberal Forum
Youth wing	European Liberal Youth
Ideology	Liberalism; Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre
European Parliament group	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Dark blue, light blue, magenta; Yellow (customary)
European Parliament	57 / 751
European Council	8 / 28
European Lower Houses	636 / 9,874
European Upper Houses	244 / 2,714
Website
	www.aldeparty.eu
	Politics of European Union; Political parties; Elections;

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is a European political party mainly active in the European Union, composed of 60 national-level liberal parties from across Europe. 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 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). The ALDE parliamentary group is led by Guy Verhofstadt, a former Prime Minister of Belgium. Prior to the 2004 European election the party had been represented through its own group, the European Liberal Democrats and Reformists (ELDR) Group.

As of 2018^[update], ALDE is represented in European Union institutions, with 68 MEPs and 5 members of the European Commission. Of the 28 EU member states, there are eight 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, Miro Cerar (SMC) in Slovenia, Juha Sipilä (KESK) in Finland, Andrej Babiš (ANO) in the Czech Republic and Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Venstre) in Denmark. Liberals are also in government in three other EU member states: Croatia, Romania 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.

Structure

Bureau

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
ALDE Leader in the European Parliament	Guy Verhofstadt MEP	Belgium	OpenVLD
ALDE President	Hans van Baalen MEP	Netherlands	VVD
ALDE Secretary-General	Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen	Denmark	Venstre
ALDE Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Group	Alexander Beels	Netherlands	VVD
ALDE Vice-Presidents	Luis Garicano	Spain	Cs
	Timmy Dooley TD	Ireland	FF
	Fredrick Federley MEP	Sweden	C
	Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP	Bulgaria	DPS
	Markus Löning	Germany	FDP
	Angelika Mlinar MEP	Austria	NEOS
	Henrik Bach Mortensen	Denmark	Venstre
	Joanna Schmidt MEP	Poland	Modern
	Annelou van Egmond	Netherlands	Democrats 66
ALDE Treasurer	Roman Jakič	Slovenia	ZSD
ALDE in the Council of Europe Honorary President	Anne Brasseur	Luxemburg	DP
ALDE Leader in the European Committee of the Regions	Bart Somers	Belgium	OpenVLD
President of the European Liberal Youth	Sissel Kvist	Denmark	Radikal Ungdom

Leaders

1978-1979: Jean-François Pintat
1979-1984: Martin Bangemann
1984-1989: Simone Veil
1989-1991: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
1991-1994: Yves Galland
1994-1998: Gijs de Vries
1998-2002: Pat Cox
2002-2009: Graham Watson
2009–present: Guy Verhofstadt

Presidents

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

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.

European Council and Council of Ministers

Member State	Representative	Title	Political party	Member of the Council since
Estonia	Jüri Ratas	Head Minister	Estonian Centre Party	23 November 2016
Netherlands	Mark Rutte	Minister-President	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	14 October 2010
Luxembourg	Xavier Bettel	Prime Minister	Democratic Party	4 December 2013
Belgium	Charles Michel	Prime Minister	Mouvement Réformateur	11 October 2014
Slovenia	Miro Cerar	Prime Minister	Modern Centre Party	18 September 2014
Finland	Juha Sipilä	Prime Minister	Centre Party	29 May 2015

European Commissioners

ALDE Member Parties contribute 5 out of the 28 members of the European Commission:

style="background:Template:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe/meta/color;"\|State	style="background:Template:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe/meta/color;"\|Commissioner	style="background:Template:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe/meta/color;"\|Portfolio	style="background:Template:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe/meta/color;"\|Political party
Estonia	AnsipAndrus Ansip	Vice-President, European Commissioner for Digital Single Market	RE
Sweden	MalmströmCecilia Malmström	European Commissioner for Trade	L
Slovenia	BulcVioleta Bulc	European Commissioner for the Energy Union	SMC
Czech Republic	JourováVěra Jourová	European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality	ANO
Denmark	VestagerMargrethe Vestager	European Commissioner for Competition	RV

Elected Representatives of Member Parties

European institutions

Organisation	Institution	Number of seats
European Union	European Commission	5 / 28
European Union	European Council (Heads of Government)	7 / 28
European Union	Council of the EU (Participation in Government)	11 / 28
European Union	European Parliament	47 / 751

Council of Europe	Parliamentary Assembly	28 / 318

National Parliaments of European Union member states

Country	Institution	Number of seats	Member parties
Austria	National Council	10 / 183	NEOS
Belgium	Chamber of Representatives Lower house	34 / 150	MR, Open Vld
Belgium	Senate Upper house	13 / 60	MR, Open Vld
Bulgaria	National Assembly	25 / 240	MRF
Croatia	Sabor	13 / 151	HNS, IDS-DDI, HSLS
Czech Republic	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	78 / 200	ANO
Czech Republic	Senate Upper house	7 / 81	ANO
Denmark	Folketing	42 / 175	V, RV
Estonia	State Council	57 / 101	ER, EK
Finland	Parliament	59 / 200	Kesk., SFP, C
France	National Assembly Lower house	18 / 577	UDI
France	Senate Upper house	42 / 348	UDI
Germany	Bundestag	80 / 631	FDP
Hungary	Országgyűlés	1 / 199	MLP
Ireland	Dáil Lower house	44 / 158	FF
Ireland	Seanad Upper house	13 / 60	FF
Italy	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	2 / 630	Radicali
Italy	Senate of the Republic Upper house	1 / 315	Radicali
Lithuania	Seimas	14 / 141	LRLS, DP
Luxembourg	Chamber of Deputies	13 / 60	DP
Malta	House of Representatives	2 / 67	PD
Netherlands	House of Representatives Lower house	52 / 150	VVD, D66
Netherlands	Senate Upper house	23 / 75	VVD, D66
Poland	Sejm Lower house	22 / 460	.Nowoczesna, UED
Poland	Senat of Poland Upper house	0 / 100	.Nowoczesna, UED
Romania	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	18 / 329	ALDE
Romania	Senate Upper house	12 / 136	ALDE
Slovenia	National Assembly	14 / 90	SMC, ZaAB
Spain	Congress of Deputies Lower house	40 / 350	C's, CDC
Spain	Senate Upper house	8 / 266	C's, CDC
Sweden	Riksdag	41 / 349	C, L
United Kingdom	House of Commons Lower house	12 / 650	Liberal Democrats
	House of Lords Upper house	98 / 793	Liberal Democrats
	Gibraltar Parliament unicameral	3 / 17	Liberal Party of Gibraltar

National Parliaments outside the European Union

Country	Institution	Number of seats	Member parties
Andorra	General Council	8 / 28	PLA
Armenia	National Assembly	0 / 131	ANC
Azerbaijan	National Assembly	0 / 125	Musavat
Georgia	Parliament	0 / 150	Republican, FD
Iceland	Althing	0 / 63	BF
Moldova	Parliament	9 / 101	PL
Montenegro	Assembly	1 / 81	LPCG
Norway	Storting	9 / 169	Venstre
Switzerland	National Council Lower house	31 / 200	FDP.The Liberals
Switzerland	Council of States Upper house	12 / 46	FDP.The Liberals

Member parties

Proportion of ALDE Party MEPs per country as of 2004^[update]

Country or Region	Party	MEPs
Austria	NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum	1 / 18
Belgium (Dutch)	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	3 / 12
Belgium (French)	Reformist Movement	2 / 8
Bulgaria	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	4 / 17
Bulgaria	National Movement for Stability and Progress	0 / 17
Croatia	Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats	1 / 11
Croatia	Croatian Social Liberal Party	0 / 11
Croatia	Istrian Democratic Assembly	1 / 11
Cyprus	United Democrats	0 / 6
Czech Republic	ANO 2011	4 / 21
Denmark	Danish Social Liberal Party	2 / 13
Denmark	Venstre – Liberal Party of Denmark	1 / 13
Estonia	Estonian Centre Party	1 / 6
Estonia	Estonian Reform Party	2 / 6
Finland	Centre Party	3 / 13
Finland	Swedish People's Party of Finland	1 / 13
Finland Åland Islands	Åland Centre	0 / 13
France	Union of Democrats and Independents	2 / 74
Germany	Free Democratic Party	3 / 96
Greece	Drassi	0 / 21
Hungary	Hungarian Liberal Party	0 / 21
Ireland	Fianna Fáil	1 / 11
Italy	Italian Radicals	0 / 73
Latvia	Latvian Development	0 / 8
Lithuania	Labour Party	1 / 11
Lithuania	Lithuanian Freedom Union (Liberals)	0 / 11
Lithuania	Liberals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania	2 / 11
Luxembourg	Democratic Party	1 / 6
Malta	Democratic Party	0 / 6
Netherlands	Democrats 66	4 / 26
Netherlands	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	3 / 26
Poland	.Nowoczesna	0 / 51
Poland	Union of European Democrats	0 / 51
Portugal	Iniciativa Liberal	0 / 21
Romania	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats	2 / 32
Slovenia	Modern Centre Party	0 / 8
Slovenia	Alliance of Alenka Bratušek	0 / 8
Spain	Citizens	2 / 54
Spain	Catalan European Democratic Party	1 / 54
Sweden	Centre Party	1 / 20
Sweden	The Liberals	2 / 20
United Kingdom	Liberal Democrats	1 / 73
United Kingdom Gibraltar	Liberal Party of Gibraltar	0 / 73

Outside the EU

Andorra

Liberal Party of Andorra

Armenia

Armenian National Congress

Azerbaijan

Müsavat Party

Belarus

Belarusian Liberal Party of Freedom and Progress

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Our Party

Georgia

Iceland

Bright Future

Kosovo

Moldova

Liberal Party

Montenegro

Liberal Party of Montenegro

Norway

Liberal Party

Russia

Serbia

Liberal Democratic Party

Switzerland

FDP.The Liberals

Ukraine

References

^ as "Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe"
^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2015). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ "European Liberal Democrats change party name to ALDE Party | ALDE Party". Eldr.eu. Retrieved 23 September 2013.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "{title}". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ "Members of the Bureau | ALDE Party". Aldeparty.eu. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
^ ^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.

External links

[1] s "Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe"

[Nordsieck-2] Nordsieck, Wolfram (2015). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[3] "European Liberal Democrats change party name to ALDE Party | ALDE Party". Eldr.eu. Retrieved 23 September 2013.^{[permanent dead link]}

[4] "{title}". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[5] "Members of the Bureau | ALDE Party". Aldeparty.eu. Retrieved 5 April 2018.

[Almeida2012-6] 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.

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