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[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 | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| 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 | |
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, 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 | .svg.png){kind=small} |
OpenVLD |
| ALDE President | Hans van Baalen MEP |  |
VVD |
| ALDE Secretary-General | Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen |  |
Venstre |
| ALDE Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Group |
Alexander Beels | |
VVD |
| ALDE Vice-Presidents | Luis Garicano |  |
Cs |
| Timmy Dooley TD |  |
FF | |
| Fredrick Federley MEP |  |
C | |
| Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP |  |
DPS | |
| Markus Löning |  |
FDP | |
| Angelika Mlinar MEP |  |
NEOS | |
| Henrik Bach Mortensen | |
Venstre | |
| Joanna Schmidt MEP |  |
Modern | |
| Annelou van Egmond | |
Democrats 66 | |
| ALDE Treasurer | Roman Jakič |  |
ZSD |
| ALDE in the Council of Europe Honorary President | Anne Brasseur |  |
DP |
| ALDE Leader in the European Committee of the Regions | Bart Somers | |
OpenVLD |
| President of the European Liberal Youth | Sissel Kvist | |
Radikal Ungdom |
Leaders
- 1978-1979:
- 1979-1984:
- 1984-1989:
- 1989-1991:
- 1991-1994:
- 1994-1998:
- 1998-2002:
- 2002-2009:
- 2009–present:
Presidents
- 1978–1981:
- 1981–1985:
- 1985–1990:
- 1990–1995:
- 1995–2000:
- 2000–2005:
- 2005–2011:
- 2011–2015:
- 2015–present:
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 | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Jüri Ratas | Head Minister | Estonian Centre Party | 23 November 2016 |  |
|
Mark Rutte | Minister-President | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | 14 October 2010 |  |
|
Xavier Bettel | Prime Minister | Democratic Party | 4 December 2013 |  |
|
Charles Michel | Prime Minister | Mouvement Réformateur | 11 October 2014 | .jpg) |
|
Miro Cerar | Prime Minister | Modern Centre Party | 18 September 2014 | .jpg) |
 |
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:
| State | Commissioner | Portfolio | Political party | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Estonia |
Andrus Ansip | Vice-President, European Commissioner for Digital Single Market | RE |  |
Sweden |
Cecilia Malmström | European Commissioner for Trade | L |  |
Slovenia |
Violeta Bulc | European Commissioner for the Energy Union | SMC |  |
 Czech Republic |
Věra Jourová | European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality | ANO |  |
Denmark |
Margrethe Vestager | European Commissioner for Competition | RV | .jpg) |
Elected Representatives of Member Parties
European institutions
ALDE Party Leader
ALDE Party President
| Organisation | Institution | Number of seats |
|---|---|---|
 | European Commission | 5 / 28 |
| European Council (Heads of Government) | 7 / 28 |
| Council of the EU (Participation in Government) | 11 / 28 |
| European Parliament | 47 / 751 |
| Parliamentary Assembly | 28 / 318 |
National Parliaments of European Union member states
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National Parliaments outside the European Union
| Country | Institution | Number of seats | Member parties |
|---|---|---|---|
 | General Council | 8 / 28 | PLA |
 | National Assembly | 0 / 131 | ANC |
 | National Assembly | 0 / 125 | Musavat |
 | Parliament | 0 / 150 | Republican, FD |
 | Althing | 0 / 63 | BF |
 | Parliament | 9 / 101 | PL |
 | Assembly | 1 / 81 | LPCG |
 | Storting | 9 / 169 | Venstre |
 | National Council Lower house | 31 / 200 | FDP.The Liberals |
| Council of States Upper house | 12 / 46 | FDP.The Liberals |
Member parties
Outside the EU
See also
- European Liberal Youth
- Liberal International
- Political parties of the world
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 2017-06-08. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
- ↑ "European Liberal Democrats change party name to ALDE Party | ALDE Party". Eldr.eu. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
- ↑ "{title}". Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
- ↑ "Members of the Bureau | ALDE Party". Aldeparty.eu. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
- 1 2 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
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