Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (Party)

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
Party leader	Hans van Baalen
Secretary General	Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen
vice-chairman	Henrik Bach Mortensen , Dita Charanzová , Timmy Dooley , Fredrick Federley , Luis Garicano , Ilhan Kyuchyuk , Markus Löning , Joanna Schmidt , Annelou van Egmond
Treasurer	Gašper Koprivsek
founding	March 26, 1976 as a Federation April 30, 2004 as a party
Headquarters	Rue d'Idalie 11 - box 2 B-1050 Brussels
Youth organization	European Liberal Youth
newspaper	Liberal Bulletin
Affiliate foundation	European Liberal Forum
Alignment	liberalism
Colours)	Light blue, dark blue, and magenta (official), yellow (common)
Parliament seats	66/705
Government grants	2,337,149 € (2016, preliminary)
Number of members	70 political parties (as of November 28, 2019), 2576 individual members (as of February 17, 2017)
EP Group	Renew Europe
Website	www.aldeparty.eu

Old logo ELDR

Logo ELDR (until 2012)

Old ALDE logo 2012–2016

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE, also ALDE party) is a political party at the European level that includes liberal member parties across Europe.

History and present

The Liberal Party was invited to a. founded by Martin Bangemann on March 26, 1976 in Stuttgart by 14 parties from then seven EC member states, initially as a federation of liberal and democratic parties in the European Community . This became the European Liberals and Democrats (ELD) in 1977 and the European Liberals, Democrats and Reformers (ELDR) in 1986 . On April 30, 2004, it was founded as the official “political party at European level” under the name European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR). On November 10, 2012, the party was renamed ALDE after its faction community , which had existed since 2004 . It is organized as an international non-profit making association (AISBL). Currently (as of 2019) it has 70 member parties. The German member is the FDP , the Austrian member is the NEOS , the Swiss member is the FDP, the Liberals and the Green Liberal Party .

organization

The ALDE secretariat is in Brussels . In the European Parliament , the ALDE and the centrists of the European Democratic Party have formed a joint parliamentary group since the 2004 European elections , which from 2004 to 2019 also bore the name ALDE . In 2019, the Renew Europe group was founded as their successor . This group currently has 98 MEPs in the European Parliament, 66 of them from the ALDE party. In the meantime, the ALDE group provided most of the heads of government in the European Union and was thus the strongest force in the European Council .

The ALDE is essentially an umbrella organization of its member parties. However, individuals can also join it as individual members . This membership does not depend on a national party affiliation and can also take place in addition to such. The individual members have their own representation in the Steering Committee and, in some countries, national coordinators.

The youth organization of the ALDE is the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), which is led by the Hamburg FDP politician Svenja Hahn . In Germany the Young Liberals and the Liberal University Groups belong to it , in Austria the JUNOS and in Switzerland the Young Liberals .

Documents from the European liberals (ELDR, ALDE and LYMEC) are collected in the archive of liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Gummersbach .

Founding members

The following nine parties founded the European Liberal Democrats (ELD) in 1976:

•  Germany : Free Democratic Party (FDP)
•  France : Parti Radical (PR)
•  Denmark : Venstre (V)
•  Italy : Partito Liberale Italiano (PLI)
•  Netherlands : Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD)
•  Luxembourg : Democratic Party (DP)
•  Belgium :
  •  Flanders Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang (PVV)
  •  Walloon Region Parti de la Liberté et du Progrés (PLPW)
  •  Brussels Parti Libéral (PL Bruxelles)

Another five parties assumed observer status in the ELD in the course of 1976:

•  Denmark : Radical Venstre (RV)
•  France : Mouvement des Radicaux des Gauche (MRG)
•  France : Républicains indépendants (FNRI)
•  Italy : Partito Repubblicano Italiano (PRI)
•  United Kingdom : Liberal Party (LIB)

Today's member parties

States with full members (and possibly associated parties)

States with associated parties

Full members

Country	Political party	MEP	National MPs	Member since
Andorra	Partit Liberal d'Andorra (Liberal Party)	*	4/28	March 1996
Armenia	Armenian National Congress	*	-	March 2016
Belgium	Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democrats (Open VLD) (Flemish Liberals and Democrats)	2/21	14/150	March 1976
	Mouvement Réformateur (MR) ( Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF))	2/21	20/150	March 1976
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Naša stranka (Our Party)	*	2/42	June 2016
Bulgaria	Dwischenie sa Prawa i Swobodi (Movement for Rights and Freedoms)	3/17	38/240	Dec 2001
Denmark	Venstre (Denmark's Liberal Party)	3/13	34/179	March 1976
	Det Radliche Venstre (Denmark's Social Liberal Party)	2/13	8/179	Feb 1992
Germany	Free Democratic Party	5/96	80/709	March 1976
Estonia	Eesti Reformierakond (Estonian Reform Party)	2/6	34/101	Dec 1995
	Eesti Keskerakond (Estonian Center Party)	1/6	26/101	July 2003
Finland	Suomen Keskusta (Finnish Center Party)	2/13	31/200	March 1992
	Svenska Folkpartiet (Swedish People's Party)	1/13	9/200	July 1992
France	Mouvement radical (radical movement)	1/74	17/577	Nov 2018
	Union des démocrates et indépendants (Union of Democrats and Independents)	-	21/577	Dec 2016
Ireland	Fianna Fáil (Republican Party)	1/11	38/160	April 2009
Iceland	Viðreisn (reform)	*	4/63	Feb. 2019
Italy	Più Europa (More Europe)	-	3/630	Feb. 2019
	Radicali Italiani (Italian Radicals)	-	-	Oct. 2004
Kosovo	Aleanca Kosova e Re (Alliance New Kosovo)	*	-	Nov 2009
Croatia	Istarski demokratski sabor / Dieta Democratica Istriana (Istrian Democratic Assembly)	1/11	2/151	May 2006
	Hrvatska narodna stranka - Liberalni Demokratiei (Croatian People's Party - Liberal Democrats)	-	14/151	Dec 2001
Latvia	Latvijas attīstībai (For Latvia's Development)	1/8	5/100	April 2013
	Kustība Par! ("Movement For!")	-	8/100	Oct. 2019
Lithuania	Darbo partija (Labor Party)	1/11	2/141	May 2012
	Lietuvos Respublikos liberalų sąjūdis (Liberal Movement)	1/11	14/141	Oct 2006
Luxembourg	Democratic Party (Democratic Party)	2/6	13/60	March 1976
Moldova	Partidul Liberal (Liberal Party)	*	-	Oct 2010
Montenegro	Liberalna Partija Crne Gore (Liberal Party of Montenegro)	*	1/81	Nov. 2014
Netherlands	Democrats 66	2/26	19/150	Dec 1994
	Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy)	4/26	33/150	March 1976
North Macedonia	Liberalno Demokratska Partija (Liberal Democratic Party)	*	2/120	Dec 2016
Norway	Venstre (Liberal Party)	*	9/169	Oct. 2000
Austria	NEOS - The New Austria and Liberal Forum	1/18	15/183	May 2014
Poland	Nowoczesna (The Modern)	-	27/460	June 2016
Portugal	Iniciativa Liberal (Liberal Initiative)	-	-	Dec 2017
Romania	Uniunea Salvați România (Union Save Romania)	4/32	27/329	July 2019
Russia	Российская демократическая партия "Яблоко" (Yabloko)	*	-	Oct 2008
Sweden	Liberalerna (The Liberals)	1/20	19/349	July 1991
	Centerpartiet (center party)	2/20	22/349	April 2000
Switzerland	FDP The Liberals	*	29/200	Oct 1993
	Green Liberal Party	*	16/200	July 2019
Slovakia	Progresívne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia)	2/32	-	Nov 2018
Slovenia	Lista Marjana Šarca (List of Marjan Šarec)	2/8	13/90	Nov 2018
	Stranka modernega centra (party of the modern center)	-	10/90	Nov. 2014
Spain	Ciudadanos (citizen)	7/54	32/350	June 2016
Czech Republic	ANO 2011 (Yes 2011)	6/21	78/200	Nov. 2014
Ukraine	Громадянська позиція (Civil Position)	*	-	June 2016
	Європейська партія України (European Party of Ukraine)	*	-	May 2013
Hungary	Momentum Mozgalom (Momentum Movement)	2/21	-	Nov 2018
United Kingdom	Liberal Democrats (Liberal Democrats)	*	12/650	Nov. 1988
Cyprus	Enomeni Dimokrates (United Democrats)	-	-	Dec 1996

Associated Parties

Country	Political party	MEP	National MPs	Member since
Armenia	Shining Armenia	*	18/132	Feb. 2019
Azerbaijan	Müsavat Partiyası (Equality Party)	*	-	Oct 2007
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Liberalno demokratska stranka (Liberal Democratic Party)	*	-	Dec 2017
Georgia	Free Democrats	*	8/150	Nov. 2012
	Republican Party of Georgia	*	-	Oct 2007
Gibraltar	Liberal Party of Gibraltar (Liberal Party of Gibraltar)	-	3/17	May 2015
Italy	Team Köllensperger	-	-	March 2019
Croatia	Građansko-liberalni savez (Civil-Liberal Alliance)	-	-	Dec 2017
	Hrvatska socijalno-liberalna stranka (Croatian Social-Liberal Party)	-	1/151	March 1994
	Pametno (clever)	-	-	Dec 2017
Lithuania	Laisvės partija (Freedom Party)	-	1/141	Oct. 2019
Malta	Partit Demokratiku (Democratic Party)	-	2/67	Dec 2017
Russia	Партия народной свободы (Party of People's Freedom)	*	-	Oct 2008
Slovenia	Stranka Alenke Bratušek (Party of Alenka Bratušek)	-	5/90	Nov. 2014
Ukraine	Сила людей (The power of people)	*	-	Nov 2018
Hungary	Magyar Liberális Párt (Hungarian Liberal Party)	-	1/199	April 2013
United Kingdom	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (Alliance Party of Northern Ireland)	*	-	April 2018
Belarus	Партыя свабоды і прагрэсу (Party for Freedom and Progress)	*	-	Nov 2013

* Not in the European Union

ALDE members in European institutions

European Council

Countries with ALDE council members are highlighted in yellow

The ALDE currently (August 2020) provides six of the 27 heads of state or government who belong to the European Council :

•  Belgium : Sophie Wilmès (MR)
•  Estonia : Jüri Ratas (K)
•  Ireland : Micheál Martin (FF)
•  Luxembourg : Xavier Bettel (DP)
•  Netherlands : Mark Rutte (VVD)
•  Czech Republic : Andrej Babiš (ANO)

In addition, ALDE provides the Belgian Charles Michel (MR), the Council President who is not entitled to vote .

European Commission

The Juncker Commission, which has been in office since 2014, consists of five commissioners from ALDE member parties. One of them is the vice president.

Commissioner	Department	Member state	national party
Andrus Ansip	Digital single market Digital Economy and Society Vice President	Estonia	RE
Margrethe Vestager	competition	Denmark	RV
Věra Jourová	Justice , Consumers and Gender Issues	Czech Republic	ANO
Cecilia Malmström	trade	Sweden	Lib
Violeta Bulc	Transport and space	Slovenia	SMC

literature

• Andreas von Gehlen: European party democracy? Institutional prerequisites and functional conditions of the European parties to reduce the legitimacy deficit of the EU , Berlin 2005 (publication with a detailed study of the history, organizational form and program of the ELDR).

Web links

Commons : Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (party)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the ALDE party

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} ALDE Party elects new Bureau members. In: alde. November 10, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2019 (UK English). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} ALDE Party - Member Parties. In: alde. Retrieved November 28, 2019 (UK English). 
3. ↑ http://www.epgencms.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/upload/bed1663e-ec2d-4cd6-b5b0-f3f96c3a70fc/08_Application_PART_08_2017_03_20_ALDE.pdf
4. ↑ https://www.aldeparty.eu/news/svenja-hahn-elected-new-lymec-president
5. ^ ^{A b} Dimitri Almeida: The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus . Taylor & Francis, 2012, ISBN 978-1-136-34039-0 ( google.de [accessed August 7, 2017]).