Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

This article is about a European political party. For the former European Parliament Group, see Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group. For the transnational political alliance, see Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is a European political party composed of 60 national-level parties from across Europe, mainly active in the European Union. The ALDE Party is affiliated with Liberal International and a recognised European political party, incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law.^[2]

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
Abbreviation	ALDE Party
President	Timmy Dooley (co-president) Ilhan Kyuchyuk (co-president)
Secretary-General	Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen
Founded	26 March 1976 (1976-03-26)
Headquarters	Rue d'Idalie 11, Brussels, Belgium
Think tank	European Liberal Forum
Youth wing	European Liberal Youth
Ideology	Liberalism^[1] Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre
International affiliation	Liberal International
European Parliament group	ELDR (1976–2004) ALDE (2004–2019) Renew Europe (2019–present)
Colours	Blue, magenta   Yellow (customary)
European Parliament	68 / 705
European Council	6 / 27
European Commission	5 / 27
European Lower Houses	723 / 9,874
European Upper Houses	244 / 2,714
Website
aldeparty.eu
Politics of European Union Political parties Elections

It was founded on 26 March 1976 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]

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 Group (ELDR) Group. In June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by Renew Europe.

As of 2020^[update], ALDE is represented in European Union institutions, with 70 MEPs and five members of the European Commission. Of the 27 EU member states, there are four with ALDE-affiliated Prime Ministers: Mark Rutte (VVD) in the Netherlands, Xavier Bettel (DP) in Luxembourg, Kaja Kallas (Estonian Reform Party) in Estonia and Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) in Belgium. ALDE member parties are also in governments in seven other EU member states: Croatia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Germany. Some other ALDE member parties offer parliamentary support to governments in Croatia, Denmark, Italy, Romania and Sweden. Charles Michel, former Belgian Prime Minister, is current President of the European Council.

ALDE's think tank is the European Liberal Forum, led by Hilde Vautmans, MEP, and gathers 46 member organisations. 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 Dan-Aria Sucuri.

In 2011, the ALDE Party became the first pan-European party to create the status of individual membership. Since then, between 1000 and close to 3000 members (the numbers fluctuate annually) maintain direct membership in the ALDE Party from several EU countries. Over 40 coordinators mobilise liberal ideas, initiatives and expertise across the continent under the leadership of the Steering Committee, which was first chaired by Julie Cantalou. The ALDE Party took a step further in the direction of becoming a truly pan-European party when granting voting rights to individual members’ delegates at the Party Congress.

Structure

Bureau

The day-to-day management of the ALDE Party is handled by the Bureau, the members of which are:^[4]

Office	Name	State member	Party member
Co-Presidents	Senator Timmy Dooley	Ireland	FF
	Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP	Bulgaria	MRF
Vice-Presidents	Henrik Bach Mortensen	Denmark	Venstre
	Dita Charanzová MEP	Czech Republic	ANO
	Baroness Sal Brinton	United Kingdom	LibDem
	Daniel Berg	Hungary	M
	Annelou van Egmond	Netherlands	D66
	Svenja Hahn MEP	Germany	FDP
	Kira Rudik MP	Ukraine	Golos
Treasurer	David Burke	Ireland	FF
Ex officio members
ALDE Party Secretary-General	Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen	Denmark	Venstre
President of Liberal International	Hakima El Haite	Morocco	/ (MP)
Group Chair in the PACE	Jacques Maire MP	France	/ (LREM)
Leader in the European Parliament	Stéphane Séjourné MEP	France	LREM
Leader in the European Committee of the Regions	François Decoster	France	/
President of the European Liberal Forum	Hilde Vautmans	Belgium	Open VLD
President of the European Liberal Youth	Dan-Aria Sucuri	Sweden

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
• 2015–2021:   Hans van Baalen
• 2021–2022: acting co-Presidents   Timmy Dooley   Ilhan Kyuchyuk

History of pan-European liberalism

Main article: History of pan-European liberalism

 

ELDR Party logo (2009–2012).

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, Venstre of Denmark, Italian Liberal Party, Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Democratic Party of Luxembourg.^[5] 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.^[5] 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, to match the parliamentary group and the alliance.

On 12 June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by a new enlarged group, Renew Europe, which primarily consists of ALDE and EDP member parties and France's La République En Marche! (LREM).^[6]

European Council

Member	Representative	Political party	Member since	Photo
Netherlands	Prime Minister Mark Rutte	VVD	14 October 2010
Luxembourg	Prime Minister Xavier Bettel	DP	4 December 2013
Estonia	Prime Minister Kaja Kallas	Reform Party	26 January 2021
Belgium	Prime Minister Alexander De Croo	Open VLD	27 October 2019
European Union	President Charles Michel	MR (ALDE)	1 December 2019

European Commissioners

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

State	Commissioner	Portfolio	Political party	Photo
Denmark	Margrethe Vestager	A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Executive Vice President Competition, Commissioner	RV
Czech Republic	Věra Jourová	Values and Transparency, Vice President	ANO
Slovenia	Janez Lenarčič	Crisis Management, Commissioner	Ind.
Estonia	Kadri Simson	Energy, Commissioner	KESK
Belgium	Didier Reynders	Justice, Commissioner	MR

Elected representatives of member parties

European institutions

Organisation	Institution	Number of seats
European Union	European Commission	5 / 27
	European Council (Heads of Government)	5 / 27
	Council of the EU (Participation in Government)	10 / 27
	European Parliament	70 / 705
Council of Europe	Parliamentary Assembly	28 / 318

National parliaments of European Union member states

Country	Institution	Number of seats	Member parties		Status
Austria	National Council Lower house	15 / 183	NEOS		Opposition
	Federal Council Upper house	1 / 61	NEOS		Opposition
Belgium	Chamber of Representatives Lower house	26 / 150	MR	14 / 26	Government
			Open Vld	12 / 26	Government
	Senate Upper house	11 / 60	MR	6 / 11	Government
			Open Vld	5 / 11	Government
Bulgaria	National Assembly	34 / 240	MRF		Opposition
Croatia	Sabor	9 / 151	HNS	1 / 9	Government
			HSLS	2 / 9	Support
			Glas	1 / 9	Opposition
			IDS-DDI	3 / 9	Opposition
			Centre	2 / 9	Opposition
Cyprus	House of Representatives	4 / 56	Democratic Alignment		Opposition
Czech Republic	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	72 / 200	ANO		Opposition
	Senate Upper house	5 / 81	ANO		Opposition
Denmark	Folketing	30 / 175	RV	7 / 30	Opposition
			V	23 / 30	Government
Estonia	Riigikogu	59 / 101	EK	25 / 59	Government
			ER	34 / 59	Government
Finland	Parliament	41 / 200	Kesk	31 / 41	Government
			SFP	10 / 41	Government
France	National Assembly Lower house	11 / 577	UDI	6 / 11	Opposition
			PR	6 / 11	Government
	Senate Upper house	48 / 348	UDI	38 / 48	Opposition
			PR	10 / 48	Government
Germany	Bundestag	92 / 735	FDP		Government
Hungary	Országgyűlés	10 / 199	Momentum		Opposition
Ireland	Dáil Lower house	37 / 160	FF		Government
	Seanad Upper house	21 / 60	FF		Government
Italy	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	2 / 400	RI, +E		Opposition
	Senate of the Republic Upper house	0 / 200	RI, +E		Opposition
Lithuania	Seimas	23 / 141	LRLS	12 / 33	Government
			LP	11 / 33	Government
Latvia	Saeima	0 / 100	A/Par!		Extraparliamentary
Luxembourg	Chamber of Deputies	12 / 60	DP		Government
Netherlands	House of Representatives Lower house	58 / 150	VVD	34 / 58	Government
			D66	24 / 58	Government
	Senate Upper house	19 / 75	VVD	12 / 19	Government
			D66	7 / 19	Government
Poland	Sejm Lower house	8 / 460	.Nowoczesna		Opposition
	Senat of Poland Upper house	1 / 100	.Nowoczesna		Opposition
Portugal	Assembly of the Republic	8 / 230	IL		Opposition
Romania	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	55 / 330	USR		Opposition
	Senate Upper house	25 / 136	USR		Opposition
Slovakia	National Council	0 / 150	PS		Extraparliamentary
Spain	Congress of Deputies Lower house	10 / 350	Cs		Opposition
	Senate Upper house	8 / 266	Cs		Opposition
Sweden	Riksdag	40 / 349	C	24 / 40	Opposition
			L	16 / 40	Government

National parliaments outside the European Union

Country	Institution	Number of seats	Member parties
Andorra	General Council	4 / 28	PLA
Armenia	National Assembly	0 / 107	ANC, Bright Armenia
Azerbaijan	National Assembly	0 / 125	Musavat
Bosnia and Herzegovina	House of Representatives	2 / 42	Our Party
Georgia	Parliament	7 / 150	Republican, FD, SA, Lelo, Girchi MF
Iceland	Althing	4 / 63	Viðreisn
Moldova	Parliament	0 / 101	PL
Montenegro	Assembly	1 / 81	LPCG
Norway	Storting	8 / 169	Venstre
Switzerland	National Council Lower house	45 / 200	FDP, GLP
	Council of States Upper house	12 / 46	FDP
Ukraine	Verkhovna Rada	261 / 450	Servant of the People, Voice
United Kingdom	House of Commons Lower house	15 / 650	Liberal Democrats, Alliance
	House of Lords Upper house	94 / 775	Liberal Democrats
	Gibraltar Parliament unicameral	3 / 17	Libs

Member parties

 

  States with full and/or associate member parties

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	3 / 17
Croatia	Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats	0 / 12
	Croatian Social Liberal Party	0 / 12
	Istrian Democratic Assembly	1 / 12
	Civic Liberal Alliance	0 / 12
	Centre	0 / 12
Cyprus	United Democrats	0 / 6
	Democratic Alignment	0 / 6
Czech Republic	ANO 2011	6 / 21
Denmark	Social Liberal Party	2 / 13
	Venstre	3 / 13
Estonia	Estonian Centre Party	1 / 6
	Estonian Reform Party	2 / 6
Finland	Centre Party	2 / 13
	Swedish People's Party of Finland	1 / 13
France	Radical Party	1 / 79
	Union of Democrats and Independents	0 / 79
Germany	Free Democratic Party	5 / 96
Hungary	Hungarian Liberal Party	0 / 21
	Momentum Movement	2 / 21
Ireland	Fianna Fáil	2 / 13
Italy	Italian Radicals	0 / 73
	More Europe	0 / 73
	Team K	0 / 73
Latvia	For Latvia's Development	1 / 8
	Movement For!	0 / 8
Lithuania	Liberals' Movement	1 / 11
	Freedom Party	0 / 11
Luxembourg	Democratic Party	1 / 6
Netherlands	Democrats 66	2 / 26
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	4 / 26
Poland	.Nowoczesna	0 / 51
Portugal	Liberal Initiative	0 / 21
Romania	Save Romania Union^[7]	8 / 33
Slovakia	Progressive Slovakia	3 / 14
Spain	Citizens	6 / 54
Sweden	Centre Party	2 / 20
	Liberals	1 / 20

Outside the EU

•   Action!
•   Liberal Party of Andorra
•   Armenian National Congress
•   Bright Armenia
•   Musavat
•   Party of Freedom and Progress
•   Our Party
•   Free Democrats
•   Republican Party of Georgia
•   Strategy Aghmashenebeli
•   Lelo for Georgia
•   Girchi - More Freedom
•   Reform Party
•   Democratic Party of Kosovo
•   New Kosovo Alliance
•   Liberal Party
•   Liberal Party of Montenegro
•   Liberal Democratic Party
•   Liberal Party
•   People's Freedom Party
•   Yabloko
•   Movement of Free Citizens
•   FDP.The Liberals
•   Green Liberal Party of Switzerland^[7]
•   Civil Position
•   European Party of Ukraine
•   Servant of the People
•   Power of the People
•   Voice
•   Liberal Democrats
•   Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
•   Liberal Party of Gibraltar

See also

• European Liberal Forum
• European Liberal Youth
• Liberal International
• Political parties of the world

References

1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
2. . Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. "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.
4. . Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
5. 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.
6. "Macron-Liberal alliance to be named Renew Europe". Politico. 12 June 2019.
7. "ALDE Party Council meets in Zürich". ALDE. 28 June 2019.^{[permanent dead link]}

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.

• Official website
• European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)