Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is a European political party composed of 76 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]

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 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 the 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, 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) maintained direct membership in the ALDE Party from several EU countries. Over 40 coordinators mobilised 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. Individual membership was eventually discontinued in 2023.

Structure

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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	Malik Azmani MEP	Netherlands	VVD
	Dan Barna	Romania	USR
	Baroness Sal Brinton	United Kingdom	LibDem
	Daniel Berg	Hungary	M
	Annelou van Egmond	Netherlands	D66
	Svenja Hahn MEP	Germany	FDP
	Eva Kjer Hansen	Denmark	Venstre
	Kira Rudik MP	Ukraine	Holos
Treasurer	David Burke	Ireland	FF
Ex officio members
ALDE Party Secretary-General	Didrik de Schaetzen
President of Liberal International	Hakima El Haite	Morocco	/ (MP)
Group Chair in the PACE	Iulian Bulai	Romania	/ (USR)
Leader in the European Parliament	Valérie Hayer 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	Ines Holzegger	Austria	NEOS

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
• 2021–2024: co-Presidents Timmy Dooley Ilhan Kyuchyuk

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, 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 Commissioners

ALDE Member Parties contribute five out of the 27 members of the European Commission:

State	Commissioner	Portfolio	Political party	Portrait
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.[a]
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

European Council

Member State	Representative	Title	Political party	Member of the Council since	Photo
European Union	President	Charles Michel	MR	1 December 2019
Belgium	Prime Minister	Alexander De Croo	Open VLD	27 October 2019
Estonia	Prime Minister	Kaja Kallas	Reform	26 January 2021
Netherlands	Prime Minister	Mark Rutte	VVD	14 October 2010

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	Confidence and supply
			HSLS	2 / 9	Confidence and supply
			Glas	1 / 9	Opposition
			IDS-DDI	2 / 9	Opposition
			Centre	2 / 9	Opposition
			Focus	1 / 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	53 / 101	EK	16 / 59	Opposition
			ER	37 / 59	Government
Finland	Parliament	41 / 200	Kesk	31 / 41	Opposition
			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	12 / 400	A	10 / 12	Opposition
			RI, +E	2 / 12	Opposition
	Senate of the Republic Upper house	4 / 205	A		Opposition
Lithuania	Seimas	23 / 141	LRLS	12 / 33	Government
			LP	11 / 33	Government
Latvia	Saeima	0 / 100	A/Par!		Extra-parliamentary
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	38 / 460	PL2050	32 / 38	Government
			.N	6 / 38	Government
	Senate Upper house	5 / 100	PL2050	5 / 5	Government
			.N	0 / 5	Extra-Parliamentary
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	32 / 150	PS		Opposition
Spain	Congress of Deputies Lower house	0 / 350	Cs		Extra-parliamentary
	Senate Upper house	0 / 266	Cs
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	6 / 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

Country or Region	Party	MEPs
Austria	NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum	1 / 18
Belgium	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	3 / 12
	Reformist Movement	2 / 8
Bulgaria	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	3 / 17
Croatia	Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats	0 / 12
	Centre	0 / 12
	Civic Liberal Alliance	0 / 12
	Croatian Social Liberal Party	0 / 12
	Focus	0 / 12
	Istrian Democratic Assembly	1 / 12
Cyprus	Democratic Alignment	0 / 6
	United Democrats	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	Action	1 / 73
	European Liberal Democrats	0 / 73
	Italian Radicals	0 / 73
	More Europe	0 / 73
	Team K	0 / 73
Latvia	For Latvia's Development	1 / 8
	Movement For!	0 / 8
Lithuania	Freedom Party	0 / 11
	Liberals' Movement	1 / 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

See also

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

Notes

References

External links

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

• Official website
• European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)