The Congress was mainly concerned with the drawing up and the adoption of the third ELDR/LDR election manifesto. The title was "A Europe for free and caring citizens". The manifesto was the expression of our struggle for freedom, democracy and social justice under the rule of law, within a United Europe. This programme demonstrated that our main objective remains a federal and decentralised Europe, aimed at enlarging freedom and promoting a growing togetherness.

The ELDR believes that the early abolition of internal borders should enable all Community's citizens to live, work and study wherever they want in the Community. At the Congress Colette Flesch was re-elected President unanimously, as were the three vice-presidents.

Third direct elections, June 1989

The parties of the LDR-Group obtained a good result in 1989, winning 10% of the vote and returning 49 members to the European Parliament. The F.D.P. came back with four members, at the same time the LDR-Group was enlarged by the C.D.S. (Spain, 5 members), D66 (The Netherlands, 1 member) and the Progressive Democrats (Ireland, 1 member).

After the 1989 elections, the following parties were represented in the Liberal Democratic and Reformist Group in the European Parliament:

FRANCE - U.D.F. (Union pour la Démocratie Française)

FRANCE - C.p.E.(Centre pour l'Europe)

ITALY - P.R.I. (Partito Repubblicano Italiano)

BELGIUM - P.V.V. (Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang)

BELGIUM - P.R.L. (Parti Réformateur Libéral)

THE NETHERLANDS - V.V.D. (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie)

THE NETHERLANDS - D66 (Democraten 66)

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY - F.D.P. (Freie Demokratische Partei)

DENMARK - Venstre (Danmarks Liberale Parti)

LUXEMBOURG - D.P. (Demokratesch Partei)

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - P.D. (Progressive Democrats)

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - Thomas J Maher (Independent)

PORTUGAL - P.S.D. (Partido Social Democrata)

SPAIN - C.D.S. (Centro Democrático y Social)

SPAIN - C.i.U. (Convergència i Unió)

New member Party

In July 1989 the C.D.S. of Spain joined the Federation as a new member party.