ELDR encourages Croatia to speed up its reforms, which should enable her to become a full member of the EU by the end of this decade. Also encouraging Turkey to speed up reforms, ELDR stresses that each country should be judged on its own merits and that the negotiating processes should not be linked.

The European Liberal Democrats want more transparency in the European decision-making processes and support the opening of the Council when it legislates. “Transparency will be a key issue during the Finnish Presidency of the EU and we will push for the Council to legislate in public”, explained Matti Vanhanen, Finnish Prime Minister.

More European competences in the fields of energy and security are necessary to face the challenges of today and ELDR very much welcomes the will of the Finnish Prime Minister to move these issues forward on the European agenda. The European Liberal Democrats are in favour of making the fight against terrorism and organised crime a Community issue and are asking qualified majority voting and parliamentary and judicial oversight on these issues.

European Liberal Democrats’ leaders welcome the Commission focus to move towards a citizens’ agenda and a bigger emphasis on delivering on citizens’ expectations. “Debates in Denmark about EU priorities showed that Europe should focus its actions on security issues, environmental protection and growth and jobs.  This latest point requires increasing European spending on research and innovation to foster job creation. Delivering on these priorities will show that the EU is the best framework for policies that benefits citizens”, stated Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister.

Atzo Nicolai, Dutch Minister for European Affairs explained that today’s European Council is an important summit for Europe. “We should focus on showing the added-value of Europe to the citizens. The debates we have led in the Netherlands show that the Dutch people are committed to a stronger and more effective EU and are open for new treaty negotiations,” he said.

ALDE Group Leader, Graham Watson, called on his liberal colleagues and other heads of state and governments sitting in the European Council to make their meeting tonight a summit of the truths.  “Finland will be the 16^th and last country to ratify the constitutional treaty. The period of reflection should be succeeded by a period of action,” he declared.

Pictures from the summit can be found in our photo gallery