Yesterday, the European Commission finally adhered to calls from inter alia European Liberal Democrats and its youth organization LYMEC and proposed to scrap visa demands for travels up to 90 days for the holders of biometric passports in Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovina, pending certain improvements in their respective judicial sectors. Read more ...

Upon invitation of the international department of the Communist Party of China the first ever European multi-party gathering with the Communist Party was opened in Beijing yesterday. It aims to initiate a dialogue on global challenges and means of China-European cooperation. Read more ...

Marc Guerrero, ELDR Party Vice President, and CDC (Catalonia) Board member, calls on European governments to jointly defend the Community's principle regarding human rights and civil liberties at the European Union - Latin American and Caribbean Summit. Read more ...

Eastern Europe’s democratic transition constitutes an ongoing process. Liberalism as a tool to expand political, social and economic freedom to the individual continues to face adverse challenges, such as homophobia, nationalism, corruption and the lack of freedom of expression. Folkpartiet (Sweden) will organise a conference on 28th May in Stockholm titled "Together for Liberal Democracy in Eastern Europe". Read more ...

On 15-16 May 2010 the seminar "European Charter of Local Self-Government Implementation in Lithuania" will take place in Vilnius (Lithuania). The seminar is organised by the Liberal Movement of the Republic of Lithuania in cooperation with the ELDR Party and with the support of the European Parliament. Read more ...

This Conference, taking place at 10:00 on 14th May in Zagreb, will gather experts from local and regional self-government from Croatia and EU member countries with experience in the reform of local and regional government, which Croatia is required to implement as part of the EU accession process pursuant to the European Charter of Local Self-Government as adopted by the European Council and ratified by the Croatian Parliament. Read more ...

The ELDR Party congratulates the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg who has today become the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, with a further four Liberal Democrats taking up cabinet seats and up to twenty ministerial functions yet to be announced. In agreeing to enter into a formal coalition with the Conservative Party, Clegg has negotiated a deal that paves the way for electoral reform in the UK towards a more representative voting system. Read more ...

On Monday 10 May, ELDR's Dutch member party VVD has lost one of its prominent past political leaders, Hans Dijkstal, who died at the age of 67. Read more ...

"There is no doubt that we presently have to focus all our attention to avoid an overlap of the Greek crisis to the extended Euro zone", comments ELDR Party President Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck at the occasion of Europe day. 60 years ago on 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman laid the foundations for the European Union by proposing a supra-national authority for German and French coal and steel production. Read more ...

With 601 seats out of 650 already declared, it is no clearer which party or parties will form a new government in the UK. Latest predictions suggest the conservatives will have 308 seats, 18 short of a majority (37%), Labour 259 seats (29%) and the Liberal Democrats 53 seats (23%). The Lib Dems are set to increase their share of the vote compared to the 2005 election and have gained some constituencies, but lost others and have not increased their number of seats in the Parliament. This high share of the votes for the Liberal Democrats confirms yet again the necessity of electoral reform to truly reflect the voters will. Read more ...

Croatia Towards the EU – A Liberal Approach, was the topic of an international liberal conference held on 29th April in the Istrian Council House in Poreč organised by IDS (Istrian Democratic Assembly). The event gathered eminent politicians and officials from Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Hungary, Vojvodina and Kosovo. Read more ...

The ELDR Party is pleased to announce the launch of its Focus Year on demographic change and the accompanying website: www.eldrfocus.eu The nature of Europe's society is changing and there are a number of fundamental questions that need to be answered. Read more ...

On Saturday 1 May, ELDR's youth organisation LYMEC elected a new Bureau during its annual congress held in the Romanian ski resort Sinaia. Member of the German young liberals, Alexander Plahr, who in the last two years served LYMEC as vice-president, was elected as the new president. Read more ...

On May 7th 2010, Dutch political party D66, in cooperation with CDC (Catalonia), Open VLD (Belgium) and the European liberal youth, LYMEC, will hold a conference on countering youth unemployment. Read more ...

In a first reaction to the meeting of Finance Ministers of the Euro zone, ELDR Party President Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck welcomed the agreement on a three-year lending package of € 110 Billion for heavily indebted Greece. President Neyts commented: „I deplore that EU member states needed so long to take decisive actions, thereby worsening the situation. Read more ...