To ensure proper delivery of this newsletter, please add newsletter@eldr.eu to your email address book.President Neyts calls on Iran to restore the transparency of its nuclear programmeDuring the last plenary session on 31st of January 2008 at the European Parliament, Annemie Neyts, ELDR President and ALDE Coordinator for Foreign affairs informed the Parliament that the debate with the Iranian chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, had not achieved good results. Mrs Neyts stressed the determination of the liberal MEP to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and conducting nuclear research that would lead the country obtaining a nuclear arsenal. Iran, she added, has still not complied with its international obligations to suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. However, development of nuclear power for civil use, she said, should be put under international control.Serbian presidential re-election and a future on a new basisIn occasion of the Serbians presidential elections Annemie Neyts, ELDR President and ALDE Coordinator for Foreign affairs praised the Serbian people for their maturity. “By turning out in sufficient numbers to validate the outcome, the Serbian citizens have done Serbian democracy a great service”, she said. “And so has Mr Nicolic by conceding defeat and calling for calm”, she added. “I congratulate Mr Tadic”, she concluded, “and I hope that it will soon be possible to prepare the immediate and long term future on a new basis”. She finally urged the Commission to make swift progress with visa facilitation for all Serbian citizens and not to forget the citizens of all the other Western Balkan states. European Liberal Forum: Conference on European Civic Identity The “European Liberal Forum”, the European liberal foundation, was formally established on 25th January 2008 under the umbrella of the European liberal family. Closely linked to the ELDR Party, its purpose is to bring together national liberal foundations and think-tanks in the European Union. It will do so by observing, analysing and contributing to the debate on European public policy issues and the process of European integration, through education, training, research and the promotion of active citizenship within the European Union, particularly with regard to young Europeans. The General Assembly elected Thierry Coosemans from the Centre Jean Gol of Belgium as the Board member representing the member organisations.Crise gouvernementale en Italie: « attention à ne pas occulter les autres urgences politiques »La crise du gouvernement italien ne doit pas occulter les autres urgences politiques nationales. C’est le message lancé par la Présidente de l’ELDR Annemie Neyts. Parmi celles-ci figurent le déficit public italien élevé qui risque le dépassement des limites autorisées par le Pacte de stabilité; l’impasse dans laquelle se trouve la question de l’indépendance des magistrats italiens (les membres de la Commission de l’Ecole de la Magistrature pourraient bientôt être désignés par le Ministère de la Justice ce qui pourrait entraîner un risque de partialité politique dans les nominations) et enfin le processus de privatisation d'Alitalia, la compagnie aérienne italienne actuellement en difficulté.Au regard de possibles élections anticipées, la Présidente de l’ELDR invite les partis italiens membres de l’ELDR qui soutenaient le gouvernement de M. Prodi : Italia dei Valori, Movimento Repubblicani Europei et Radicali Italiani, ainsi que son parti membre dans l’opposition : le Partito Repubblicano Italiano, à défendre la sauvegarde du droit à un processus juridique équitable, la liberté d’entreprendre et les critères du Pacte de Stabilité.Italian political crisis: our parties The Radicali Italiani defends the idea of forming a new “big” majority to quell the crisis. They reminded the huge charge on budget for a new further round of elections. “We are at the peak of the long term political crisis” commented yesterday the international officer for the party Italia dei Valori. “The Italian politics misses of a European vision and a long term perspective, especially between the company directors, the businessmen and the party leaders. Our aims must be the progressive liberalisation of market and a close contact between national and European politics”. “Considering the inevitability of the elections, and our position against the recent electoral law, we will pursue the political lines of the Walter Veltroni campaign program, the only one who elaborated a clear and democratic political strategy” declared Luciana Sbarbati, secretary general of Movimento Repubblicani Europei and MEP’s. “Waiting for the quelling crises, we are launching a new Italian liberal democrat party with the support of Lamberto Dini, in the Silvio Berlusconi list”, declared Francesco Nucara, leader of Repubblicani Italiani.A Party in Amsterdam to celebrate the VVD AnniversaryThe VVD, ELDR member party from the Netherlands, celebrated its 60th anniversary on January 26th in Hotel Krasnopolsky Amsterdam with celebratory events attended by more than 1,000 members. Amongst the many speakers was ELDR President Annemie Neyts and Graham Watson, ALDE leader. During his keynote speech, the leader of the VVD, Mark Rutte, announced that his party will be rewriting its declaration of principles to better address important contemporary challenges like globalisation, migration, terrorism and innovative technologies. The VVD was established in 1948, and is one of the founding members of ELDR.Austria's Liberal Forum celebrates its 15th anniversaryELDR President Annemie Neyts joined the celebration of the Liberal Forum, our liberal voice in Austria, emphasizing that the foundation of Liberales Forum salvaged the soul of liberalism in Austria.More than 150 guests took part in the event; Alexander Zach, MP, the LIF leader, expressed the importance of investing in higher education and remains optimistic about the elections.Next Events12/02/2008 : ELDR Housewarming PartyELDR will celebrate the opening of their new headquarters.For more info: info@eldr.eu17/02/2008 : LYMEC election observation mission to ArmeniaLYMEC election observation mission to ArmeniaFor more info: www.lymec.org29/02/2008 : ELDR Bureau MeetingThe ELDR will hold the next Bureau meeting on Friday 29 February from 14.00 till 17.00 in the ELDR Headquarters.For more info: info@eldr.org 11/04/2008 : ELDR Council 11 April 2008, Tallinn, EstoniaOur annual Council meeting will take place from 11 to 12 April 2008 in Tallinn, Estonia. For more info, please click here or contact us at info@eldr.eu  30/10/2008 : ELDR Congress in StockholmThe ELDR will hold the next in Stockholm.For more info, contact us at info@eldr.euELDR Partyrue MONTOYERstraat 31 (7th floor)1000 Bruxelles BelgiumT +32 2 237 01 40F +32 2 231 19 07 info@eldr.orgwww.eldr.orgwith the support of the European parliamentClick here to unsubscribe