ELDR NEWSletter

November 2008

Table of contents ELDR welcomes two new members Sustainability and development: two challenges of the D66 party EVawards: five liberal nominations ELDR Political Activites: FDP, Germany Lunch debate on drug policies ELF conference in Warsaw: assessing four years of EU membership With the two new entries, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Serbia and the People’s Democratic Union (PDU), Russia, the ELDR now has 57 member parties. ELDR Family The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR Party) brings together 57 political parties with common liberal, democratic and reform ideals. In 2007 the European Liberal Democrat political family achieved many successes in the various elections around the EU member states, bringing the total number of liberal democrat voters to 30 million Europe-wide. Five EU prime ministers, one third of the members of the European Commission, 75 MEPs in the ALDE Group of the European Parliament and ministers in more than 20 governments in Europe belong to the liberal family. ELDR welcomes two new members The ELDR Party is pleased to announce that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Serbia and the People’s Democratic Union (PDU), Russia, have joined the European liberal democrat family. Both organisations applied for full membership of ELDR and were officially welcomed into the Party on Thursday 30th October 2008 at the ELDR Council meeting that took place in Stockholm, Sweden. Under the leadership of Cedomir Jovanovic, LDP has developed into an influential and strong party that promotes liberal values in Serbian society and encourages Serbia to establish peaceful and friendly relations with its neighbours. LDP has 147 local branches, in cities and municipalities throughout the country. It has 119 local councilors and is represented with 13 MPs in the Serbian parliament. PDU is led by former Russian prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, and is one of the democratic opposition forces operating in Russia. PDU is currently an independent, non-commercial, liberal opposition political organization with a membership of more than 56,000 people. The movement is active in 61 regions of Russia, with branches opened in 55 of these regions. The ELDR Council also approved the application of existing member party, Yabloko, Russia, to become a full member of ELDR. Yabloko has been an affiliate member since 2006. ELDR is now composed of 57 member parties. For more information about ELDR’s presence throughout Europe, please visit http://www.eldr.eu/members/. Sustainability and development: two challenges of the D66 party On Saturday 8 November D66 held its party congress in Zwolle. The theme of the congress was sustainability. Alexander Pechtold, party leader, stressed the importance of liberal leadership in climate change and sustainable development. ALDE leader Graham Watson delivered a speech on the challenges of the current financial crisis and the need for liberals to take the lead in a new approach. In addition, D66 MEP Sophie in 't Veld was overwhelmingly elected to lead D66 in the European Elections of 2009. Furthermore, about 100 people attended the D66 Europe night which was organised the night before the congress with the support of the ELDR. In this, Sophie in 't Veld debated Europe's role in protecting citizens’ privacy versus the need for tougher security measures with VVD senator Uri Rosenthal. EVawards: five liberal nominations The EVawards 2008 gala dinner will take place on Tuesday 2 December 2008 at the Palais de la Bourse in central Brussels. Voting is now closed for the awards which sees a strong liberal presence in the category ‘ Commissioner of the year’, including Mariann Fischer Boel, agriculture and rural development; Siim Kallas, administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud; Neelie Kroes, competition; Meglena Kuneva, consumer protection. Chris Davies, MEP, UK Liberal Democrat is also nominated as MEP of the year for blowing the whistle on the abuse of MEPs' expenses. ELDR Political Activites: FDP, Germany On 17th November 2008 the FDP, Germany, organised a conference in cooperation with ELDR entitled “Horizons – Germany 2020: The world we will be living in”. Dirk Niebel, Secretary General of the Free Democratic Party will open the event which forms part of a series of high level discussions over the past two years discussing liberal visions and ideas on what our life could look like in the year 2020 and how Liberals would like to shape it. Beyond daily political deadlines and the constraints of legislative periods, the FDP has been discussing the future challenges of issues such as our social security systems as well as topics of political-ethical relevance. The speakers will include Silvana Koch-Mehrin, MEP and 1st Deputy-Leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament. Lunch debate on drug policies On the basis of research commissioned by Radicali Italiani, the party launched last Wednesday in the ELDR Head Quarters their new commitment on drug policies, by proposing a scheme for evaluating public policies. The aim of the project is to propose a new approach to drug policies based on solutions as regard the best regulatory body against black market drugs. “We want to create a scientific knowledge on the matter and to make a scenario analysis, based on strong data”, said Marco Cappato, Secretary General of the Radicali Italiani and MEP in the ALDE group. Along with distinguished researchers and practitioners in the fields of politics and international economics, the speakers included Carla Rossi, CIBB Tor Vergata, University of Rome, Roberto Ricci, consultant, Guido Maria Rei, and Gianni Trovato, Tor Vergata University of Rome. Further information is available at www.illicitdrugmarket.net. ELF conference in Warsaw: assessing four years of EU membership “Four years in the EU: a success story or an array of missed opportunities?” - this question was the starting point of an ELF (European Liberal Forum) conference which brought together Polish and European decision makers as well as Polish citizens to analyse the impact of Poland’s EU membership. Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, President of the ELDR party and Vice-President of ELF, called the arrival of new EU member states a tremendous success which increased the EU’s weight on the world stage. Andrzej Wielowieyski MEP considered the change of psychological attitude in Poland as the most important element of success of EU membership of his country. Mr Wielowieyski observed a growing satisfaction of Polish citizens about EU membership.

Next events • 18/11/2008 : Lymec congress • 30/11/2008 : Parliamentary elections in Romania • 02/12/2008 : ALDE Winter Academy • 11/12/2008 : ELDR Leaders Meeting • 11/12/2008 : European Council • 18/06/2009 : ELDR Leaders and Ministers meeting Contact ELDR Party Rue MONTOYERstraat 31 (7th floor) BE - 1000 Bruxelles - Belgium T +32 2 237 01 40 F +32 2 231 19 07 info@eldr.eu - www.eldr.eu

www.eldr.eu

To ensure proper delivery of this newsletter, please add newsletter@eldr.eu to your email address book.ELDR Partyrue MONTOYERstraat 31 (7th floor)1000 Bruxelles - BelgiqueT +32 2 237 01 40 / F +32 2 231 19 07info@eldr.eu / www.eldr.euObama victory heralds new dawn for EU – US relationsAnnemie Neyts, President of ELDR Party declared today: "The European Liberal Democrats welcome Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election and consider it not just a victory for Obama, but for those with liberal democrat beliefs throughout the world. Greeting Obama’s victory, the ELDR Party welcomes the democratic commitment on the fight to strengthen civil rights enforcement and the desire of the new president to fight for pay equality between men and women and encouraging women-owned businesses. For Europeans, however, it is Obama’s desire to strengthen relations between the US and EU that will be particularly important. ""As European liberal democrats we have not forgotten the promises Obama made in his speech in Berlin about supporting democratic partners and upholding principles of sovereignty throughout Europe and Eurasia, towards a common idea of democratic progress. We look forward to increased cooperation between the EU and the new US administration. Furthermore, in relation to the conflict between Russia and Georgia, the challenge is to pursue an integrated strategy in the region and to invigorate the Transatlantic Alliance, so that we can work together in a trilateral commitment: US-EU-Russia with a unified voice.", she stated.  

To ensure proper delivery of this newsletter, please add newsletter@eldr.eu to your email address book.ELDR Partyrue MONTOYERstraat 31 (7th floor)1000 Bruxelles - BelgiqueT +32 2 237 01 40 / F +32 2 231 19 07info@eldr.eu / www.eldr.euEuropean liberals outline actions for tackling Eurozone recessionCoordination of the global finance architecture in the context of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), including the implementation of a global early-warning system in order to identify specific economic and financial risks at an early stage. This is just the first of the four priority actions called for by the European liberal democrats during the annual congress of the ELDR Party which took place in Stockholm last Thursday and Friday. During the two-day congress of debates, seminars and high level meetings, there was a firm criticism of the politics of the Federal Reserve Bank to supply the US market with excessive liquidity, and the absence of greater supervisory control. The two combined policies have turned out to be a crucial mistake, highlighted Annemie Neyts, President of the ELDR Party. The European liberal democrats strongly affirmed, however, that the erroneous developments in US economic and financial policy and the apparent failure of banks and insurance companies are no reason for losing confidence in the free market economy and in individual responsibility.For the full resolution and other adopted resolutions, please, visit:http://www.eldr.org/images/upload/resolutions_stockholm_31102008.doc