ELDR Prime Ministers lunch in view of next London summit
ELDR calls for a clear position on the implementation of the climate package amidst the financial turmoil. Summing up the discussion during the Prime Ministers Lunch organised by the ELDR party last Thursday, Annemie Neyts, Party President, expressed the leaders' common view that "the EU has to send a clear message on the financial crisis and we have to speed up negotiations and achieve an agreement in view of December's climate summit in Copenhagen in which the EU must play the leading role."

In view of the G20 talks in London on 2nd April European liberal Prime Ministers called for a real free market instead of stifling the economy with protectionism and for better international coordination in order to ensure a faster economic recovery and to prevent further crises.

Brussels: Spring Academy – Europe in Practice
Supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and the ELDR Party, the European Liberal Forum asbl (ELF), the European political foundation of the liberal family, successfully organized the 1st Spring Academy: Europe in Practice from 20-21 March 2009 in Brussels. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff MEP and President of ELF welcomed liberal participants from all over Europe and presented the many activities of ELF. The academy focused on the policy achievements of the ALDE group in the European Parliament over the past four years and explained the impact of decisions of the European Parliament to the citizens’ everyday life. Among the many prominent speakers were Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck MEP, President of the ELDR Party and Vice-President of ELF as well as Jules Maaten MEP.

Women serious contenders in Slovakian presidential elections
Liberal candidate Zuzana Martinakova obtained more than 5% of the votes in last Saturday’s first round of the Slovakian presidential elections. ELDR Vice-President Kristiina Ojuland MP, who visited Slovakia on 28 February has supported the candidature of the Free Forum party leader: "In the current economic crisis, we neither need old-fashioned recipes from the left nor populist answers from the right. Liberal solutions based on common sense and responsibility can help us find a way out. Mrs Martinakova offers Slovakian voters a credible third choice, a liberal choice." Incumbent Slovakian President Gasparovic, supported by the governing socialists and nationalists, scored 46.7%. He now will face opposition candidate Mrs Iveta Radicova, who scored 38%, in a run-off on Saturday 4 April.

“Europe is the solution, not the problem” - MR launches its European campaign
The Mouvement Réformateur launched its European election campaign on Saturday 21 March in a Brussels cinema. Top of the list of candidates is European Commissioner Louis Michel, followed by MEP Frederique Ries, and the state secretary for European Affairs, Olivier Chastel. Michel: “The European Union is the most prosperous economic region in the world, and the realization of the most beautiful story of mankind.” He warned that the campaign will be vicious against our liberal values: “politicians from the left, these scandalous children of Marxism, want to give a false impression of liberalism, linking it to Wild West capitalism. Those who today spit on liberalism would better reflect upon what a collectivist Europe would have brought us.”