Tag Archives: ALDE

Mark Valladares

ALDE Party Congress venue for 2013 announced… welcome to London!

By Mark Valladares | Mon 20th May 2013 - 4:51 pm

The Liberal Democrats are proud to announce the hosting of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe) Congress in London at the end of November this year.

The ALDE Party Congress is the biggest annual event gathering Liberals across Europe:

  • over 650 members of liberal parties from around the continent;
  • top politicians including Prime Ministers, European Commissioners, Ministers, Members of the European and national Parliaments, Members of the Committee of the Regions, and many other delegates
  • an event with European visibility, acknowledging the role of the supporting party within both a European and the national political context
  • topical debates, high level speeches and

…

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Posted in Europe / International, Events and News | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Mark Valladares

ALDE Party Council: “The sun lounger can wait, Brad, there are only twelve months to save Europe!”

By Mark Valladares | Sat 11th May 2013 - 3:37 pm

From Yerevan and Lisbon, from Mariehamn and Palermo they came, not necessarily to put the world to rights immediately, but to at least organise the processes by which it might happen.

Ah yes, process – not an obvious reason to come to Pula, in Istria on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, I admit, but that was what brought European liberals together for the Spring meeting of the Council of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE). The promise of warm sun, blue sky and crystal clear waters couldn’t have had an influence, surely?

There were two key issues to …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | 10 Comments
Mark Valladares

ALDE Council preview: separating the Central European goat from the Eastern European sheep?

By Mark Valladares | Fri 19th April 2013 - 10:48 am

istria logoIt must be said that, when I was elected to be one of the Party’s delegates to the Council of what was then ELDR and is now ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe), I had a vague idea that the travel would be interesting.

And yes, Dresden and Palermo were interesting, despite there not being very many direct flights. Yerevan, on the other hand, was not exactly an obvious destination, although the warmth of the welcome, and the sheer enthusiasm for ‘Europe’ was invigorating for someone who has to …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 1 Comment
NewsHound

LibLink: Guy Verhofstadt thinks that David Cameron would be wrong to leave the EU…

By NewsHound | Fri 18th January 2013 - 3:51 pm

In a piece for the Huffington Post entitled “The UK Is Sleepwalking to the EU Exit. It Is Time to Wake Up”, Guy Verhofstadt, Leader of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) Group in the European Parliament, gives a glimpse of the difficulties facing David Cameron in seeking to renegotiate the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European Union. He warns;

Cameron will not succeed if he attempts to hold his European partners to ransom, exchanging acquiescence to EU treaty change over the eurozone for a unilateral repatriation of powers.

and notes, in language that Liberal Democrats would …

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Posted in Europe / International, LibLink and News | Also tagged , and | 18 Comments
Mark Valladares

Europe – what to look out for in 2013…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 4th January 2013 - 1:51 pm

EU Parliament Brussels - Some rights reserved by PoetografieWhilst most of the attention will be on whether or not the Euro can survive, or whether another country will need to be bailed out, there will be much else besides going on. So, for your delectation and delight, here are some of the highlights;

The first half of 2013 will see the Irish hold the rotating Presidency and, at the end of their watch, the Europe of 27 will become the Europe of 28, as Croatia become members of the European Union on 1 July, just as the Lithuanians take over the

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
The Voice

A Christmas message from the President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe

By The Voice | Fri 21st December 2012 - 9:48 am

It is that time of year when Christmas messages start appearing, and here at Liberal Democrat Voice, we are no exception. And so, for your delight, here is a message from Sir Graham Watson, Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West, and President of ALDE…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged | 11 Comments
Mark Valladares

Are you free for a weekend in Istria in mid-May?…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 30th November 2012 - 2:21 pm

Now, you have to admit, that isn’t an offer you’re likely to get every day. If I was to add that most of your airfare will be paid (although not your accommodation), you might become a little more wary. “What’s the deal?”, I hear you ask.

It’s like this. The International Office of the Liberal Democrats is responsible for supporting the Party’s delegation to the Spring Council meeting of ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, formerly ELDR), and making sure that we send a full delegation of fifteen to take part. And, as part of that exercise, and to encourage a more diverse representation, they’ve asked me to invite you (yes, you!) to apply to fill any vacancies that might arise.

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Posted in Europe / International and News | 3 Comments
Mark Valladares

Guy Verhofstadt probably wasn’t on Nigel Farage’s Christmas card list anyway…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 23rd November 2012 - 2:51 pm

It would be fair to say that Nigel Farage and the leader of the ALDE group in the European Parliament, former Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, are unlikely to be close friends. It’s rather less likely after this intervention on Wednesday. Sit back and enjoy…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 16 Comments
Mark Valladares

ELDR Congress – a quick catch up…

By Mark Valladares | Fri 16th November 2012 - 2:21 pm

Last week that unusual event, a keynote speech by a senior Westminster-based Liberal Democrat at an ELDR* event, as Nick Clegg made one of the speeches that opened this year’s Congress.

Europe needs liberals now more than ever. The shared challenges we face are ones that can only be tackled when like-minded people across Europe work together: how to create jobs, particularly for our young people, and bring back prosperity; how to tackle climate change and build the new, green economies we need for our future.

For the rest …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Giles Goodall

Three cheers for the unsung heroes of Brussels

By Giles Goodall | Fri 16th November 2012 - 11:52 am

A new survey by European news portal Euractiv has ranked Sharon Bowles MEP as the most influential Brit in EU policy-making, eight places ahead of David Cameron and thirty-three above Nigel Farage. The UK40 survey also features Lib Dem MEPs Andrew Duff and Sir Graham Watson in the top sixteen. National politicians such as Cameron, William Hague and Nick Clegg make the top twenty, but often lose out in the ranking to less well known Brits in the EU institutions.

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Rebecca Taylor MEP

Opinion: How my life changed forever – 100 days in!

By Rebecca Taylor MEP | Fri 13th July 2012 - 3:16 pm

At the start of this year I was a Lib Dem from Yorkshire working and studying in London who according to some journalists was an “unknown” – although I was quite well known in certain Lib Dem circles, especially for my quiches! The resignation of Diana Wallis, as Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber changed all that.

In 2009 I was third on the Lib Dem list for Yorkshire and the Humber. When you are third on a regional list and the …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments
Mark Valladares

European Parliament overwhelmingly rejects ACTA

By Mark Valladares | Wed 4th July 2012 - 3:22 pm

The culmination of weeks of campaigning and lobbying against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) came this morning, as the European Parliament voted 478 to 39 to reject it, despite the fact that twenty-two member states, including the United Kingdom, had already signed it. As a result, the Agreement is now likely to become irrelevant without the support of European Union nations.

The Agreement had already been rejected by five Committees of the European Parliament, and despite attempts by Conservative MEPs to defer the vote, as urged by UNI MEI, a “global union for the Media, Entertainment and Art Industries”, …

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Edward McMillan-Scott  MEP “I’ve been helping Syrian rebels”

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 15th March 2012 - 7:28 pm

Edward McMillan-Scott, is one of our Liberal Democrat MEPs for Yorkshire and the Humber and a Vice President of the European Parliament with special responsibility for Human Rights and Democracy. I caught up with him for a quick chat at Conference in Gateshead.

Elected in 1984 to the European Parliament, he recently celebrated his second anniversary of joining the Liberal Democrats at the weekend. He came to us because of the way the Conservative Party had “abandoned its relationships with mainstream parties in the European Parliament. Rather than follow …

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Posted in Europe / International, News and Parliament | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

Lib Dem leader of Sheffield Council wins top European honour

By Helen Duffett | Tue 16th November 2010 - 11:18 am

Paul Scriven, the Leader of Sheffield City Council, has won a Europe-wide award for the work he and his Liberal Democrat colleagues have done to put power into the hands of Sheffield people.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe held their Leader Awards last night, “recognising the work of outstanding local and regional liberal and democrat politicians.”

Cllr Scriven received the Achievement in Local Government Award. Others up for award included local politicians from France, Croatia and Holland.

Since Paul became the Liberal Democrat Leader of the Council in 2008 Sheffield has seen a raft of new ideas to devolve …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Mark Valladares

From our Correspondent in Barcelona – the ELDR Congress reviewed

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd November 2009 - 2:03 pm

Last week, LDV published a preview by Lib Dem blogger Mark Valladares of this year’s ELDR (European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party) Congress in Barcelona. Here he reports back on its outcomes …

And so the 30th ELDR Congress in Barcelona is over, and most of the delegates have returned to the four corners of Europe from whence they came. They will have done so in good spirits after what was a pretty successful gathering.

In policy terms, the theme resolution, Liberal Answers For A New Prosperity, reasserts a conviction that a competitive business environment, married to an efficient, …

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Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged | 3 Comments
The Voice

Lib Dem Graham Watson drops bid to become EU president

By The Voice | Wed 8th July 2009 - 8:30 pm

The Press Association reports:

A British MEP has withdrawn from the race to become the next president of the European Parliament “to save the European Union”. Liberal Democrat Graham Watson said he is joining a cross-party cabal which will see the job carved up between the Parliament’s mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties for the next five years.

When the newly-elected European Parliament meets for the first time next week, it now looks as if former Polish prime minister Jerzy Buzek, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), will get the job. In return, the three main parties in the

…

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Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

Transparency is for Lib Dems, too

By Stephen Tall | Tue 23rd June 2009 - 9:30 pm

The casual reader of this post – Duff-Verhofstadt drive to federal Europe sees its first Liberal casualty – over at The Yorkshire Guidon blog might not understand its full implication:

Former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt, in the running to lead the Liberals and Democrats group (ALDE) in the European Parliament, and his campaign manager UK Lib Dem MEP Andrew Duff make no secret of their desire to see a ‘federal Europe’. … Such Federalist credentials are impeccable and yet are starting to spook MEPs in the ALDE group. Today saw the first defection as the widely regarded Finnish MEP from

…

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Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 7 Comments



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