The European Liberal Democrats have announced the venues for their Council meetings and annual Congress for 2012.

The first Council meeting will take place in Yerevan, Armenia and is expected to take place on 11-12 May, just five days after scheduled Parliamentary elections. This might be seen as a bold decision, given that following the 2007 elections, opposition parties alleged widespread fraud and called for mass demonstrations, although European observers felt that the vote largely met international standards. The Liberal Democrat delegation of fifteen, led by Robert Woodthorpe-Browne, will be discussing such issues as a common corporate tax base for Europe.

The second Council meeting and Congress will take place in Dublin this autumn, with the date yet to be confirmed, with hosts Fianna Fail promising a lively time to be had by all. A rather larger delegation will be attending this meeting, and if you’re eligible to take part, and are interested in joining our delegation, contact paul[dot]speller[at]libdems[dot]org[dot]uk.

* Newshound sets the agenda, as you would expect from a Red Setter

Having promised to ‘re-engage with Europe’, Nick sees this meeting as part of that process, using the umbrella organisation of European liberalism to gather potential allies and influence the European Commission more positively than David Cameron did at last month’s Brussels summit.

Interestingly, Douglas Carswell MP has felt the need to comment on the event, suggesting that the gathering will have little value and asking;

“There will be a lot of mushy goodwill and talk of re-engagement, but does that mean that our government will be able to safeguard our national interest?”

Which does rather lead one to ask the question, if this is a liberal event, rather than an official government one, what is he on about? But, for his benefit, Liberal Democrats tend to feel that working with people to make Europe better for business and for people is better than opting out.

Nevertheless, at the meeting liberal ministers and EU commissioners will discuss the euro zone crisis, measures to boost growth in the bloc’s fragile economy and the future of the EU’s multi-billion euro budget, the initial ELDR discussions of which were covered by Liberal Democrat Voice in December.

Last week I had the honour of being elected the new President of ELDR, the European political party federation to which the Liberal Democrats belong, at its annual congress in sunny Palermo, Italy.

I was unopposed as a candidate, so the result was not quite the surprise as it might otherwise have been. I’m not sure whether the fact that no one else came forward was a sign of our outgoing President, Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck MEP, having set the bar so high, or the fact that I was the only one foolish enough to take on the job! But I am glad nonetheless that I received near unanimous support from the party delegates.

Our three key building blocks for a Liberal Europe are, in my view, efficient capital markets, openness to new ideas and upholding the rule of law. We must regulate financial markets but not strangle them, as some socialists would. We must welcome new ideas not resist progress in science, as the Greens often do.

And we must insist on the rule of law, not turning a blind eye to illegality, like the European People’s Party.

The EPP (to whom the Tories used to belong until they became too extremist for them!) cynically support the likes of Berlusconi, Basescu and Boyko Borissov – the cowboys of democracy. The President of the EPP should step down out of shame. They have not just remained silent at the transgressions of Berlusconi in Italy and Viktor Orban in Hungary – when Orban came to the European Parliament they gave him a standing ovation!

Liberals support European integration despite its challenges and inconveniences, not because we want to centralise everything but because integration is the most effective lever we have for regaining control over our destinies. Population growth, climate change, organised crime: all these are supranational challenges requiring supranational responses. These are challenges with which EU countries, alone, cannot cope. Liberals are at the forefront of this.

If our European party is to help achieve all this we need three reforms.

First, we need to re-engage people with our parties. We need to better distil our message and to better communicate it. We can learn from Obama’s campaign, and some fresh thinking about how liberals communicate would be useful.

Second, we must seize the supranational stage. In the jigsaw that is European construction, supranational parties are the missing piece. Rather than 27 national elections for the European Parliament we need a truly European election. We must push for the election of at least some MEPs from supranational, pan-European lists. Our citizens must know their vote has an impact on the formation of the EU’s ‘government’, so we should link it to the choice of the President of the European Commission.

Third, we must open our doors to embrace new member parties. Some of them may not be able to call themselves ‘Liberal’ in countries where the name has become a dirty word. They may be campaigners against corruption, like our friends in Italy in Italia dei Valori or in Vece Verejna in the Czech Republic. They may be radicals, in the Transnational Radical Party or in Palikot in Poland. Or they may style themselves democrats or republicans, like our friends in France. But they are all allied to our great Liberal tradition. We sit with some on the Committee of the Regions, the Council of Europe and in the European Parliament.

We must ally with them on the issues which matter most – just as the Liberals and the SDP joined forces back in 1988.

I will strain every sinew to leave to my successor a stronger party than the one I have been elected to serve. But I have no illusions about the scale of the challenge.

In seven of the 27 EU countries we have no ELDR member party.

Where five years ago we had eight Liberal prime ministers around the Council table we now have only two, and just 10% of MEPs. In many countries where we govern – like here in the UK – the opinion polls hardly look good.

It won’t be easy. The going will be tough. But let’s pluck up courage and be prepared to live a little dangerously. If we do not, we risk not living at all.

The theme for the Congress was the 2014-2020 EU budget, and there was a range of approaches, from the Committee of the Regions, who felt that funds should be made available to allow them to deal with their already declared priorities, to LYMEC, ELDR’s youth wing, who called for the abolition of the Common Agricultural Policy, amongst other things. However, mainstream thought pointed towards freezing the budget, at least in real terms, with the focus of the debate being ‘European added value’, i.e. ways of spending money that might be more effective at European level than at national level, reducing the overall spend. Smarter, rather than bigger, perhaps.

Meanwhile, the annual drama that is the election of new Bureau members was under way, with one Presidential and six Vice-Presidential candidates pressing the flesh in pursuit of votes. As the largest delegation, with nearly 20% of the electorate, we were being actively courted, especially for the four Vice Presidential vacancies, as we were not fielding a candidate of our own.

ELDR has a uniquely dreadful system for its elections, requiring voters to cast as many votes as there are vacancies, whether or not you like enough of them to want to do so. It combines first past the post with an element of mandation, something that probably needs reviewing at some point. But when the dust settled, and the music stopped, a Finn (Swedish-speaking), an Italian, a German, a Catalan and the Dutch candidate were smiling Vice-Presidents, and the Estonian went home empty-handed.

You’ll note that there were five winners, as the Presidency remained uncontested, leaving Graham Watson to win with a veritably North Korean 96.4% of the vote. I am led to understand that the remaining 3.6% had either lost their polling cards or were trapped in meetings… His success created an additional vacancy for a Vice-President (he was elected to that position in Helsinki last year), so four became five.

So, if I were to sum up the mood in Palermo, it would be one of realism. Times are tough, prudence is in favour, and liberals are thinking about being smart, not extravagant.

Next year’s theme will be about energy sustainability, and the Congress will take place in Dublin, with Fianna Fail as our hosts. If you’re interested in being involved, contact the Party’s International Office and ask to be added to the mailing list.

The recent step-up in warmongering follows the publication of the latest IAEA report on nuclear weaponisation within the Iranian nuclear industry. This report has been spun as a much stronger indication that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. Alongside this media activity are reports of a Western troop build up in the Gulf and the stationing of cruise-missile-enabled submarines off the coast of Iran – and the widely publicised transfer of new ‘super bunker buster’ munitions to the region. Not only does it look like war is on, but it is being spun that the UK is likely to participate militarily.

All of this of course could just be about pressure on the Iranian regime. However, it is more likely that, with echoes of the Iraq war, it is instead the preparation of public opinion for war. The reason why this is more likely concerns the detail of the IAEA report itself. It is more likely for two important reasons, which show that the war rhetoric and the actuality of Iranian nuclear weaponisation have diverged.

First, as the UK Lib Dem resolution explained, the actual November 8th IAEA report does not say what it is claimed it says, and in fact contains very little that is new. The Director General of the IAEA, General Yukiya Amano wrote to the UN Security Council on 17th Nov that,

The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device. It also indicates that, prior to the end of 2003, these activities took place under a structured programme, and that some activities may still be ongoing.

This is in effect agreeing with the United States’ 2007 multi-agency ‘National Intelligence Estimate’ – that Iran has stopped its embryonic nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

Second, the activities which ‘may still be ongoing’ include some potential research studies, and some other supporting evidence which originated with the US military and which has been strongly criticised by international experts – including a former IAEA inspector from the US. This disputed supporting evidence involves a Ukrainian nano-diamond scientist who has denied involvement, components controversially described as nuclear-use-only, and the alleged existence of an explosion chamber supposedly (and implausibly) used for testing nuclear-bomb triggers.

The IAEA’s more credible reports of potentially ongoing post-2003 minor weaponisation activities, however, are consistent with Iran enabling itself to revive its 2003 programme, should it decide to do so in the future. But will it ? President Ahmedinejad may have an objective of trying to bring the world’s attention to Israel’s nuclear weapons and to the fact that it is not a NPT signatory, and he is volatile and prone to inflammatory rhetoric. However, Iran’s Supreme Leader Komenei recently announced a plan to consolidate his power and reduce or abolish the presidency. The Supreme Leader has been critical of Ahmedinejad’s nuclear posturing.

Given the actual contents of the IAEA report, the criticisms of some of its post-2003 evidence, and the power struggle in Iran, the successful UK Lib Dem resolution at ELDR concluded that a large scale war involving 100,000 deaths or many more, could not be justified. It called for Iran to allow the IAEA to do its work and for Iran accept the IAEA’s demand for more inspections and further work, and ratification of the Additional Protocol. It also called for sanctions to be focused more effectively on any potential nuclear weaponsiation programme, as per the UN Security Council sanctions, relative to the more general sanctions applied by the USA and some of its allies.

With respect to UK government policy, any divisions on Iran are less likely to be between the Coalition partners. They are more likely to be between those Conservative factions who wish to see more inspections and the IAEA undertaking more of its own forensic research (official policy), and those who wish to see an attack on Iran regardless, and are happy to see ‘the facts fixed around the policy’. Liberal Democrats should make sure they are on the right side of that debate.

In the midst of this crisis, ELDR (the European Liberal Democrats) delegates from across Europe (and I’m beginning to appreciate just how far that might be) are gathering in Sicily’s capital to discuss the European Union’s budget for 2014-2020. I’m here because you sent me (or at least those of you who voted for me last year – molto bene, everyone).

In fairness, what has come to pass was unimaginable at the beginning of the year, and even when the ELDR Council met in May, there was little sense of the chaos to come. However, the current financial situation is likely to take up much of our time over the coming two days and will doubtless inform our debate on what the European Union should be doing in the coming years.

It’s also time to elect a new President, and as already reported here, Sir Graham Watson is currently the only candidate to replace Annemie Neyts, from Open VLD (Flanders, Belgium), and assuming that an opponent hasn’t emerged by this evening, the Liberal Democrat delegation will be being heavily lobbied for its significant voting strength by the various candidates for Vice President – we represent something like 12% of the available votes, and with four candidates to be elected, that really matters.

We’ll also have the usual array of weird, wonderful and frankly parochial resolutions, urging ELDR to do this or that, and some fascinating seminars. And on the subject of seminars, it should be noted that it was at the equivalent event two years ago that the long-term need for recapitalisation of European banks was highlighted, and at the Dresden Council meeting in May when the junior partner in the ruling Slovak coalition announced that they would be opposing any proposal for a stabilisation fund (damn, I could have made a fortune…).

Finally, there are rumours that ELDR could be coming to a city near you soon, and I’ll report back once this is confirmed. But first, we may be going somewhere that, when I first heard the news, made me exclaim, “How the hell do you get there?”. It’s not all glamour, this Euro stuff…

Apart from the debates on the current economic crisis and the 2014-20 EU budget, there will be elections for the President and four Vice-Presidents. At the time of writing, there is only one declared candidate to succeed Annemie Neyts, whose three terms as President have seen ELDR grow and flourish — Sir Graham Watson, MEP for South West England and Gibraltar. You can read his manifesto here.

Graham has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1994, where he has served as Leader of the UK Liberal Democrat delegation, as Chairman of the Committee on Justice and Home Affairs (1999-2001) and as Leader of the ALDE Group (2002-09). He was re-elected for a fourth mandate in 2009 and sits on the foreign affairs committee.

He became active in Liberal politics in the 1970s and has consistently demonstrated an interest in international matters: he was active as a Vice President (1977-79) and Secretary General (1979-81) of the International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth and as a founder member of LYMEC and served on the ELDR Council during the 1980s and early 1990s. He has also been centrally involved in the UK Liberal Democrats and served as head of the private office of the party leader from 1983-87.

Graham would like to see the ELDR Party expand to take in new member parties and build individual membership in member states where there is no effective Liberal force. He is convinced that a unique opportunity to exists to strengthen the Liberal family through the building of Europe’s first truly supranational political party.

Nominations close on 24 November, so his candidacy is by no means a shoo-in, but the absence of opposition at this stage must be encouraging.

* Mark Valladares is secretary to the East of England Liberal Democrats, and blogs at The view from Creeting St Peter.

The annual Congress of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) is an opportunity for liberals from across Europe, including beyond the European Union, to discuss the issues of the day, and to get a sense of how liberals in the European Parliament are responding to them. Delegates get to debate with parliamentarians, take part in sessions with Commissioners and leading academics and, perhaps of most interest, contribute to policy making in key areas of European Parliament activity.

For example, in Barcelona two years ago, you might have heard Professor Dominick Salvatore highlight the failure of mainland European nations to address the under-capitalisation of their banks, relative to the United States and United Kingdom, a fact that will not be lost on observers of Dexia. In Dresden in May, the Slovak delegate noted the intention of his party, part of the government, to oppose any proposals for a European Stabilisation Fund, now called the European Financial Stability Facility. Guess which nation hasn’t signed up yet…

This year’s Congress takes place in Palermo, Sicily, from 23-25 November, and the theme is “A budget for Europe: liberal priorities for the EU budget 2014-2020″, a matter of some importance given the current fiscal environment. There will also be a rather timely session entitled “Strengthening Europe’s single currency: what next for the Euro?” – this, of course, assumes that things haven’t got even worse by then. From the perspective of election buffs, a new President will be elected, as the current incumbent, Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck MEP, is term-limited. Given that the electorate is formed by Congress delegates, and that the United Kingdom delegation is now the largest within ELDR, Liberal Democrats represent a key bloc of votes to be wooed by any credible candidate.

Unfortunately, there is no financial support for delegates, either from ELDR, or from the Party. However, should you be interested, how do you get involved?

The delegation is made up of, if my calculations based on the ELDR internal regulations are correct, sixty-three members, some of whom are our members of ELDR Council, directly elected by Conference (and thank you, those of you who kindly voted for me last time), and others elected by various bodies. However, there may still be plenty of scope for people to get involved, and if you contact me at markv233[AT]aol[DOT]com, I’ll ensure that your details are passed on.

I will admit that Palermo isn’t the easiest place to get to in Europe, with no direct flights on anyone other than Ryanair (hmmm…) or Easyjet, and with Alitalia providing one of the least helpful airline websites ever, but you might just find that it’s worth the effort.

* Mark Valladares is a member of the ELDR Council, which makes a nice change from the View from Creeting St Peter, his blog.

David Griffiths who had served the Liberal Democrats loyally over the years passed away aged 70 on the 3rd September 2011.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the many years of dedicated service David gave to the party. His many varied roles included being Chair of the Liberal Democrat Federal Finance and Administration Committee and Treasurer of Liberal International a role which reflected his Internationalist and European credentials.

His tireless work both as candidate, agent and Councillor in several seats in the South West helped to cement a strong Liberal presence in the region.

My sympathies go to David’s family and friends at this difficult time.

Sharon Bowles, Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England and Chair of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, writes,

Before turning his business and accountancy skills to political administrative roles, David was an exceptional election agent securing control for the first time of Three Rivers District Council and also Aylesbury Vale.

Born in Conwy, David was a lifelong Liberal and proud of his Welsh heritage. As a young man he was the Liberal Parliamentary candidate in Paddington and was proud to have stood in the seat adjacent to that being fought by the redoubtable, and later Baroness, Nancy Seear. In the 1970s he moved to Watford and became the first Liberal to be elected to Watford Borough Council and also served as the General Election agent, sowing the seeds that years later blossomed into the election of a Liberal Democrat Mayor.

He then moved to the Three Rivers District Council area where he was the agent when the Council was won by Liberals for the first time. This was a flagship victory for the Party. He was agent again when it was held – which he always said was harder than winning the first time. He was also agent for two Parliamentary elections in South West Herts.

When the Liberal Democrats were formed he was a prime mover in the development of Regional Parties, becoming Chairman of the Chilterns Region. During that time he also became the agent for Aylesbury where he led many Council seat victories which ultimately brought control of Aylesbury Vale District Council. He was also agent for Aylesbury in two Parliamentary elections.

Always a European and Internationalist, David stood twice as a European Candidate and was active in Liberal International where he served as Treasurer as well as Chair of the British Group. He then went on to serve as Treasurer of the ELDR Party. His significant and professional business and accounting skills were not just deployed for international parties: he also served as a highly successful Chair of the Federal Finance Committee of the Liberal Democrats.

In all these voluntary roles David was an excellent and inspirational teacher, keen to train the next generation, whether that be of campaigners, agents, or bookkeepers. He was unstinting in his support of the Party, candidates and campaigns, setting many on the path to success. Often the life and soul of a gathering, we owe him more than most know and he will be missed.

Having dropped Ros off at a VIP lunch, I made my way to a room in a distant and poorly signposted corner of Dresden’s shiny new Congress Centre, cunningly designed to make it virtually impossible to tell which floor you are actually on, for a delegation pre-meeting. It was agreed that there was very little in the way of controversy to be expected.

By mid-afternoon, we were all ready to go, and we took our seats on the centre-left of the hall for the report of the President. Curiously, it consisted of a list of her diary engagements, without an indication of what was discussed, making it rather hard to judge Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck’s effectiveness. That said, her term of office ends in Palermo in November, so it probably doesn’t matter as much as it otherwise might.

Next, membership issues, as member parties in Moldova and Slovakia withdrew from ELDR due to merger with a member of the conservative EPP (Alliance Moldova Noastra) and winding up (Free Forum, Slovakia). In Italy, the never ending pattern of marriage, separation and divorce of liberal parties continues, with a splinter group from the Partito Repubblicano Italiano, the Movimento Repubblicani Europei, proposing to recombine, renewing its former membership of ELDR.

Meanwhile, in Spain, Unio Mallorquina, a party based in the Balearic Islands, and mired in scandal, has reformed as Convergencia per les Illes, and it was concluded that we should see what happened in regional elections prior to making a decision on their status.

The 2010 accounts were accepted with barely any comment, a good start for Roman Jakic, the Treasurer from Slovenia – he and I were active in IFLRY at about the same time.

The discussion on the draft resolution for debate in Palermo on the 2014-20 EU budget was brief, agreeing to set up a drafting committee to start work in July. At this point, the identity of the Liberal Democrat member remains unknown, but as the issue of the United Kingdom rebate is sure to arise, whoever takes on the task will have their work cut out.

We then moved onto the urgency resolutions. The first three, addressing issues related to registration of political parties in Russia, and persecution of dissidents in Armenia and Russia, were uncontroversial enough. At this point, President Neyts-Uyttebroeck decided to leave the most controversial resolution until last, instead taking a resolution calling for a defence of the Schengen Accord. It turned out that she was wrong…

Denmark has announced that it will be carrying out more stringent customs checks on its borders, and this decision, allied to moves by France to restrict access from Italy, led to a proposal from LYMEC and D66 (Netherlands) to call on the Commission to uphold the provisions of the Schengen Accord. Venstre (Denmark), part of the ruling coalition, were understandably touchy, and in an attempt to pour oil on troubled waters, a D66 representative proposed that we ‘abolish Denmark’, which at least got a laugh, especially when a Swedish delegate noted that, if Denmark was abolished, his journey home would become rather complex. It was, however, agreed to remove references to specific countries from the resolution…

The final resolution referred to the current debt crisis enveloping Portugal, Ireland and Greece, and called for the the stepping up of efforts by European and national institutions to effectively respond to the needs of returning to a path of fiscal austerity and control of inflation marked by the targets of public deficit reduction. Nothing there to worry George Osbourne, I suggest. However, the resolution went on to call for ‘a more ambitious financial and economic policy at EU level that avoids these situations occurring again in the future’. That, I suspect, won’t be as popular at 11 Downing Street… It was, however, passed without significant opposition.

It did, nonetheless, draw out an announcement from the remaining Slovak party in ELDR, part of the ruling coalition, who committed themselves to opposing any attempt to create an economic stabilisation mechanism for the European Union. It will be interesting to see what the markets make of that, assuming of course that they notice.

Finally, after a short interval, the issues of the Arab Spring were discussed, and while the guest speaker from Egypt’s Democratic Front Party was interesting, one sensed that he is a businessman first, and a politician second.

For the full, official report of the event, click here.

As it turned out, ELDR Council turned out to be more like English Council than the Federal Executive, which in itself is not particularly encouraging. You could argue that the notion of bringing people together from across Europe for a three hour meeting is a somewhat pointless exercise, especially when the powers of the body are relatively few and insignificant. However, it does offer more opportunities for European liberals to meet and interact, and the venue was a good one. Perhaps I was just unlucky this time…

Finally, as the preview of this event was lost amidst Liberal Democrat Voice’s hosting difficulties, anyone who is interested in the 2011 Congress, scheduled to take place in Palermo, Italy on 23-25 November, please leave a comment, or get in touch with me at markv233[at]aol.com.

So, why are a dozen or so Liberal Democrats gathering here? The Council of ELDR (the European Liberal Democrats) – think of it as the European equivalent of the Federal Executive – is holding its first meeting of its current two year term, hosted by the FDP, and a delegation of people for the most part unknown to ordinary members are here to represent the Party. Well, in fairness, they aren’t all unknown, as Baroness Scott, our former President, was directly elected to the delegation last year as, thanks to her transfers, was I.

What’s happening, I hear you ask? Here are some of the highlights…

• the report of ELDR President, Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck
• a consideration of the status of Member Parties in Italy, Moldova, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Spain
• preparation for the theme resolution at November’s ELDR Congress – “EU multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020″
• adoption of the 2010 audit
• a debate on the role of the EU in North Africa and the Middle East
• discussion of recent European political developments affecting member parties

Alright, not obviously very exciting, I accept.

However, for those of you with a yearning to take in a European gathering of liberals, I can confirm that the 2011 ELDR Congress will take place in Palermo, Italy, between 23 and 25 November. If you’re interested in attending, leave a comment and I’ll pass on your details.

The two meetings of the party’s Chief Officers Group which I have attended are reported separately to FE, but I wish to highlight the work done to develop the business plan and budget which were agreed. A party-wide business plan and budget is a great step forward for the Party. The interim Chief Executive, Chris Fox, estimates that around 80% of the pre-election recommendations in the Bones Commission have now been achieved.

A key achievement has been the development of the new Party website, including the social networking site, ACT. A members-only section will be online in the immediate future.

I haven’t been able to keep up with the prodigious number of meetings of Federal Policy Committee required in order to produce the outline manifesto by Christmas. Everyone is to be commended for this work, but particular thanks go to Christian Moon and his team who are working flat out.

I led two Liberal Democrat delegations; one to Liberal International in Cairo and the other to the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) in Barcelona. Liberal Democrats are key players in both Congresses, and are ably managed by Robert Woodthorpe Brown who chairs the International Relations Committee so ably for us. I also represented the Party at the memorial service in Westminster of Ralf Dahrendorf.

Finally, I would like to pay tribute to our colleague Roy Thomson who died recently. Roy was an absolute stalwart of the Party and served at all levels for many years. He continued to come to FE even when his health was very poor. We shall miss his quiet wisdom and commitment to the Party.

* Baroness Ros Scott is President of the Liberal Democrats.

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, affordable and sustainable system of social protection is necessary to achieve the highest possible standard of living for Europe’s citizens. Liberal Democrats at home would be happy to endorse calls for smarter regulation of the financial sector and for a reduction of the administrative burdens on business generally.

In other policy discussions, Liberal Democrat resolutions on energy and climate change, on agriculture and on Cyprus were passed with relatively minor amendments, although our proposals for addressing the activities of the far right across Europe were narrowly defeated.

The key note speeches, including one from Guy Verhofstadt, the new leader of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Group in the European Parliament, were well received, and the debate ‘Kick-starting Europe’s Economy’, featuring EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Professor Dominick Salvatore, touched upon the importance of improving the quality of supervision and the impact on competition policy.

It was particularly interesting to discover that, whilst Lehman Brothers might have been horribly over-leveraged at the time of its collapse, there were European banks, such as UBS, Deutsche Bank and Barclays that were even more leveraged.

The election for four Vice-Presidents of the ELDR Bureau was very hard-fought. Whilst Markus Loning from the FDP (Germany) and Leoluca Orlando from Italia dei Valori were elected to the Bureau with Liberal Democrat support, Kristiina Ojuland from the Reform Party of Estonia lost her seat, and Marc Guerrero from the host organisation, Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya, and Lousewies van der Laan from Democraten ’66 were unexpectedly, in some quarters at least, successful. The Liberal Democrat nominee for Treasurer, David Griffiths, was elected unopposed, as was Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck to her third and final term as President.

And so, an excellent advertisement for European liberalism was concluded, and I would strongly encourage anyone who has an interest in European affairs to attend the next Congress, to be held in Helsinki, Finland, in mid-October 2010. If Barcelona was anything to go by, there will be spare slots on the delegation, and some fresh faces would be more than welcome …