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Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
President	Hans van Baalen MEP
Group leader	Guy Verhofstadt MEP
Founded	26 March 1976[1]
Headquarters	Rue d'Idalie 11, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Think tank	European Liberal Forum
Youth wing	European Liberal Youth
Ideology	Liberalism[2] Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre
International affiliation	Liberal International
European Parliament group	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Colours	Dark blue, light blue, magenta      Yellow (customary)
European Parliament	57 / 751
European Council	8 / 28
European Lower Houses	636 / 9,874
European Upper Houses	244 / 2,714
Website
www.aldeparty.eu
Politics of European Union Political parties Elections

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is a European political party mainly active in the European Union, composed of 60 national-level liberal parties from across Europe. On 26 March 1976, it was founded in Stuttgart as a confederation of national political parties under the name Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe and renamed European Liberals and Democrats (ELD) in 1977 and European Liberal Democrats and Reformists (ELDR) in 1986. On 30 April 2004, the ELDR was reformed as an official European party, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR Party).^[3] The ALDE Party is affiliated with the Liberal International^[4] and a recognised European political party, incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law.

On 10 November 2012, the party chose its current name of ALDE Party, taken from its European Parliament group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), which had been formed on 20 July 2004 in conjunction with the European Democratic Party (EDP). The ALDE parliamentary group is led by Guy Verhofstadt, a former Prime Minister of Belgium. Prior to the 2004 European election the party had been represented through its own group, the European Liberal Democrats and Reformists (ELDR) Group.

As of 2018^[update], ALDE is represented in European Union institutions, with 68 MEPs and 5 members of the European Commission. Of the 28 EU member states, there are eight with ALDE-affiliated Prime Ministers: Mark Rutte (VVD) in the Netherlands, Xavier Bettel (DP) in Luxembourg, Jüri Ratas (Estonian Centre Party) in Estonia, Charles Michel (MR) in Belgium, Miro Cerar (SMC) in Slovenia, Juha Sipilä (KESK) in Finland, Andrej Babiš (ANO) in the Czech Republic and Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Venstre) in Denmark. Liberals are also in government in three other EU member states: Croatia, Romania and Lithuania.

ALDE's think tank is the European Liberal Forum. The youth wing of ALDE is the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), which is predominantly based upon youth and student liberal organisations but contains also a small number of individual members. LYMEC is led by Vedrana Gujic (HNS, Croatia), who was elected for a two-year term as LYMEC President in May 2014, and counts 200,000 members.

Structure

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Bureau

The day-to-day management of the ALDE Party is handled by the Bureau, the members of which are:^[5]

Office	Name	State member	Party member
ALDE Leader in the European Parliament	Guy Verhofstadt MEP	Belgium	OpenVLD
ALDE President	Hans van Baalen MEP	Netherlands	VVD
ALDE Secretary-General	Jacob Moroza-Rasmussen	Denmark	Venstre
ALDE Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Group	Alexander Beels	Netherlands	VVD
ALDE Vice-Presidents	Luis Garicano	Spain	Cs
	Timmy Dooley TD	Ireland	FF
	Fredrick Federley MEP	Sweden	C
	Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP	Bulgaria	DPS
	Markus Löning	Germany	FDP
	Angelika Mlinar MEP	Austria	NEOS
	Henrik Bach Mortensen	Denmark	Venstre
	Joanna Schmidt MEP	Poland	Modern
	Annelou van Egmond	Netherlands	Democrats 66
ALDE Treasurer	Roman Jakič	Slovenia	ZSD
ALDE in the Council of Europe Honorary President	Anne Brasseur	Luxemburg	DP
ALDE Leader in the European Committee of the Regions	Bart Somers	Belgium	OpenVLD
President of the European Liberal Youth	Sissel Kvist	Denmark	Radikal Ungdom

Leaders

• 1978-1979: Jean-François Pintat
  


• 1979-1984: Martin Bangemann
  


• 1984-1989: Simone Veil
  


• 1989-1991: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
  


• 1991-1994: Yves Galland
  


• 1994-1998: Gijs de Vries
  


• 1998-2002: Pat Cox
  


• 2002-2009: Graham Watson
  


• 2009–present: Guy Verhofstadt
  

Presidents

• 1978–1981: Gaston Thorn
  


• 1981–1985: Willy De Clercq
  


• 1985–1990: Colette Flesch
  


• 1990–1995: Willy De Clercq


• 1995–2000: Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
  


• 2000–2005: Werner Hoyer
  


• 2005–2011: Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck
  


• 2011–2015: Graham Watson
  


• 2015–present: Hans van Baalen
  

History of pan-European liberalism

ELDR Party logo (2009-2012).

Pan-European liberalism has a long history dating back to the foundation of Liberal International in April 1947. On 26 March 1976, the Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe was established in Stuttgart. The founding parties of the federation were the Free Democratic Party of Germany, Radical Party of France, Liberal Party of Denmark, Italian Liberal Party, Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Democratic Party of Luxembourg.^[6] Observer members joining later in 1976 were the Danish Social Liberal Party, French Radical Party of the Left and Independent Republicans, British Liberal Party, and Italian Republican Party.^[6] In 1977, the federation was renamed European Liberals and Democrats, in 1986, European Liberal Democrats and Reformists.

It evolved into the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR Party) in 2004, when it was founded as an official European party under that name and incorporated under Belgian law at an extraordinary Congress in Brussels, held on 30 April 2004 the day before the enlargement of the European Union. At the same time the matching group in the European Parliament, the European Liberal Democrats and Reformists Group allied with the members of the newly elected European Democratic Party, forming the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) with a matching ALDE Group in the European Parliament.

On 10 November 2012, the ELDR Party adopted the name of the alliance between the two parties, in order to match the parliamentary group and the alliance.

European Council and Council of Ministers

Member State	Representative	Title	Political party	Member of the Council since	Photo
Estonia	Jüri Ratas	Head Minister	Estonian Centre Party	23 November 2016
Netherlands	Mark Rutte	Minister-President	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	14 October 2010
Luxembourg	Xavier Bettel	Prime Minister	Democratic Party	4 December 2013
Belgium	Charles Michel	Prime Minister	Mouvement Réformateur	11 October 2014
Slovenia	Miro Cerar	Prime Minister	Modern Centre Party	18 September 2014
Finland	Juha Sipilä	Prime Minister	Centre Party	29 May 2015

European Commissioners

ALDE Member Parties contribute 5 out of the 28 members of the European Commission:

State	Commissioner	Portfolio	Political party	Photo
Estonia	AnsipAndrus Ansip	Vice-President, European Commissioner for Digital Single Market	RE
Sweden	MalmströmCecilia Malmström	European Commissioner for Trade	L
Slovenia	BulcVioleta Bulc	European Commissioner for the Energy Union	SMC
Czech Republic	JourováVěra Jourová	European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality	ANO
Denmark	VestagerMargrethe Vestager	European Commissioner for Competition	RV

Elected Representatives of Member Parties

European institutions

Guy Verhofstadt
ALDE Party Leader

Hans van Baalen
ALDE Party President

Organisation	Institution	Number of seats
European Union	European Commission	5 / 28
European Union	European Council (Heads of Government)	7 / 28
European Union	Council of the EU (Participation in Government)	11 / 28
European Union	European Parliament	47 / 751
Council of Europe	Parliamentary Assembly	28 / 318

National Parliaments of European Union member states

Charles Michel
Prime Minister of Belgium

Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Prime Minister of Denmark

Xavier Bettel
Prime Minister of Luxembourg

Mark Rutte
Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Country	Institution	Number of seats	Member parties
Austria	National Council	10 / 183	NEOS
Belgium	Chamber of Representatives Lower house	34 / 150	MR, Open Vld
	Senate Upper house	13 / 60	MR, Open Vld
Bulgaria	National Assembly	25 / 240	MRF
Croatia	Sabor	13 / 151	HNS, IDS-DDI, HSLS
Czech Republic	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	78 / 200	ANO
	Senate Upper house	6 / 81	ANO
Denmark	Folketing	42 / 175	V, RV
Estonia	State Council	57 / 101	ER, EK
Finland	Parliament	59 / 200	Kesk., SFP, C
France	National Assembly Lower house	18 / 577	UDI
	Senate Upper house	42 / 348	UDI
Germany	Bundestag	80 / 631	FDP
Hungary	Országgyűlés	1 / 199	MLP
Ireland	Dáil Lower house	44 / 158	FF
	Seanad Upper house	13 / 60	FF
Italy	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	2 / 630	Radicali
	Senate of the Republic Upper house	1 / 315	Radicali
Lithuania	Seimas	14 / 141	LRLS, DP
Luxembourg	Chamber of Deputies	13 / 60	DP
Malta	House of Representatives	2 / 67	PD
Netherlands	House of Representatives Lower house	52 / 150	VVD, D66
	Senate Upper house	23 / 75	VVD, D66
Poland	Sejm Lower house	22 / 460	.Nowoczesna, UED
	Senat of Poland Upper house	0 / 100	.Nowoczesna, UED
Romania	Chamber of Deputies Lower house	18 / 329	ALDE
	Senate Upper house	12 / 136	ALDE
Slovenia	National Assembly	14 / 90	SMC, ZaAB
Spain	Congress of Deputies Lower house	40 / 350	C's, CDC
	Senate Upper house	8 / 266	C's, CDC
Sweden	Riksdag	41 / 349	C, L
United Kingdom	House of Commons Lower house	12 / 650	Lib Dems
	House of Lords Upper house	98 / 793	Lib Dems
	Gibraltar Parliament unicameral	3 / 17	Liberal Party of Gibraltar

National Parliaments outside the European Union

Country	Institution	Number of seats	Member parties
Andorra	General Council	8 / 28	PLA
Armenia	National Assembly	0 / 131	ANC
Azerbaijan	National Assembly	0 / 125	Musavat
Georgia	Parliament	0 / 150	Republican, FD
Iceland	Althing	0 / 63	BF
Moldova	Parliament	9 / 101	PL
Montenegro	Assembly	1 / 81	LPCG
Norway	Storting	9 / 169	Venstre
Switzerland	National Council Lower house	31 / 200	FDP.The Liberals
	Council of States Upper house	12 / 46	FDP.The Liberals

Member parties

Proportion of ALDE Party MEPs per country as of 2004^[update]

  States with full (and possibly associate) member parties

  States with associate member parties

Country or Region	Party	MEPs
Austria	NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum	1 / 18
Belgium (Dutch)	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	3 / 12
Belgium (French)	Reformist Movement	2 / 8
Bulgaria	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	4 / 17
Bulgaria	National Movement for Stability and Progress	0 / 17
Croatia	Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats	1 / 11
Croatia	Croatian Social Liberal Party	0 / 11
Croatia	Istrian Democratic Assembly	1 / 11
Cyprus	United Democrats	0 / 6
Czech Republic	ANO 2011	4 / 21
Denmark	Danish Social Liberal Party	2 / 13
Denmark	Venstre – Liberal Party of Denmark	1 / 13
Estonia	Estonian Centre Party	1 / 6
Estonia	Estonian Reform Party	2 / 6
Finland	Centre Party	3 / 13
Finland	Swedish People's Party of Finland	1 / 13
Finland  Åland Islands	Åland Centre	0 / 13
France	Union of Democrats and Independents	2 / 74
Germany	Free Democratic Party	3 / 96
Greece	Drassi	0 / 21
Hungary	Hungarian Liberal Party	0 / 21
Ireland	Fianna Fáil	1 / 11
Italy	Italian Radicals	0 / 73
Latvia	Latvian Development	0 / 8
Lithuania	Labour Party	1 / 11
Lithuania	Lithuanian Freedom Union (Liberals)	0 / 11
Lithuania	Liberals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania	2 / 11
Luxembourg	Democratic Party	1 / 6
Malta	Democratic Party	0 / 6
Netherlands	Democrats 66	4 / 26
Netherlands	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	3 / 26
Poland	.Nowoczesna	0 / 51
Poland	Union of European Democrats	0 / 51
Portugal	Iniciativa Liberal	0 / 21
Romania	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats	1 / 32
Slovenia	Modern Centre Party	0 / 8
Slovenia	Alliance of Alenka Bratušek	0 / 8
Spain	Citizens	2 / 54
Spain	Catalan European Democratic Party	1 / 54
Sweden	Centre Party	1 / 20
Sweden	The Liberals	2 / 20
United Kingdom	Liberal Democrats	1 / 73
United Kingdom  Gibraltar	Liberal Party of Gibraltar	0 / 73

Outside the EU

 Andorra

• Liberal Party of Andorra

 Armenia

• Armenian National Congress

 Azerbaijan

• Müsavat Party

 Belarus

• Belarusian Liberal Party of Freedom and Progress

 Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Our Party

 Georgia

• Free Democrats


• Republican Party of Georgia

 Iceland

• Bright Future

 Kosovo

• Liberal Party of Kosovo


• New Kosovo Alliance

 Moldova

• Liberal Party

 Montenegro

• Liberal Party of Montenegro

 Norway

• Liberal Party

 Russia

• Republican Party of Russia - People's Freedom Party


• Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko"

 Serbia

• Liberal Democratic Party

  Switzerland

• FDP.The Liberals

 Ukraine

• Civil Position


• European Party of Ukraine

See also

• European Liberal Youth


• Liberal International


• Political parties of the world

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.

• Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party official site


• European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)