Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
European parliamentary group
Name	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
English abbr.	ALDE
French abbr.	ADLE
Formal name	Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe[1]
Ideology	Liberalism[2] Centrism[2] Pro-Europeanism
European parties	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, European Democratic Party
Associated organisations	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Liberal International
From	20 July 2004[3]
Preceded by	ELDR Group
Chaired by	Guy Verhofstadt
MEP(s)	69 / 751
Website	http://www.alde.eu/

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE/ADLE) is the liberal–centrist^[4][5] political group of the European Parliament. It is made up of MEPs from two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (formerly the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party) and the European Democratic Party, which collectively form the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

ALDE is one of the three oldest Groups, dating its unofficial origin back to September 1952 and the first meeting of the Parliament's predecessor, the Common Assembly. Founded as an explicitly Liberal Group, it has expanded its remit to cover the different centrist traditions of each new Member State as they acceded to the Union, progressively changing its name in the process.

It is the fourth-largest Group in the Parliament and did participate in the Grand Coalition (the coalition designed to provide a majority) for the Sixth Parliament (2004–2009).

The pro-European platform of ALDE espouses neoliberal economics and support for European integration and the European single market.^[6]

History

Guy Verhofstadt

The ALDE Group can trace its unofficial ancestry back to the Liberal members present at the first meeting of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (the Parliament's predecessor) on 10 September 1952,^[7] but the Group was officially founded as the Group of Liberals and Allies^[3] on 23 June 1953.^[3]

As the Assembly grew into the Parliament, the French Gaullists split from the Group on 21 January 1965^[8] and the Group started the process of changing its name to match the liberal/centrist traditions of the new member states, firstly to the Liberal and Democratic Group^[3][9] in 1976,^[3] then to the Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group^[10] on 13 December 1985,^[3] then to the Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party^[3][9][11] on 19 July 1994^[3] to match the European political party of the same name.

In 1999, the Group partnered with European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED) group to form the Grand Coalition for the Fifth Parliament. The customary split of the Presidency of the European Parliament between Groups in the Coalition meant that the Group achieved its first President of the European Parliament on 15 January 2002, when Pat Cox was elected to the post to serve the latter half of the five-year term. The Group lost its Grand Coalition status after the 2004 elections.

On 13 July 2004 the Group approved a recommendation to unite with MEPs from the centrist and social-liberal political party at the European level called the European Democratic Party (EDP) founded by François Bayrou's Union for French Democracy, the Labour Party of Lithuania and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy of Italy.

The Group accordingly became the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe^[3] (ALDE) on 20 July 2004,^[3] to match the eponymous transnational political alliance, although the two European-level parties remained separate outside the European Parliament. The MEP Graham Watson of the British Liberal Democrats became the first chair of ALDE.

Membership

The ALDE has MEPs from 20 countries, including 15 with more than one MEP (in yellow) and five with one MEP each (light yellow).

Membership by party in Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Parliaments

The national parties that are members of ALDE are as follows:

Country	National party	National party in national language	European party	MEPs 2004-2009	MEPs 2009-2014	MEPs 2014-2019
Austria	NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum	Neos – Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum	ALDE	1 / 18	-	1 / 18
Belgium	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	ALDE	3 / 24 3 / 14	3 / 22 3 / 13	3 / 21 3 / 12
	Reformist Movement	Mouvement Réformateur	ALDE	3 / 24 3 / 9	2 / 22 2 / 8	3 / 21 3 / 8
Bulgaria	National Movement for Stability and Progress	Latin: Nacionalno Dviženie Za Stabilnost I Văzhod Cyrillic: Национално движение за стабилност и възход	ALDE	2 / 18	2 / 18	-
	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	Latin: Dvizhenie Za Prava I Svobodi Cyrillic: Движение за права и свободи	ALDE	3 / 18	3 / 18	4 / 17
Croatia	Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats	Hrvatska narodna stranka – liberalni demokrati	ALDE	-	-	1 / 11
	Istrian Democratic Assembly	Istarski demokratski sabor - Dieta democratica istriana	ALDE	-	-	1 / 11
Cyprus	Democratic Party	Greek: Δημοκρατικό Κόμμα Latin: Dimokratikó Kómma Turkish: Demokrat Parti	ALDE [lower-alpha 1]	1 / 6	-	-
Czech Republic	ANO 2011	ANO 2011 - Akce nespokojených občanů 2011	ALDE	-	-	4 / 21
Denmark	Venstre - Denmark's Liberal Party	Venstre - Danmarks Liberale Parti	ALDE	3 / 14	3 / 13	1 / 13 [lower-alpha 2]
	Danish Social Liberal Party	Det Radikale Venstre	ALDE	1 / 14	-	2 / 13
Estonia	Estonian Centre Party	Eesti Keskerakond	ALDE	1 / 6	2 / 6	1 / 6
	Estonian Reform Party	Eesti Reformierakond	ALDE	1 / 6	1 / 6	2 / 6
Finland	Centre Party	Finnish: Suomen Keskusta Swedish: Centern i Finland	ALDE	4 / 14	3 / 13	3 / 13
	Swedish People's Party	Finnish: Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue Swedish: Svenska Folkpartiet i Finland	ALDE	1 / 14	1 / 13	1 / 13
France	Democratic Movement	Mouvement Démocrate	EDP	7 / 78	5 / 74	4 / 74
	CAP21	Citoyenneté Action Participation Pour Le XXIe Siècle	none	-	1 / 74	-
	Civic Alliance for Democracy in Europe	Alliance Citoyenne Pour La Démocratie En Europe	ALDE	3 / 78	-	-
	Génération citoyens	none	-	-	1 / 74
	Union of Democrats and Independents	Union des démocrates et indépendants	ALDE	-	-	2 / 74
Germany	Free Democratic Party	Freie Demokratische Partei	ALDE	7 / 99	12 / 99	3 / 96
	Free Voters	Freie Wähler	EDP	-	-	1 / 96
Greece	Drassi	Latin: Drassi Greek: Δράση	none	-	1 / 22	-
Hungary	Alliance of Free Democrats	Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége - A Magyar Liberális Párt	ALDE	2 / 24	-	-
	Hungarian Liberal Party	Magyar Liberális Párt - Liberálisok	ALDE	-	-	-
Ireland	Fianna Fáil	-	ALDE	-	3 / 12	- [lower-alpha 3]
	Marian Harkin (Independent)	-	EDP	1 / 13	1 / 12	1 / 11
Italy	Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (note: merged into PD in 2007)	Democrazia È Libertà - La Margherita	EDP	9 / 78	-	-
	Italy of Values	Italia Dei Valori	ALDE	1 / 78	5 / 73	-
	Alliance for Italy	Alleanza Per L'Italia	EDP	1 / 78	1 / 73	-
	Italian Radicals	Radicali Italiani	ALDE	2 / 78	-	-
Latvia	Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way	Latvijas Pirmā Partija / Latvijas Ceļš	ALDE	1 / 9	1 / 9	-
	Union of Greens and Farmers	Zaļo un Zemnieku savienība	EGP (LZP)	-	-	1 / 8
Lithuania	Labour Party	Darbo Partija	ALDE	5 / 13	1 / 12	2 / 11
	Liberal and Centre Union	Liberalų Ir Centro Sąjunga	ALDE	2 / 13	-	-
	Liberal Movement	Liberalų Saįūdis	ALDE	-	1 / 12	1 / 11
Luxembourg	Democratic Party	Luxembourgish: Demokratesch Partei French: Parti Démocratique German: Demokratische Partei	ALDE	1 / 6	1 / 6	1 / 6
Netherlands	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	Volkspartij Voor Vrijheid En Democratie	ALDE	4 / 27	3 / 26	3 / 26
	Democrats 66	Democraten 66	ALDE	1 / 27	3 / 26	4 / 26
Poland	Democratic Party – demokraci.pl	Partia Demokratyczna - Demokraci.pl	ALDE	4 / 54	-	-
	Paweł Piskorski (Independent)	-	none	1 / 54	-	-
	Marek Czarnecki (Independent)	-	none	1 / 54	-	-
Portugal	Democratic Republican Party	Partido Democrático Republicano	EDP	-	-	1 / 21
	Earth Party	Partido da Terra	ALDE	-	-	1 / 21
Romania	National Liberal Party	Partidul Naţional Liberal	ALDE[lower-alpha 4]	6 / 35	5 / 33	–
	Norica Nicolai (formerly PNL)	–	none[lower-alpha 4]	–	–	1 / 32
	Renate Weber (formerly PNL)	–	none[lower-alpha 4]	–	–	1 / 32
	Mircea Diaconu (Independent)	–	none	-	-	1 / 32
Slovakia	People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia	Ľudová Strana - Hnutie Za Demokratické Slovensko	EDP	-	1 / 13	-
Slovenia	Liberal Democracy of Slovenia	Liberalna Demokracija Slovenije	ALDE	2 / 7	1 / 8	-
	Zares – Social Liberals	Zares - Socialno-Liberalni	ALDE	-	1 / 8	-
	Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia	Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije	none	-	-	1 / 8
Spain	Catalan European Democratic Party	Partit Demòcrata Català	ALDE	1 / 54	1 / 54	1 / 54
	Basque Nationalist Party	Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea	EDP	1 / 54	1 / 54	1 / 54
	Union, Progress and Democracy	Unión Progreso y Democracia	none	-	-	4 / 54
	Citizens – Party of the Citizenry	Ciudadanos-Partido de la Ciudadanía	none	-	-	2 / 54
Sweden	Liberal People's Party	Folkpartiet Liberalerna	ALDE	1 / 19	3 / 20	2 / 20
	Centre Party	Centerpartiet	ALDE	1 / 19	1 / 20	1 / 20
United Kingdom	Liberal Democrats	-	ALDE	11 / 78	12 / 73	1 / 73
			Total ALDE Party	70	74	46
			Total EDP	26	10	9
			Total Other	4	1	14
			Total	100	85	69

Membership at formation

In September 1952, the third-largest grouping in the Common Assembly was the Liberal grouping with 11 members.^[12] The Group of Liberals and Allies was officially founded on 23 June 1953.^[3] By mid-September 1953, it was again the third-largest Group with 10 members.^[13]

Pending for membership

• Hungary - Hungarian Liberal Party

Structure

Subgroups

ALDE is a coalition of liberal and centrist MEPs. It does not have formal subgroups, although the MEPs fall naturally into two informal subgroups, depending on whether they associate with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party or the European Democratic Party.

Organisation

The Bureau is the main decision making body of the ALDE Group and is composed of the leaders of the delegations from each member state that elects ALDE MEPs.^[14] The Bureau oversees the ALDE Group's main strategy and policies and is headed by a chair (referred to as the Leader). The day-to-day running of the Group is performed by its secretariat, led by its Secretary-General.

The senior staff of ALDE as of July 2012 are as follows:^[14]

The chairs of ALDE and its predecessors from 1953 to the present are as follows:

Academic analysis

Along with the other political groups, ALDE has been analysed by academics on its positions regarding various issues. Those positions are summarized in this article. That article characterizes ALDE as cohesive, gender-balanced centrist Euroneutrals that cooperate most closely with the EPP, are ambiguous on hypothetical EU taxes and supportive of eventual full Turkish accession to the European Union.

References

External links

• ALDE Group in the European Parliament (official website)
• ALDE Group in the European Parliament's channel on YouTube