Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party) is a European political party composed of 76 national-level parties from across Europe, mainly active in the European Union. The ALDE Party is affiliated with Liberal International and a recognised European political party, incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law.

It was founded on 26 March 1976 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).

On 10 November 2012, the party chose its current name ALDE Party, taken from its then-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). Prior to the 2004 European election, the European party had been represented through its own group, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group (ELDR) Group. In June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by Renew Europe.

, ALDE is represented in European Union institutions, with 70 MEPs and five members of the European Commission. Of the 27 EU member states, there are three with ALDE-affiliated Prime Ministers: Mark Rutte (VVD) in the Netherlands, Kaja Kallas (Estonian Reform Party) in Estonia and Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) in Belgium. ALDE member parties are also in governments in nine other EU member states: France, Croatia, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Slovenia, Lithuania and Germany. Some other ALDE member parties offer parliamentary support to governments in Croatia, Italy, and Romania. Charles Michel, former Belgian Prime Minister, is the current President of the European Council.

ALDE's think tank is the European Liberal Forum, led by Hilde Vautmans, MEP, and gathers 46 member organisations. 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 Dan-Aria Sucuri.

In 2011, ALDE Party became the first pan-European party to create the status of individual membership. Since then, between 1000 and close to 3000 members (the numbers fluctuate annually) maintained direct membership in the ALDE Party from several EU countries. Over 40 coordinators mobilised liberal ideas, initiatives and expertise across the continent under the leadership of the Steering Committee, which was first chaired by Julie Cantalou. The ALDE Party took a step further in the direction of becoming a truly pan-European party when granting voting rights to individual members’ delegates at the Party Congress. Individual membership was eventually discontinued in 2023.

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

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
 * 2015–2021: 🇳🇱 Hans van Baalen
 * 2021–2024: co-Presidents 🇮🇪 Timmy Dooley 🇧🇬 Ilhan Kyuchyuk

History of pan-European liberalism


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, Venstre of Denmark, Italian Liberal Party, Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Democratic Party of Luxembourg. 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. 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, to match the parliamentary group and the alliance.

On 12 June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by a new enlarged group, Renew Europe, which primarily consists of ALDE and EDP member parties and France's La République En Marche! (LREM).

European Commissioners
ALDE Member Parties contribute five out of the 27 members of the European Commission:

Membership
The ALDE party has 59 full members and 18 affiliated members from EU and non-EU countries.

Only delegates from full members of the ALDE Party and its youth wing LYMEC, together with the delegates of the ALDE Party Supporters and ALDE Party Bureau members, are permitted to vote at the ALDE Congress and Council. Affiliated member parties have non-voting delegates.

Affiliated members
• 🇦🇲 Armenian National Congress

• 🇦🇲 Bright Armenia

• 🇦🇿 Musavat

• 🇧🇾 Party of Freedom and Progress

• 🇭🇷 Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats

• 🇭🇷 Civic Liberal Alliance

• 🇭🇷 Croatian Social Liberal Party

• Republican Party of Georgia

•  Free Democrats

•  Droa

• 🇮🇹 Team K

• 🇲🇩 Liberal Party

• 🇵🇱 .Nowoczesna

• 🇷🇺 People's Freedom Party

• 🇺🇦 Civil Position

• 🇺🇦 Power of the People

•  Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

• 🇬🇮 Liberal Party of Gibraltar

Former members
• 🇧🇬 National Movement for Stability and Progress

• 🇨🇿 ANO 2011 (2014–2024)

• 🇮🇹 Italy of Values

• 🇱🇹 Labour Party (2004–2021)

• 🇲🇹 Democratic Party (2017–2020)

• Social Democratic Party (until 1996)

•  National Liberal Party (2007–2014)

•  Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (2015–2019)

•  Party of Alenka Bratušek (2014–2022)

•  List of Marjan Šarec (2018–2022)

•  Modern Centre Party (2014–2021)

• 🇪🇸 Catalan European Democratic Party (until 2018)