The party of
European liberal democrats (ELDR) met last weekend in Stockholm, Sweden. During the two-day congress the delegates unanimously agreed on its Electoral Manifesto for the upcoming EP elections, structured around four main topics: 1) civil liberties, 2) EU single market, growth and employment, 3) environment and energy policy and 4) enlargement, foreign, security and defence policy.
LYMEC was represented by a 10-member strong delegation, which among other things, managed to insert in the ELDR Electoral Manifesto its demand to reduce the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013 and replace it instead with new common food, rural and sustainable land use strategies. The LYMEC Delegation also succeeded in making approved by the ELDR Congress a more detailed resolution on CAP & food prices as well as a resolution on student mobility in Europe. LYMEC delegates furthermore took an active part in political discussions, taking stand notably on the current financial crisis, sustainable energy, EU-Russia relations and environmental challenges.
Commenting on the unanimous adoption of the Manifesto Annemie Neyts, ELDR party President expressed her satisfaction and added: 'I really encourage all the member parties to base their European campaigns on this common European liberal vision'.
Referring to the free market, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who attended the Congress, stated that 'what we need is not more government but better government’. 'The free market – he continued– is not a sinking ship but it is in choppy waters and we must come to its aid. In the short term this means – paradoxically – state intervention. Public engagement has been needed to keep credit flowing’.
Apart from congress itself, the LYMEC Bureau also used the opportunity of having 500 liberal delegates and high-ranking guests assembled at one place for several fringe meetings and discussions, notably with Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel (see separate article).
