All posts tagged Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

Read more in Europe Decides Weekly, 29 November 2013

Top stories: 30 November to 6 December 2013

  • ALDE Party holds Congress in London: The 34th annual Congress of European Liberals was held in London on 28-30 November. The main themes of the Congress were the need to combat the rise of eurosceptic and populist parties, the need for a federal Europe, the possibility of the UK leaving the EU. The ALDE Party adopted its manifesto for the European Parliament elections and, on the margins of the Congress, European commissioner Olli Rehn expressed his desire to run for the European Parliament next year and to be the Party’s candidate for the presidency of the European Commission. ALDE Party; Europolitics; EurActiv
  • Bettel becomes Prime Minister: On 4 December the leader of the Democratic Party (DP – a member of the ALDE Party), Xavier Bettel, became Luxembourg’s new Prime Minister. Bettel, who was previously Mayor of Luxembourg City, will lead a coalition government composed of Liberals, Social Democrats and Greens. ALDE Party; European Voice; New Europe; European Greens
  • SDP names Euro candidates: Finland’s Social Democratic Party (SDP – a member of the PES) has named thirteen candidates for the European Parliament elections. The SDP’s two current MEPs – Liisa Jaakonsaari and Mitro Repo – feature, and additions to the list will be made in the Spring. The party has seen a steep fall in support in recent years and is currently polling at historic lows. Yle

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Read more in Europe Decides Weekly, 29 November 2013

Top stories: 23-29 November 2013

  • German parties agree ‘grand coalition’: Two months after the federal elections, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has reached an agreement with the Social Democrats (SPD) to form a coalition government. Should SPD members back the deal, a new government will be in place by Christmas. In the deal, the new government backs a stronger European Parliament, closer coordination with national parliaments and a stronger role for the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy. EU Observer; New Europe; Deutsche Welle; EurActiv; European Voice; Europolitics
  • Latvian government resigns over supermarket disaster: The Latvian prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, has resigned along with his government over the collapse of a supermarket building in Riga last week. The move comes a month before the country adopts the euro. A minister said that a lack of government oversight of construction projects was partly to blame for the disaster, which killed 54 people. EurActiv; European Voice
  • Verhofstadt enters presidency race: On a late-night talk show on Flemish television Guy Verhofstadt, the Leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament and a former Belgian prime minister, said that he would soon officially announce his intention to be the Liberal common candidate for the Commission presidency. The call for nominations formally opens on Saturday 30 November and will last until 20 December. Europolitics

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Six months away from the European Parliament elections, the first serious set of predictions are being made.

Notre Europe – Jacques Delors Institute, a Paris-based think-tank, has recently published a must-read policy paper in which it predicts that the centre-left Socialists & Democrats Group (S&D) will oust the centre-right European People’s Party Group (EPP) as the largest group in the new Parliament.

And in February, Burson-Marsteller Brussels will support the launch – as part of Europe Decides – of PollWatch, a VoteWatch Europe project that will take an in-depth and regular look at opinion polls and the likely composition of the new assembly.

However, the election results are only part of the story. Post-election horse-trading and haggling plays a key role in determining the final composition of the groups and – significantly this time – the creation of a majority to back the appointment of a new President of the European Commission.

Political positioning and the distribution of key roles (such as committee chairs or group spokespeople) may help sway the decisions of national party delegations on where to sit.

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Finnish voters are beginning to get a clearer picture of their choice in the European Parliament election as more parties named their candidates.

On Sunday, the Centre Party (Suomen Keskusta, Kesk) named 17 candidates. They include current MEPs Anneli Jäätteenmäki and Hannu Takkula, as well as a former editor of a leading daily newspaper and the Centre Party’s most famous Eurosceptic.

67-year-old former party leader Paavo Väyrynen told delegates that, two years after being voted out of office, he had returned from his ‘sabbatical’ and was ready to fight the election. Väyrynen has been Finland’s foreign minister four times, and once spoke for more than four hours in the Finnish parliament in an attempt to scupper the vote on the country’s accession to the EU.

“I may be getting on a bit”, he told his party on Saturday, “but as far as what’s happened to the EU, I predicted the whole thing.”

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The European Parliament election campaign is well underway in the Netherlands, with several parties having held public debates between candidates for the right to head the list for the 2014 poll.

However, there has been remarkably little discussion about who the Dutch government will nominate to the European Commission next year. We have read the tea leaves to see who may emerge to take this key role.

Historically, all Dutch nominees to the Commission have been government ministers whose political party was a partner in the coalition government that put their name forward.

Experience has traditionally been a key factor: all commissioners from the Netherlands have been appointed when at least 50 years old. Both the current Vice-President of the Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, and her predecessor as commissioner from the Netherlands, Frits Bolkestein, were well into their sixties when they started. Kroes – the first female commissioner from the Netherlands – is currently the doyenne of the Commission, at 72 years.

Dutch members of the European Commission have usually held important portfolios, including agriculture, competition, internal market, and foreign affairs, and the current Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, is likely to want to secure a strong portfolio for his nominee. So who are the potential candidates?

Read our full profiles of the potential nominees for the Commission from the Netherlands
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Elections of the new President of the Parliament

Read our Storify summary of Martin Schulz’s press conference

It’s official: Martin Schulz, the current President of the European Parliament, is the only nominee to be the common candidate of the Party of European Socialists (PES) at the next European Parliament elections. A year from now, he could be President of the European Commission.

But what about his current job?

As the Parliament has told us in its awareness-raising campaign, ‘this time it’s different’. We have never had ‘common candidates’ before, with (the European political parties hope) a Europe-wide profile.

Presidents of the Parliament have campaigned in elections before, but usually to be returned as an MEP. Schulz will stand as an MEP, and is certain to be returned. But being a ‘common candidate’ is a different issue.

So how does Martin Schulz handle being the current President of the Parliament and a candidate to be President of the Commission?

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Read more in Europe Decides Weekly, 18 October 2013

Top stories: 12-18 October 2013

  • Why Eurosceptics could win big in 2014: On 13 October Marine Le Pen and her right-wing National Front (FN) won a convincing victory in a local election in Brignoles. The vote came shortly after a poll on European Parliament election voting intentions, commissioned by Le Nouvel Observateur, had the FN on top with 24% of the vote. With anti-euro and –EU parties in the UK and Germany riding high, Eurosceptics could make an historic leap forward in next May’s polls. Business Week; Left Foot Forward; Financial Times; Independent, BBC News; Telegraph; Financial Times; Business Week; New York Times; EurActiv; BBC News; The Guardian; Irish Times
  • ALDE Party candidate for Commission President to be announced 1 February: The Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party will announce its candidate for President of the European Commission at a special electoral Congress in Brussels on 1 February 2014. Candidates shall be formally nominated by at least two member parties from more than one member state or by 20% of ALDE Party Congress voting delegates by 20 December. ALDE

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The Party of European Socialists (PES) announced today the opening of a process of nominations to be the ‘common candidate’ of the Party for the European Parliament elections. This candidate would then be put forward as the PES candidate for the European Commission President.

In a statement, the PES said that the nominations process – which will last until the end of October – “is designed to meet the many demands for a more democratic and transparent way to designate key European Union posts. It is also hoped that it will increase interest in the election”.

According to the Party, each nominee needs to be supported by 15% of PES full member parties or organisations (at least one nominating the candidate, plus five other supporters). The PES Presidency will hold a meeting on 6 November to verify the process and announce the nominee(s), with the candidate being selected at the PES Election Congress in February 2014. The PES manifesto will be adopted at the same meeting.

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