European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party - Definition and Overview

Logo of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party aisbl (founded 1993) is a liberal party, active in the European Union, uniting liberal and centrist parties around Europe which together represent more than 20 million European voters and is an international non-profit association incorporated under the laws of Belgium.

It originated as the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party grouping with seats in the European Parliament, but on April 30, 2004 (the day before the enlargement of the European Union) reformed itself as a pan-European political party.

The youth-wing of the ELDR Party is the European Liberal Youth, abbreviated as LYMEC, which contains youth and student liberal organisations from across Europe and brings together more than 170,000 young liberal Europeans.

On July 13, 2004 the Parliamentary Group of the ELDR approved a recommendation to unite in a new group with the UDF, the Lithuanian Labour Party and additional Italian members to create a new centre force to be called the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). This group is the parliamentary group of the ELDR and the European Democratic Party of the UDF, Lithuanian Labour Party and the Italian Margherita party.

Member parties (as at June, 2004)

See also

• Political parties of the world
• Liberal International
• European Liberal Youth

External link

• ELDR web site (http://www.eldr.org/)