The Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ( ALDE Group ) was the liberal – centrist political group of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2019 when it merged into Renew Europe .
67-815: ALDE was made up of MEPs from two European political parties , the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and the European Democratic Party , which collectively form the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe . The ALDE Group traced its unofficial origin back to September 1952 and the first meeting of the Parliament's predecessor, the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community . Founded as an explicitly liberal group, it expanded its remit to cover
134-570: A free content work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Text taken from EU closes in on target for gender parity in the European Parliament; , Kashyap Raibagi/VoxEurop, EDJNet. 2019 European Parliament election Jean-Claude Juncker EPP Ursula von der Leyen EPP The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It
201-684: A parliamentary group on its own, approximately half a million votes in total were sufficient to send one of the founders, Damian Boeselager , into the European Parliament via a German Volt list. Since June 2019, Volt is part of the group of the Greens/EFA . = In June 2018, the European Council decided to reapportion 27 of the 73 seats which would become vacant in the event of the United Kingdom leaving
268-623: A broader group, including ALDE, but also centrist and centre-left parties outside of ALDE. The European Spring initiated from the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 ran as a pan-European party alliance with one unified vision for Europe, the European Green New Deal. The most prominent figure is the former Greek minister Yanis Varoufakis , who ran as a candidate in the constituency of Germany, but failed to secure
335-581: A consensus President of the Commission. The two Spitzenkandidaten were discussed, but neither Manfred Weber (EPP), nor Frans Timmermans (PES), who had the backing of many leaders but not of those from the Visegrád Group , had a majority. In the final hours of the vote, the name of Ursula von der Leyen was suggested and agreed to by all governments, with Germany's abstention. The European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of
402-500: A detailed declaration of private interests, listing their memberships of company boards, associations, and public bodies (including those held during the three years prior to their election). They must also publish on-line all meetings that they have had with lobbyists and representatives of third country governments. They may not accept gifts, other than courtesy gifts valued at less than €150. They must declare all sources of outside income if their total outside income exceeds €5000. Under
469-670: A month in Strasbourg was imposed on Parliament by the member state governments at the 1992 European Council meeting in Edinburgh. The total cost of the European Parliament is approximately €2.247 billion per year according to its 2023 budget, with the cost of translation and interpretation, and the cost of its buildings in two main locations, being significant extra burdens not faced by national parliaments. Until 2009, MEPs were paid (by their own Member State) exactly
536-475: A monthly pre-tax salary set at 38.5 percent of that of a judge at the European Court of Justice . As of July 1, 2019, the monthly salary is of €8,932.86 , or just over €107,000 per year. MEPs also receive a general expenditure allowance of €4,563 per month. The single statute represented a pay cut for MEPs from some member states (e.g. Italy, Germany and Austria), a rise for others (particularly
603-571: A national of that state. The following citizens have been elected in a state other than their native country; It is conventional for countries acceding to the European Union to send a number of observers to Parliament in advance. The number of observers and their method of appointment (usually by national parliaments) is laid down in the joining countries' Treaties of Accession. Observers may attend debates and take part by invitation, but they may not vote or exercise other official duties. When
670-468: A new alliance of anti-establishment parties that claim to be neither left nor right. In the 5-month period preceding the 2019 European Parliament elections, the blog byoblu.com, which collaborated with the Five Star Movement (M5S), published deceptive information on Twitter, spreading disinformation during the 2019 European elections. The blog byoblu.com is owned by Claudio Messora, who was
737-594: A number of individual powers and rights within the Parliament: Every month except August the Parliament meets in Strasbourg for a four-day plenary session. For the rest of the time, it is based in Brussels, where some six supplementary plenary sessions are held for two days each, and where the Parliament's committees, political groups, and other organs also mainly meet. The obligation to spend one week
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#1732772606273804-544: A process that has to start at least six weeks before the elections. The European Parliament gave its consent on 4 July 2018 and the Act was adopted by the Council on 13 July 2018. However, not all member states ratified the Act prior to the 2019 elections and therefore this election took place in line with the previous rules. The Spitzenkandidat process involves the nomination by European political parties of candidates for
871-449: A seat. Despite garnering approximately one and a half million votes, no representatives who ran DiEM25 were elected, due to the votes being dispersed throughout different EU countries. As a new pan-European party, Volt Europa was founded in different European countries two years before the elections and successfully campaigned in eight EU countries for the elections with one transnational programme. Despite missing its own goal to create
938-502: A single national constituency; other states apportion seats to sub-national regions for election. There may also be non-voting observers when a new country is seeking membership of the European Union . From 1 January 2007, when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, there were 785 MEPs, but their number was reduced to 736 at the elections in 2009. With effect from the elections held in May 2014
1005-534: A study exploring the results of the election in terms of gender balance. EU institutions have focused on how to achieve a better gender balance (at least 40 per cent) or gender parity (50 per cent) in the next Parliament, and for other high-level posts in other institutions. In the 2019 elections 308 female MEPs were elected (41 per cent). Sweden elected the highest percentage of female MEPs: 55 per cent. Overall, thirteen countries elected 45 to 55 per cent female MEPs, with seven countries reaching exactly 50 per cent. On
1072-815: A third of MEPs have previously held national parliamentary mandates, and over 10 per cent have ministerial experience at a national level. There are usually a number of former prime ministers and former members of the European Commission . Many other MEPs have held office at a regional or local level in their home states. Current MEPs also include former judges, trade union leaders, media personalities, actors, soldiers, singers, athletes, and political activists. Many outgoing MEPs move into other political office. Several presidents, prime ministers or deputy prime ministers of member states are former MEPs, including former Presidents of France Nicolas Sarkozy , Francois Hollande , Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand ,
1139-436: Is free to choose its own system, subject to three restrictions: The allocation of seats to each member state is based on the principle of degressive proportionality , so that, while the size of the population of each nation is taken into account, smaller states elect more MEPs than would be strictly justified by their populations alone. As the number of MEPs granted to each member state has arisen from treaty negotiations, there
1206-417: Is no precise formula for the apportionment of seats. No change in this configuration can occur without the unanimous consent of all national governments. The European Parliament has a high turnover of members compared to some national parliaments. After every recent election, just over half of elected members had not been members in the previous parliament. Elmar Brok served the longest continuous term from
1273-591: Is prohibited as of 2009. In the 2004–2009 Parliament, a small number of members still held a dual mandate. Ian Paisley and John Hume once held triple mandates as MEP, Member of Parliament in the House of Commons , and Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly simultaneously. Women are generally under-represented in politics and public life in the EU, as well as in national parliaments, governments and local assemblies. The percentage of women in
1340-505: Is required to form a new group. In November 2018, LREM decided to cooperate with the liberal ALDE Group instead. Nevertheless, Macron stressed that this was merely a loose alliance and his party is not a member of ALDE Party. He bluntly criticised ALDE for accepting donations from the Bayer-Monsanto chemical group while LREM's campaign chief threatened to recall the alliance. In April and May 2019, LREM continued its efforts to build
1407-428: The 2014 European Parliament election 11 countries of 28 reached this goal in their own quota of elected candidates. While in nine EU countries there were mechanisms in place to facilitate female representation, only in four of these countries did women exceeded 40 per cent of elected candidates. On the other hand, in eight countries this goal was reached despite the absence of such systems. The FEMM Committee requested
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#17327726062731474-511: The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party or the European Democratic Party . The Bureau was 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. The Bureau oversaw the ALDE Group's main strategy and policies and was headed by a chair (referred to as the Leader ). The day-to-day running of
1541-519: The EPP , are ambiguous on hypothetical EU taxes and supportive of eventual full Turkish accession to the European Union . MEPs A member of the European Parliament ( MEP ) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament . When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community ) first met in 1952, its members were directly appointed by
1608-678: The European Alliance of Peoples and Nations as a new coalition of populist, hard Eurosceptic and anti-immigration parties. It has been joined by most of the members of the outgoing Europe of Nations and Freedom group (including Lega, the French National Rally , Freedom Party of Austria and the Dutch Party for Freedom ) as well as some former EFDD ( Alternative for Germany ) and ECR parties ( Danish People's Party and Finns Party ). It has been predicted to become
1675-686: The Greens adopted the principle of having two leading candidates for the European Elections 2019. Unlike in 2014, where the candidates were chosen through an open online primary elections, the two leading candidates were elected by the Council of the Party in Berlin in November 2018. Four people, two of them being currently MEPs, have declared their candidacy: At their 2018 Congress in Berlin,
1742-824: The Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party on 19 July 1994 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 an informal coalition for the Fifth Parliament. This included supporting the EPP's candidate for President of the Parliament in 1999 and the ALDE candidate in 2002. This meant that
1809-537: The United Kingdom . As such, it won the most seats by any national political party in the parliament; the German CDU/CSU also won 29 seats but as an alliance. The biggest new party after UK exit is La République En Marche! (LREM) of French President Emmanuel Macron that was formed in 2016 and won the French presidential and parliamentary elections of the following year. Initially, it balked at joining any of
1876-525: The United Kingdom participated alongside other EU member states after an extension of Article 50 to 31 October 2019; therefore, the allocation of seats between the member states and the total number of seats remained as it had been in 2014. On 26 May 2019, the centre-left and centre-right parties suffered significant losses, while pro-EU centrist , liberal and environmentalist parties and anti-EU right-wing populist parties made substantial gains. The European People's Party led by Manfred Weber won
1943-781: The Common Candidate. The party convened an extraordinary Congress in Lisbon to ratify the election of the candidate and to vote upon the manifesto. Jan Zahradil , an MEP for the Czech Civic Democratic Party , is the Spitzenkandidat of the European Conservatives and Reformists . Rather than present a single candidate, the ALDE group presented a Team Europe of seven people as the alliance's leading candidates: As in 2014,
2010-503: The EU . As the United Kingdom was still a member of the EU at the time of the election, the elections were held with the same allocation of seats as in 2014. When the United Kingdom left the EU, 27 of the seats were reallocated to other EU member states as shown below, resulting in a total of 705 MEPs. The table below shows the changes in group composition after the United Kingdom left the EU. There were no pan-European polls for
2077-472: The EU parliament has increased from 15.2 per cent after the first European Parliament election in 1979 to 41 per cent after 2019 European Parliament election . To reach gender parity, women should hold 50 per cent of seats and positions of power. However, according to the goal set by the European Institute for Gender Equality , a ratio between 40 and 60 per cent is considered acceptable. After
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2144-860: The European Commission. Two candidates sought the nomination of the EPP: At their 2018 Congress in Helsinki, the EPP elected Manfred Weber as their Spitzenkandidat for President of the European Commission. Previous candidate Martin Schulz left the European Parliament in 2017 to head the Social Democratic Party of Germany , but he stepped down from the latter position in 2018. Two candidates were nominated by PES member parties and organisations: Šefčovič announced his withdrawal in November and supported Frans Timmermans as
2211-459: The European elections". In May 2018 a Eurobarometer poll suggested that 49% of the 27,601 individuals from all 28 EU countries surveyed think that the Spitzenkandidat process will help them vote in the next European elections while 70% also think that the process requires a real debate on European issues. Incumbent Jean-Claude Juncker stated he would not seek a second term as President of
2278-452: The European elections. However, several organisations calculated the theoretical seat distribution in the European Parliament based on national polls in all member states. The table below displays these different projections. Since the United Kingdom notified its intention to leave the European Union in March 2017, the United Kingdom was expected not to participate in the European elections and
2345-410: The Group secured its first President of the European Parliament since Simone Veil, when Pat Cox was elected to the post to serve the latter half of the Parliament's five-year term. This arrangement was discontinued after the 2009 election, when the EPP and the socialist S&D Group formed an informal Grand Coalition . On 13 July 2004, the Group approved a recommendation to unite with MEPs from
2412-627: The Group was officially founded as the Group of Liberals and Allies on 23 June 1953. As the Assembly grew into the Parliament, the French Gaullists split from the Group on 21 January 1965 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 in 1976, then to the Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group on 13 December 1985, then to
2479-438: The Group was performed by its secretariat, led by its Secretary-General. The senior staff of ALDE as of July 2012 were as follows: The chairs of ALDE and its predecessors from 1953 to 2019 are as follows: Along with the other political groups, ALDE has been analysed by academics on its positions regarding various issues . In short, it's a group of cohesive, gender-balanced centrist Euroneutrals that cooperate most closely with
2546-541: The centrist 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 (ALDE) on 20 July 2004, to match the eponymous transnational political alliance , although
2613-404: The countries then become full member states, these observers become full MEPs for the interim period between accession and the next European elections. From 26 September 2005 to 31 December 2006, Bulgaria had 18 observers in Parliament and Romania 35. These were selected from government and opposition parties as agreed by the countries' national parliaments. Following accession on 1 January 2007,
2680-731: The different traditions of each new Member State as they acceded to the Union , progressively changing its name in the process. Its immediate predecessor was the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group (ELDR). The ALDE Group was the fourth-largest group in the Eighth European Parliament term, and previously participated in an informal coalition with the EPP during the Sixth Parliament (2004–2009). The pro-European platform of ALDE
2747-493: The drop, Malta still elected 50 per cent women in 2019. Cyprus dropped from 17 per cent in 2014 to zero women this year, while Estonia dropped from 50 to 33 per cent. Hungary , Lithuania and Luxembourg made the greatest gains (19, 18 and 17 percentage points respectively) when we compare 2019 with 2014, followed by Slovenia and Latvia , both increasing their percentage of women MEPs by 13 points. Luxembourg, Slovenia and Latvia all elected 50 per cent female MEPs. As of 2019 ,
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2814-564: The existing party families, instead trying to form a new parliamentary group of pro-European centrists who support Macron's plans to reform the European institutions, drawing away members from ALDE, EPP and S&D. Possible partners for such a project were expected to include Spanish Ciudadanos , Progressive Slovakia and the Hungarian Momentum Movement . However, the hypothetical group was considered to have difficulties to find MEPs from at least seven member states as
2881-664: The first elections in 1980 until 2019 (39 years). MEPs organise themselves into cross-national political groups , except for a few non-attached members known as Non-Inscrits who choose not to join a Group (or no Group wants them). The two largest groups are the European People's Party Group (EPP Group) and the Socialists & Democrats (S&D). These two groups have dominated the Parliament for much of its life, continuously holding between 40 and 70 per cent of
2948-487: The former Deputy PM of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg , current Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni , Danish former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt , and Belgian former PM Elio Di Rupo . A dual mandate, in which an individual is a member of both their national parliament and the European Parliament , was officially discouraged by a growing number of political parties and member states, and
3015-438: The fourth largest group in parliament with an estimate of more than 80 MEPs. 2019 saw the debut of new parties such as Wiosna of Poland, Czech Pirate Party of Czech Republic, USR-PLUS of Romania, Human Shield and Most of Croatia, ĽSNS and Progressive Slovakia of Slovakia. Some of the new parties have already joined European parties, e.g. LMŠ of Slovenia is a member of ALDE. The new Brexit Party won 29 seats in
3082-428: The governments of member states from among those already sitting in their own national parliaments. Since 1979, however, MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage every five years. Each member state establishes its own method for electing MEPs – and in some states this has changed over time – but the system chosen must be a form of proportional representation . Some member states elect their MEPs to represent
3149-445: The head of communications for the 5 Star Movement and a close associate and friend of Beppe Grillo. The Movement is an alliance of populist parties set up by Steve Bannon in 2018 with the purpose of contesting the European elections. Participating parties included, at least temporarily, Lega Nord , People's Party of Belgium and Brothers of Italy and possibly French National Rally . Originally envisioned as an attempt to unite
3216-475: The low-paid eastern European members) and status quo for those from the United Kingdom, until January 2020 (depending on the euro-pound exchange rate). The much-criticised expenses arrangements were also partially reformed. Members declare their financial interests in order to prevent any conflicts of interest. These declarations are published in a register and are available on the Internet. They must also make
3283-487: The most seats in the European Parliament, making Weber the leading candidate to become the next President of the European Commission . Despite this, the European Council decided after the election to nominate Ursula von der Leyen as new Commission President. On 7 June 2018, the Council agreed at ambassador level to change the EU electoral law and to reform old laws from the 1976 Electoral Act. The purpose of
3350-495: The number had risen to 751. This has been reduced to 705 members after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in January 2020, with each member state now having at least six and at most 96 MEPs. From the 2024 elections, there will be 720 members. Elections are held once every five years, on the basis of universal suffrage . There is no uniform voting system for the election of MEPs; rather, each member state
3417-567: The observers became MEPs (with some personnel changes). Similarly, Croatia had 12 observer members from 17 April 2012, appointed by the Croatian parliament in preparation for its accession in 2013. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Text taken from How gender balanced will the next European Parliament be? , Gina Pavone/OBC Transeuropa, EDJNet. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from
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#17327726062733484-469: The other hand, Cyprus has elected zero women, and Slovakia elected only 15 percent. Other Eastern European countries, namely Romania , Greece , Lithuania and Bulgaria , all elected fewer than 30 per cent female MEPs. Eight member states elected a lower number of women in 2019 than in 2014. Malta , Cyprus and Estonia lost the most female representation in the EU parliament, dropping by 17 percentage points, while Slovakia dropped by 16. However, despite
3551-685: The party elected Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout as their Spitzenkandidaten for the President of the European Commission. Oriol Junqueras , a Catalan historian, academic and former Vice President of Catalonia who, at the time of the election, was imprisoned because of his involvement in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum , was the Spitzenkandidat of the European Free Alliance . The designated candidates are Violeta Tomič from Slovenia and Belgian trade-unionist Nico Cué . The Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy
3618-781: The populist parties in Europe, The Movement has so far been snubbed by the Alternative for Germany , the Freedom Party of Austria and the UK Independence Party . In March 2019, reporters assessed Bannon's project as a failure. Shortly ahead of the election, Marine Le Pen of the French National Rally distanced herself from Bannon, clarifying that he played no role in her party's campaign. In April 2019, Matteo Salvini of Italy's Lega launched
3685-563: The process and the parties are almost certain to select the candidates again. On 23 January 2018, the Constitutional Affairs Committee adopted a text stating that the Spitzenkandidat process could not be overturned, and that Parliament "will be ready to reject any candidate in the investiture procedure of the Commission President who was not appointed as a Spitzenkandidat in the run-up to
3752-433: The protocol on the privileges and immunities of the European Union , MEPs in their home state receive the same immunities as their own national parliamentarians. In other member states, MEPs are immune from detention and from legal proceedings, except when caught in the act of committing an offense. This immunity may be waived by application to the European Parliament by the authorities of the member state in question. Around
3819-445: The reform is to increase participation in elections, raise understanding of their European character and prevent irregular voting while at the same time respecting the constitutional and electoral traditions of the member states. The reform forbids double voting and voting in third countries, thus improving the visibility of European political parties. To avoid double voting, contact authorities are established to exchange data on voters,
3886-443: The role of Commission President, the party winning the most seats in the European Parliament receiving the first opportunity to attempt to form a majority to back their candidate (akin to how heads of government are elected in national parliamentary democracies). This process was first used in 2014 and was opposed by some in the European Council . The future of the process is uncertain, but the European Parliament has attempted to codify
3953-480: The same salary as a member of the lower House of their own national parliament. As a result, there was a wide range of salaries in the European Parliament. In 2002, Italian MEPs earned €130,000, while Spanish MEPs earned less than a quarter of that at €32,000. However, in July 2005, the Council agreed to a single statute for all MEPs, following a proposal by the Parliament. Thus, since the 2009 elections, all MEPs receive
4020-585: The seats together. No single group has ever held a majority in Parliament. As a result of being broad alliances of national parties, European groups parties are decentralised and hence have more in common with parties in federal states like Germany or the United States than unitary states like the majority of the EU states. Although, the European groups, between 2004 and 2009, were actually more cohesive than their US counterparts. Aside from working through their groups, individual members are also guaranteed
4087-483: The third-largest grouping in the Common Assembly was the Liberal grouping with 11 members. The Group of Liberals and Allies was officially founded on 23 June 1953. By mid-September 1953, it was again the third-largest Group with 10 members. ALDE was a coalition of liberal and centrist MEPs. It did not have formal subgroups, although the MEPs fell naturally into two informal subgroups, depending on whether they associated with
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#17327726062734154-644: 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. In May 2019, speaking at a debate leading up to the 2019 European Parliament election , ALDE President Guy Verhofstadt announced that following the election, the group would form a new, centrist alliance with Emmanuel Macron's "Renaissance" list and be renamed as Renew Europe . The national parties that are members of ALDE are as follows: ALDE (2016–2019) In September 1952,
4221-418: The youngest MEP is Kira Marie Peter-Hansen of Denmark, who was 21 at the start of the July 2019 session, and is also the youngest person ever elected to the European Parliament. The oldest MEP ever was Manolis Glezos who was 92 when elected in 2014. European citizens are eligible for election in the member state where they reside (subject to the residence requirements of that state); they do not have to be
4288-477: Was in support of free market economics and pushed for European integration and the European single market . On 12 June 2019, it was announced that the successor group in alliance with La République En Marche! would be named Renew Europe . The ALDE Group traced 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, but
4355-415: Was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979 . A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent more than 512 million people from 28 member states . In February 2018, the European Parliament had voted to decrease the number of MEPs from 751 to 705 if the United Kingdom were to withdraw from the European Union on 29 March 2019. However,
4422-536: Was therefore excluded from projections. On 10 April 2019, the European Council extended the Brexit deadline to 31 October 2019, and the UK did participate in the European elections. The UK was included in most projections after that date. → (no En Marche) The following table shows projections with vote share instead of seats. The heads of governments, gathered in a European Council on 1–3 July 2019, could not agree on
4489-477: Was widely expected to disband after the election. One reason was that its biggest share of MEPs came from the United Kingdom, which was long expected to leave the EU before the election. The second was that the second-biggest partner, Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S), felt uneasy about this alliance anyway, having unsuccessfully tried to join the Greens/EFA or ALDE group instead. In February 2019, M5S alongside partners from Croatia, Finland, Greece and Poland presented
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