Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
Abbreviation	ALDE Party
President	Svenja Hahn (DE)[1]
Secretary-General	Didrik de Schaetzen (BE)
Founded	26 March 1976; 48 years ago (1976-03-26)
Headquarters	Rue d'Idalie 11 - box 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Think tank	European Liberal Forum
Youth wing	European Liberal Youth
Ideology	Liberalism[2] Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre[6] to centre-right[11]
European Parliament group	Renew (2019–present) ALDE Group (2004–2019) ELDR Group (1976–2004)
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Blue   Magenta   Yellow (customary)
European Parliament	51 / 720
European Council	2 / 27
European Commission	5 / 27
European Lower Houses	754 / 6,312
European Upper Houses	248 / 1,498
Website
aldeparty.eu
Politics of European Union Political parties Elections

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.^[12]

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).^[13]

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.

As of 2024^[update], ALDE Party is represented in European Union institutions, with 51 MEPs and five members of the European Commission. Of the 27 EU member states, there are two with ALDE-affiliated Prime Ministers: Kristen Michal (Estonian Reform Party) in Estonia and Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) in Belgium. ALDE Party members are also in governments in ten other EU member states: Cyprus, France, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands. 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 Ines Holzegger.

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.