Last weekend LYMEC, the European Liberal Youth, held its autumn congress in Barcelona. Around 150 young liberals where present there to celebrate LYMEC’s 35th anniversary and discuss about a wide variety of resolutions.

 

The delegates accepted a new, more liberal path, towards a recovery from the current sovereign debt and currency crisis. They  opposed the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the use of bailouts. Instead Greece’s public debt should be reduced by a so-called haircut that is accompanied by privatisation packages. LYMEC also doesn’t exclude an exit of Greece from the Eurozone when it does not agree on such or a similar strategy.

 

Furthermore the congress accepted two membership applications, expanding the liberal family in Europe even more. Youth of LDP from Serbia got accepted as a full member of LYMEC, and the Alliance of Young Liberals from Lithuania got accepted as an applicant member of LYMEC.

 

During the Congress, participants also had an opportunity do exchange with Monique Hall from the US Democrats about the use of new social media and her experiences from the Obama campaign.

 

The congress was closed by a gala-dinner on Saturday evening to celebrate the 35th anniversary and look back on many successful years. The presence of Sir Graham Watson MEP, vice-president of the ELDR and former leader of the ALDE group, Marc Guerrero i Tarragó, vice-president of the ELDR, and many more former young liberals made it a big success. Sir Graham, who was involved in the founding  of LYMEC, provided participants with valuable insights about the early days of the organisation.

 

Special thanks goes to Juventut Nacionalista de Catalunya for hosting the congress and the seminar about European Immigrations policies just before the congress.