Last weekend the biannually ALDE Party Council meeting took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. LYMEC President Svenja Hahn, Vice President Edgaras Mascinskas and Bureau Member Anotaneta Asenova represented LYMEC in the ALDE bureau meeting, the plenary debate and fringe meetings.
The ALDE Council is basically the smaller version of congress. The Member Organisations have a smaller number of delegates; LYMEC has for example ten Congress delegates and one Council delegate. The Council handles membership issue, finances and urgency resolutions in-between congresses. At the fringes of the Council meeting the ALDE bureau holds a meeting. LYMEC president joins as ex-officio member.
On Friday Antoaneta presented LYMECs position on Human rights, especially highlighting women and LGBTIQ rights as a main focus in the Expert Forum on Human rights, organized by the European Liberal Foundation (ELF). These ELF expert forums take place all over the EU at the moment on various topics. The results of these forums shall feed into the ALDE Manifesto for the 2019 EP elections.
On Saturday morning, Svenja who is as well representing LYMEC in the manifesto committee of the ALDE party, moderated the session on the ALDE manifesto roadmap. Council delegates discussed with panelist like MEPs, MPs and private sector representatives and members of the manifesto committee the roadmap to the EP elections and debated the shape and priorities of the manifesto.
On Saturday afternoon, the plenary of the Council took place and debated urgency resolutions on topics like the revolution in Armenia where Vice President Edgaras in his speech called to support the democratic aspirations of the Armenian people.