News

During the first days of December liberals from all over Europe gathered in Warsaw, Poland, for the annual ALDE Party congress. LYMEC was represented by a strong delegation of ten voting delegates and the Bureau and office as a supporting team. Besides the official LYMEC delegation many representatives from LYMEC member organisations were included in their mother parties’ delegations, so all in all the young liberals were strongly and visibly present at the congress.

For LYMEC the preparations started months before the actual congress, by deciding on the theme for our resolution and later by making amendments to most submitted resolutions. The delegation met over skype several times ahead of the meeting, discussing the LYMEC stance on the topics of the resolutions as well as deciding on the responsibilities within the delegation.

At the congress LYMEC presented a resolution on youth unemployment and co-signed a resolution on women’s and girl’s right to their own bodies. Both resolutions were adopted with strengthening amendments and an overwhelming majority support.

LYMEC also proposed a large number of amendments to the resolution on a Pan-European voting list, which were all adopted. LYMEC was furthermore particularily active in amending the resolution on an increased EU-NATO defence cooperation, the support for the civil society in Russia and freedom of speech in Ukraine. LYMEC was eager to support an increase in defence cooperation and strengthened the resolution on civil society in Russia by demanding the Russian Duma to retract the ‘Foreign Agents’ law from 2012. LYMEC was also happy to see such a strong vision for coming generations in the resolution on agricultural policy at the ALDE Congress. LYMEC contributed to the debate on innovation and services as the LYMEC delegation presented amendments on the resolution on mHealth in keeping with the LYMEC stance on the individual’s right to privacy and data protection.

The LYMEC delegation at the ALDE Congress received good feedback from the other delegations and put a clear mark on the Congress with all its contributions in shape of resolutions, amendments and input in the debate.

Besides shaping the policies LYMEC also inteviewed all the candidates for ALDE Bureau positions. The interview is a longstanding tradition for the LYMEC delegation and gives the delegates and other present young representatives the opportunity to learn more about the future ALDE Bureau members and set a basis for the relationship and future cooperation.

This year’s LYMEC delegation was lead by LYMEC Political Officer Lena Höglund and consisted of Friso Bonga, Andrew Martin, Alexander Nestorov, Laura Neijenhuis, Marit van der Pol, Benedikt Bente, Marijn de Pagter, Keith Henry, Mantas Snioka and Vedrana Gujic.