News

The first weekend in December over 1300 European liberals gathered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for the largest ALDE Party Congress to date. The Congress, that is said to be the largest international convention of liberals ever, was also a historic success for the European Liberal Youth.

The first victory was delivered on Friday morning, when during the Council meeting it became clear that LYMEC had managed to secure a spot on the ALDE Party Manifesto Group. The achievement reflects the general level of respect for young liberals and the work of LYMEC found within the ALDE Party and the member parties, but it would not have been possible without the strong support from a number of the Vice Presidents in the ALDE Party Bureau.

At the Congress, LYMEC had put forward two resolutions: Educating Europe and on Tackling Propaganda and False News from Russia. Both resolutions were adopted so the ALDE Party now has a more comprehensive policy on the European dimension of education as well as clear stances on how to encounter disinformation and propaganda. LYMEC furthermore had a great impact on the decision by the congress to promote decriminalisation of the personal use of recreational drugs, by amending and lobbying for the resolution A Common Approach to Soft Drugs.

A final remarkable victory for the young liberals came Saturday, with the re-election of Ilhan Kyuchyuk, MEP as Vice-President of ALDE Party. Ilhan is a longstanding good friend and ally of LYMEC and president of our Bulgarian member organization Youth Movement for Rights and Freedoms. LYMEC is  very proud of the strong mandate he got by the Congress, as he was reelected  with the highest number of votes among the vice presidents.

Once again, the LYMEC delegation to the ALDE Party Congress has proven that youth, too, can influence politics and have an impact on the decisions that are made. We are very proud of these achievements and of the hard work and preparations put in by the delegates and look forward to see how the ALDE Party will continue the work for the adopted resolutions.

Further reading:

Tackling Propaganda and False News

ALDE Party Congress page