'Liberals must unite' - says ALDE Party President at Liberal Breakfast - Hoofdinhoud
On Wednesday 9 December the ALDE Party and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) Europe hosted the last Liberal Breakfast of the year with the new ALDE Party President Hans van Baalen MEP.
Under the title "Hands on: How can Liberals unite?", Van Baalen talked about his presidency priorities and internal party issues and had his say on current European issues, such as the refugee crisis and security issues.
Hans van Baalen wants to be a president that "makes a difference" and believes it is crucial to "bring liberals together to become bigger and more influential".
In this sense, the ALDE Party President thinks that cooperation between ALDE Party member parties and between the different liberal initiatives and organisations, such as Liberal International (LI) or the ALDE Group at the Committee of the Regions (ALDE-CoR), is essential to make liberals stronger: "There is a lot of knowledge and experience among our member parties that needs to be shared and that can be beneficial for other forces."
In his campaign for the presidency, Van Baalen said he aims to visit all ALDE Party member parties in his first 100 days in office. Last weekend he already visited the Congress of the Republican Party of Georgia in Tbilisi. Van Baalen also welcomes the increase in popularity of new liberal forces in Europe, such as Nowoczesna in Poland or Ciudadanos in Spain.
Van Baalen is also a great supporter of the development of the ALDE Party individual membership, having become an individual member himself at the ALDE Party Congress in Budapest. He congratulated individual members for having been granted voting rights at the Congress.
The ALDE Party President also spoke out on several current European topics.
On refugee crisis, Van Baalen said: "We have to involve in our societies those who are entitled to asylum in Europe." In this regard, he believes TTIP could be a solution for Europe's stagnant economy and this would be positive both for Europeans and new comers as well as "the best antidote for the rise of far-right parties."
On Brexit, the ALDE Party President expressed his willingnness to support ALDE Party member party in the United Kingdom, Liberal Democrats, in their stay-in campaign.
On foreign affairs and security issues, Van Baalen thinks that "liberals have great ideas for Europe's foreign policy and we should try to put them forward in countries like Ukraine." He added: "Liberals have to fight those who are against freedom and democracy."
In a nutshell, Hans van Baalen defends: "We should be the party of protecting civil liberties and freedoms and the party of ensuring security for our citizens, but we should also be the party of a strong economy."
As a final statement, Van Baalen said: "I want our member parties to win elections and I would like the ALDE Party to help them as much as we can in doing so."