Liberal leaders meet in Brussels ahead of European Council meeting - Hoofdinhoud

Met dank overgenomen van J.C. (Hans) van Baalen i, gepubliceerd op vrijdag 18 december 2015, 11:09.

At the invitation of the ALDE Party President Hans van Baalen MEP, liberal Prime Ministers and European Commissioners met at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Thursday 17 December ahead of the European Council Summit of the same day. Crucial topics were discussed such as the refugee crisis, Passenger Name Records (PNR) and the proposal of the President of the European Council on safeguarding our external land and sea borders.

During the event, President Hans van Baalen said: "It was a great liberal family gathering where we discussed in depth on how to strengthen our borders, find solutions for the refugee crisis, a liberal approach to Passenger Name Records and how to tackle terrorism."

"In the presence of François Bayrou and Albert Rivera, we discussed the political situation in France and Spain. I was particularly impressed with Rivera, who is full of energy to reform Spain," he added.

"We are looking forward to the potential success in Spain, which would bring another strong centrist political party to the forefront, after the good results of Nowoczesna in Poland", concluded Hans van Baalen.

The leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt said: "We hope that European leaders take the lead now on refugee crisis and it is important that all countries apply the same rules on these issues. Liberal Prime Ministers, European Commissioners and Members of the European Parliament are ready to do so."

On Sunday 20 December Spanish citizens are going to the polls to elect a new Parliament. Ciudadanos (C's) represented by Albert Rivera were present at the Pre-Summit. The leader of C's Albert Rivera said: "We now have an opportunity for change in Spain, to change things from the centre and not from the extremes. In this sense, Ciudadanos represents the centre, the liberal democracy in Spain, and I hope that after the Spanish elections on Sunday we can be that change."

The participants were:

Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg

Miro Cerar, Prime Minister of Slovenia

Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark

Taavi Rõivas, Prime Minister of Estonia

Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Juha Sipilä, Prime Minister of Finland

Andrej Babiš, Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport

Vĕra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality

Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition