EU should push Russia for reforms after fraudulent elections

"Elections in Russia are a charade and should not fool any genuine democrat that Putin was on a level playing-field with other candidates," said Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament. Serious liberal opposition candidates were barred from the plebiscite, allowing Putin to secure an easy and predictable victory."

MEPs to back plans for low carbon economy

On March 15th the European Parliament endorsed the Commission's low carbon 'Roadmap' by a large majority. The document provides a policy framework for the European Union to achieve an 80-95% reduction in its CO2 emissions by 2050.

Its formal endorsement by EU governments was blocked at the Environment Council by Poland, which argued against the setting of interim targets or milestones, although the overwhelming majority have signalled their support.

The European Parliament puts an end to the war against hormone-treated beef

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During the March Strasbourg plenary session the European Parliament has ended the twenty year old transatlantic beef wars. Condemned by the WTO for its refusal to import hormone-treated beef originating in the United States and Canada, and being subject to retaliatory trade measures costing millions of Euros each year, the EU has always refused to budge on its principles and ensured that European consumers have guarantees on the quality of imported meat. Ultimately, an agreement was reached allowing the lifting of sanctions in exchange for import quotas for U.S. and Canadian hormone-free high-quality beef.

Racism and xenophobia have no place in today's Europe

Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament roundly condemn the content of the PVV website in the Netherlands. At the March 13 debate on the subject of discriminatory websites and government responses Guy Verhofstadt spoke on behalf of the ALDE group:

"There is no place in today's Europe for the kind of hate messages fostered by the PVV website which incites Dutch voters to blame Eastern Europeans, full members of the European Union, for losing their jobs at a time of financial and economic crisis."

New rules on succession bring transparency to EU citizens and courts

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When someone dies, disputes often arise about the inheritance. European countries have considerably different laws on inheritance and the right to a compulsory portion. If the deceased did not live in his country of origin, or owned property in other countries, several legal systems may apply.

Confiscation of criminal assets: good step towards an EU strategy against organised crime and mafias

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"Depriving criminal organisations of their resources, both material as well as financial, is a first important tool towards the development of an EU-wide strategy to eradicate this globalised and sophisticated phenomenon", said ALDE MEP Sonia Alfano (Italia dei Valori, Italy) EP rapporteur on "Organized crime in the European Union", welcoming the long awaited proposal for a Directive by the European Commission on "Confiscating and freezing criminal assets". 

Bologna Process: Equitable access to study for all

The Bologna process and the contribution of the European institutions to its progress was debated in the European Parliament. on March 12th. The purpose of the Bologna process is to create a European higher education area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe and beyond.

EP rapporteur welcomes decision to grant Serbia candidate status

Responding to the European Council's approval of Serbia's candidate status following the lifting of a last minute Romanian reserve over the treatment of minorities, Jelko Kacin (LDS, Slovenia), EP rapporteur on Serbia's accession said: "I warmly welcome the Council's decision to grant Serbia candidate status. It is a hugely positive step forward and recognition of Serbia's reform efforts."

ALDE launches campaign to boost SMEs

The Liberal and Democrat (ALDE) Group in the European Parliament is stepping up the pressure on EU Member States and the Commission to boost successful entrepreneurship in Europe and further improve the framework conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ahead of the Spring European Council dedicated to growth initiatives and competitiveness.

MEPs push for lower mobile phone roaming tariffs

MEPs voted on February 28th to extend EU rules aimed at reducing the cost of using mobile and smart phones whilst abroad and approve new structural measures to inject more competition into the roaming market. Since 2007, EU roaming regulations have gradually introduced price caps on cross-border mobile phone calls and text messages and established guarantees against ‘bill shocks’.

Air passenger rights need strengthening

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On February 28th the Parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee adopted a report urging the Commission to improve the legal framework and provisions governing the operation and enforcement of air passenger rights in anticipation of next year's revision of Regulation No. 261/2004.

Energy efficiency must be the foundation of Europe’s energy future

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On February 28th, the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee will vote on proposals to help the EU achieve its ambition of reducing energy consumption by 20% in 2020. Current forecasts predict that the EU is only on track to achieve a 9% reduction on 1990 levels.

Greece: Eurogroup must address the causes and not just the symptoms of the crisis

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Ahead of the February 20th Eurogroup meeting to finalise the terms of the new bailout for Greece, Guy Verhofstadt, Liberal and Democrat group leader in the European Parliament, underlined that the Troika plan only addresses the symptoms and not the cause of the Greek debt crisis:

"The only thing that can be said for the agreement expected on the terms for a second hundred billion euro bailout for Greece is that it avoids immediate bankruptcy and buys a little more time for the Eurozone to agree a comprehensive plan - though I remain sceptical that the Member States have yet learned the lessons from two years of procrastination and half measures."

European Commission weighs options to break the ‛glass ceiling’ for women on company boards

A European Commission report published on March 5th shows that limited progress towards increasing the number of women on company boards has been achieved one year after EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding called for credible self-regulatory measures (see MEMO/11/124). Just one in seven board members at Europe's top firms is a woman (13.7%). This is a slight improvement from 11.8% in 2010. However, it would still take more than 40 years to reach a significant gender balance (at least 40% of both sexes) at this rate.

Gender balance in top positions has been shown to contribute to better business performance, improved competitiveness and economic gains. For example, a report by McKinsey found that gender-balanced companies have a 56% higher operating profit compared to male-only companies. Ernst & Young looked at the 290 largest publicly-listed companies. They found that the earnings at companies with at least one woman on the board were significantly higher than in those that had no female board member.

To identify appropriate measures for addressing the persistent lack of gender diversity in boardrooms of listed companies in Europe, the Commission launched a public consultation today. The Commission is seeking views on possible action at EU level, including legislative measures, to redress the gender imbalance on company boards. The public consultation will run until 28 May 2012. Following this input, the Commission will take a decision on further action later this year.

The March 5rh report on gender balance on company boards comes one year after EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding challenged publicly-listed companies in Europe to voluntarily increase the number of women in their boardrooms by signing the 'Women on the Board Pledge for Europe'. By signing this Pledge, companies commit themselves to raise female representation on their boards to 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020. However, during the past 12 months, only 24 companies across Europe have signed the Pledge.

ALDE Response to Reding Statement

European Parliament backs quotas for women

Sophie in 't Veld, (D66, Netherlands), Parliament's rapporteur on the annual report on the state of gender equality in the EU for 2011, is pleased with the result of the March 13th vote, calling on the Commission to table legislation, including quotas, by the end of 2012, to increase female participation in corporate management boards. Measures to combat the lack of women at the top, both in business and in political decision making, were discussed during a heated debate in the European Parliament during the March plenary. Progress remains very slow, despite numerous EU policies aimed at achieving a better gender-balance.

Too slow, according to in 't Veld. "After decades of stagnation, it is high time to act. I don't think there is anyone who is really in favor of quotas. It is a necessary evil, because voluntary measures have got us nowhere. Quotas are a very blunt instrument, and they can only have an impact in combination with other measures to facilitate and support more women in senior positions in both the public and private sector. Without measures to boost women at the top, at the current pace of change it will take until 2040 to reach gender parity. Both for moral and economic reasons we cannot afford to leave the huge potential of female talent unused."

In 't Veld adds: "I do not accept the argument that quotas lead to "token women". Sure, there are incompetent women, but if I look at the current state of our economy, you cannot possibly claim that the 97% of male business leaders have been selected purely on the basis of merit. We need an instrument to break the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is not a visible brick wall, but it consists of very subtle, invisible, often not even conscious mechanisms that constitute an obstacle to equal representation of women. And I would like to quote Maureen Reagan who already decades ago said: "I will feel equality has arrived when we can elect to office women who are as incompetent as some of the men who are already there."

In national parliaments across the EU only 24% are women.
Mrs. Bilbao Barandica (PNV, Spain), ALDE spokesperson on women in political decision-making considers that, given the importance of increasing the participation of women in politics and in having the interests of women represented, positive action measures such as electoral quotas should be implemented. She comments: "In Basque country quotas were introduced already in 2005, resulting in a well-balanced political representation of both women and men: female representation went up from 30 to 53 %. Women have a lot to contribute: they might be different but they are not unequal. Gender inequality is inefficient and has no place in our society."

Note for editors: The European Parliament today voted in favour of quota in two reports on gender equality calling for urgent action to increase female participation both in the boardroom and in political representation.

The facts: the percentage of women on boards of EU listed companies is just 13.7%. Only 3.2% of chairpersons were women in January 2012.  This lack of gender diversity in boardrooms moreover is counterproductive to Europe's business performance, its competiveness and its economic growth. Having more women in top jobs can contribute to a more productive and improved company performance overall.

ALDEPAC 7th Annual Conference: Towards a panafrican liberal manifesto - Abidjan, Ivory Coast, March 2-4

Parliamentarians from 33 ACP countries and the European Parliament, Members of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ALDEPAC), met in Abidjan from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th March for their seventh annual conference, "Africa: the liberal solution", "Towards a Pan-African Liberal Manifesto".

The opening ceremony was attended by HE Mr. Alassane Ouattara, President of the Ivory Coast Republic. "The Ivory Coast under the leadership of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny laid the foundation for a liberal economy a half-century ago. From the beginning this has allowed the Ivory Coast to make spectacular leaps in growth and have quality infrastructure" said the Ivorian president before stating that "economic liberalism goes hand in hand with political liberalism."

President Ouattara's intervention was followed by speeches by the Co-Chairs of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly ACP-EU, the Kenyan Musikari Kombo and Louis Michel who called on the Ivorian president to strengthen social cohesion and reconciliation in his country.

Louis Michel stressed that the Liberal manifesto to be drafted during the conference should be devoted to a liberalism which "requires a state of law and guarantees the right of citizens" and not "a blind capitalism". He said that "liberalism is a humanist project which offers more democracy for citizens." Unlike socialism, liberalism aims to convince: "We made a commitment to serve the citizens. Liberalism must never be complacent with regards to human rights. "

Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, welcomed the victory of liberal and democratic forces, and the newfound peace in Ivory Coast, a country that can once again become the economic and commercial motor of Francophone West Africa.

Niccolò Rinaldi, Co-Chairman of ALDEPAC, said: "Our political commitment comes from the faith that all human beings have unlimited capacity, but often society does not enable us to discover our capabilities. Liberalism can create an environment to gradually discover these capacities. Now we have an advantage: the current generation of youth is very different from previous ones. They have access to the Internet and new technologies and are connected to thousands if not millions of others. If they have access to technology, they will be able to change the world much more quickly than we can imagine. I think the younger generation will transform the world in a fundamental way."

During the conference, which lasted three days, participants discussed two main themes, "Liberalism, a humanist project" and "liberal proposals for Africa".  The goal was to identify the essence of liberal doctrine, and economic and political opportunities so as to ensure good governance and combat poverty.

"The Manifesto of Abidjan, Africa, the liberal solution" will be printed before the summer in Volume III of ALDEPAC publications.

Jürgen Creutzmann: (FDP, Germany)

Jürgen Creutzmann entered the European Parliament in 2009 as the first liberal politician from his home region Rhineland Palatinate in western Germany.

Between 1973 and 2006 Jürgen worked at BASF SE, lastly as Director for Subsidiaries Accounting Services, where he was responsible for the accountancy of around 50 subsidiaries and affiliated companies. Since 1983 he has been Treasurer and Board Member of the FDP Rhineland-Palatinate. He has held many positions in German regional politics including serving as a member of the Rhineland-Palatinate District Council between 1989 and 2009, vice-speaker of the Rhineland Palatinate Regional Assembly from 2001 to 2006 and chairman of its Committee for European Affairs between 2006 and 2009.

In the first half of his European mandate, Jürgen's parliamentary activities as ALDE Coordinator for the Committee of Internal Market and Consumer Protection and Substitute Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs focused on completing the single market, with an emphasis on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and promoting the principles of the social market economy.

As ALDE shadow rapporteur on the late payments directive, he accomplished the introduction of EU-wide maximum payment periods for public authorities and private companies. As a result, powerful debtors will no longer be able to impose long payment periods on SMEs, who often suffer liquidity problems as a result of late payments.

In 2011, Jürgen was rapporteur for the Parliament's Resolution on Online Gambling in the Internal Market, which for the first time called for common European standards concerning consumer protection, licensing requirements and combating illegal operators. As rapporteur for the regulation on customs enforcement of intellectual property rights, Jürgen has achieved important improvements to make procedures more efficient, strengthen right-holders and improve data protection.      

Since January 2012, Jürgen has been Member of the Committee for Industry, Research and Energy, while remaining active on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection as a Substitute Member. In his new position, Jürgen continues his work in support of SMEs, notably as rapporteur for the future Programme for Competitiveness of Businesses and SMEs (COSME). 

In addition to his committment as Vice President of the Parliament's SME Intergroup, Jürgen's passion for SMEs has also led him to initiate the ALDE campaign "Boost SMEs". The campaign, which was officially launched by the group on 29 February 2012 and will run until 2014, seeks to promote the interests of SMEs in three main areas: smart regulation, easier financing and better market access. 

In his free time, Jürgen enjoys travelling with his wife and spending time at home with his two children and four grandchildren. He also appreciates good food (favourite dish: dorade in a salt crust), at times accompanied with a glass of fine wine. 

For more information, please contact:
ALDE Press Service and Inter-institutional relations unit

neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu
willem.vandenbroucke@europarl.europa.eu