ALDE party Congress: writing a manifesto for Europe

So, a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest, but possibly with better tunes, liberals from as far afield as Armenia and Catalonia, Finland and Cyprus are gathered to debate the draft manifesto for the European Election in May.

East Midlands European Candidate George Smid (right) with Nick Clegg

The draft is founded on four key themes;

• creating jobs and opportunities - free trade agreements, stimulating SMEs and e-commerce
• setting new priorities - redirecting spending towards increasing jobs and improving lives, cutting administrative budgets and the Common Agricultural Policy, and ensuring healthy public finances
• stronger in the world and safer at home - a common asylum and refugee policy, strengthening EU agencies and cooperation to fight organised crime, pooling and sharing of military resources
• an effective and transparent Europe - laws to be made at the appropriate regional, national or EU level, improving accountability for European politicians

A manifesto debate at ALDE is interesting, in that much of the horse-trading is done in advance by small groups, with fine-tuning taking place in a three-hour session tasked with considering 197 mostly technical amendments. And yes, it does work. For the Liberal Democrats, Martin Horwood has done sterling work in ensuring that the draft fits with our sensitivities.