different shades of liberalism

8/4/2019 Different Shades of Liberalism

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LIBERTAS

new

New Libertas is a publication of European Liberal Youth Issue no.8, year 2009.

Different shades

of liberalism

American democrats and European liberalsAloys Rigaut, LYMEC President

Having a good time in StrasbourgMarie-Louise Schmidt & Michael Kruse

Liberals in power in Germany Berthold Haustein

Libertarians Lockes dissatisfed heir

Jonathan Dannemann

The Eastern Strand - Liberalism in Central and

Eastern Europe in the 2000s Lavinia Teodorescu

When its all about the moment: The Baltic Way

Gouda Lomanaite


2/24www.newlibertas.eu issue no.8 year 2009.02

Dear friends,

we call ourselves the European Liber-al Youth. But what exactly is liberal?What is liberalism about? In LYMECwe do have quite different memberorganizations from different back-

grounds. All have their own politicalfocus, resulting from their tradition aswell as local political landscape. Someare social-liberal, others are more freemarket-liberal. Some do tradition-ally aim to form governments withthe social democrats, others with thechristian democrats or conservatives,some are open towards both options.Feel free to replace by appropriatepolitical naming convention for anygiven country.

So what unites those different vari-ants of liberalism we nd in ourmembership? What makes them allliberal in the end? It is the idea thatindividual liberty is the core as wellas the aim of all political action. Aliberty that does not shy away fromresponsibility, but to the contrary isthe prerequisite for the personal re-sponsibility in the rst place. Thatbeing free means to be free of humanoppression. That being free is moreimportant than being safe. And thatwe aim for fair chances, not equal re-sults. Because all people are different,but of equal value and rights.

The essence of liberalismEditorial by Alexander Plahr

New LibertasIMPRESSUM

New Libertas is a publication ofEuropean Liberal Youth - LYMEC.The magazine issues four times peryear.

The board of editors

Alexander PlahrChief editor

Slaven KlobuarManaging editor and art direction

Majda ZeheroviEditor

Vedrana GujiEditor

Vincent de RoeckEditor

European Liberal Youth - LYMECRue Montoyer 31B-1000 Brussels

T : +32.2.237.0146F : +32.2.231.1907M : [email protected] : www.newlibertas.euW : www.lymec.eu

European Liberal Youth is support-ive of the ALDE Group (Alliance ofLiberals and Democrats for Europe)

in the European Parliament.

LYMEC is the youth organisationof the European Liberal and Demo-crats Party - ELDR.

LYMEC is kindly supported by theYouth in Action program.

As long as one does not infringe theliberty of others, one may do what-ever he or she likes. To constantlycheck that this is not the case is theinherit duty resulting of this idea.

And only in the case that these lim-its in fact are touched, the state may(and indeed needs to) intervene. Butapart from that, neither the govern-ment, nor society or church, publicopinion or even good taste are cen-sors of peoples lives. They may dowhatever they want, they are free.

Thats why one cannot split liberal-ism into different policy areas andbe liberal only in some of them,

like for example, economic policy.Or be only liberal in for example,civil liberties. Because liberalism isan ideology as well as an ethic thatis holistic in itself, that is what in for-mer times would have been calledatomic - meaning that it can not beseparated. The essence of liberalismis the freedom of the individual itis this essence, that unites us.

Alexander PlahrChief-editor of New LibertasVice President of LYMEC

P.S. Oh, and Europe, of course!


3/24issue no.8 year 2009. 03

Issue no. 8

Different shades of liberalism

02 EditorialAlexander Plahr

03. Content

04. American democrats and European liberalsAloys Rigaut, LYMEC President

06. The Eastern Strand - Liberalism in Central andEastern Europe in the 2000sLavinia Teodorescu

08. Having a good time in StrasbourgMarie-Louise Schmidt & Michael Kruse

09. Liberals in power in GermanyBerthold Haustein

10. When its all about the moment: The Baltic WayGouda Lomanaite

LYMEC President

Aloys Rigaut

Article

Liberals in Germany

Article

LibertatiansArticle

Nanny State

04 12 16 21

12. Libertarians Lockes dissatisfed heirJonathan Dannemann

14. LYMEC/MLS event on individualparticipationJoo Pedro Castro Mendes

16. Nanny-State? No, thanks! Davis Issmer

17. The Ideas Factory

Lynneth Mollis

18. News from member organizations

20. LYMEC press statements

22. The US Democrats and liberalism: no clearcut case, Nicolas Bas

23. ALDE press statements

BECOMEINDIVIDUAL

MEMBEROF

EUROPEANLIBERAL

YOUTH

You can be an Individual LYMEC Member!

In some European countries there are no liberal youth organisations that couldprovide young liberally minded people the access to LYMEC. Also, some Euro-pean idealists also would like to work directly on the level of European politicseven if they are already members of their national liberal youth organisations.To those people the Individual Members Section (IMS) is a great opportunityto get direct access to LYMEC and its events.

Individual members, together with the Member organizations form the back-bone of liberal youth politics in Europe. They elect their delegates to the con-gress via an online election in advance to the congress. All individual members

that have paid their membership fee can vote at this election of the IMS-dele-gates to the LYMEC congress. The amount of IMS-delegates depends on themembership gures of the IMS.


4/24issue no.8 year 2009.04

USA

&Europe

AloysRigaut

American democrats and European liberals:brothers or just friends?Article by Aloys Rigaut, President of LYMEC

There is no doubtabout the fact that

American democratsare the closest to Eu-ropean liberals as re-gards civil rights and

society issues, espe-cially since the 1960s

and J.F. Kennedy.

It has now become common sense in theEuropean political landscape to believe thatliberal has a different meaning in Ameri-ca than in Europe and that any comparisonbetween American and European liberalsis without hope, but is that true? Whilstputting this into question, I am aware thatI will probably receive some laughter, but

after attending recently the Convention ofthe Young Democrats of America (YDA), Ijust cannot refrain myself.

YDA is now a full and active member inthe International federation of liberal youth(IFLRY), but even in our ranks, I continuehearing the same scepticism, melted withsome admiration. Where does it comefrom? Most will say that European liber-als are in the middle between mainstreamRepublicans, supposed to be economicallymarket-oriented (laissez-faire) but socially

conservative, and mainstream Democrats,supposed to be economically State-oriented(regulation) but socially liberal. In otherwords, the same old debate between so-cial liberalism and classical liberalism, orKeynes and Hayek. Boring No need tocross the Atlantic to see such differences,even in LYMEC you can feel them. Theseclashes are just part of our great family, ofour identity as liberals.

There is no doubt about the fact that Ameri-

can democrats are the closest to Europeanliberals as regards civil rights and societyissues, especially since the 1960s and J.F.Kennedy. This could be summarised into

equal rights/opportunities for all regard-less of sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual ori-entation, gender identity, religion, creed, ornational origin.

There is also no doubt that European liber-als identify more strongly to the Democratsinternationalism than to the Republicans

unilateralism, with some strong resonancetoday as regards environmental policies toght against climate change, an issue of somuch importance for us Europeans. But itis probably less known that the DemocraticParty was at its foundation a strong advo-cate of a weak central government: just likeus today, they were critical about delegat-ing too many powers to the federal leveland promoted the principle of subsidiarity.It may not thus be surprising that the partyhas evolved, just like us in Europe, into theparty of minorities: far from wanting to

centralise and harmonise everything, it hasdefended the rights of being different andthe importance of diversity, another ghtthat we certainly share.

Lets face it; the main bone of contentionbetween American democrats and Europe-an liberals is about the economy. One maywonder however why. Historically, theDemocratic Party has always opposed un-regulated business and nance, favouredprogressive income taxes and promoted

welfare spending targeted at the poor. Iprobably dont need to remind the virtuesof unregulated nance, we are in the midstof the most important crisis since the Great


5/24issue no.8 year 2009. 05

Depression because of that stupidity. No,we are not living in a pure and perfect mar-ket, we are all humans, we make errors, andtherefore we need regulation, thats a factof life. The point about resorting to taxa-tion to reduce inequalities may certainly bemore controversial from an economic lib-eral dogmatic point of view. I neverthelesswonder if some European liberals wouldgo as far as some US Republicans, compar-ing Obamas healthcare plan to socialismProbably not, unless they want to commitpolitical suicide of course!

We shall not forget that social services andprogressive income tax were invented byEuropean liberals in the rst half of the20th century. William Beveridge, the inven-tor of the Welfare State, and J.M. Keyneswere both prominent liberal democrats, butother examples could be quoted from other

national contexts than the UK. And it madeperfect sense from a liberal point of view:how can someone vote in full intelligenceif one is in the want? How can you be freeif you are not educated? How can you beeducated if you dont have the money to goto school? How can education be free andopen to all if the State does not intervene toredistribute wealth through taxation? Thesame logic of course applies to health andother social services. This is how the latterstarted to appear at the end of the 19th cen-

tury throughout Europe, and the same inthe US. The movement then only strength-ened in the 1930s, as all our societies wereshaken by the Great Depression. FranklinD. Roosevelt even theorised that freedominto a freedom from want the ultimateliberalism probably.

Does this make US Democrats socialists?Not more than we European liberals I amafraid. There are actually major distinctionsbetween American (liberal) democratsand the European notion of social democ-

racy. First, EU social-democrat programsare aimed at providing national welfareprograms for the entire country, whilstprograms designed by US democrats aredesigned to assist only lower-class indi-viduals. And second, US democrats havealways been reluctant to the nationaliza-tion of private sector industries as a solu-tion to any problem, preferring instead torely on government regulation of abuses orexcesses, whilst EU social-democrats couldlive with a large public sector economy. In

this sense, the economic programme of USdemocrats and EU liberals is not that dis-tant: we both favour a free enterprise sys-tem tempered by government intervention

(mixed economy), and history has proventhat this was indeed the correct way to go.

Some will rightfully say however that theUS Democratic Party is a wide party witha lot of trends, including even a conserva-tive base in the Southern part, and a work-ing-class part closer to European social-democrats. True, but political studies alsoshow that (social) liberals, also referredto as progressives or modern liberals,constitute roughly half of the Democraticvoter base and thereby forming the largestunited typological demographic within theParty. Furthermore, according to the 2008exit poll results, 89% of American liberalsfavoured the candidate of the DemocraticParty, with white collar college-educatedprofessionals now composing one the mostvital component of the Party. A large ma-jority of them favour universal health care,

diplomacy over military action, stem cellresearch, LGBT rights and the legalizationof same-sex marriage, secular government,stricter gun control, environmental protec-tion laws, right to privacy, and the preser-vation of abortion rights. They also see im-migration and cultural diversity positively.Of course, there can still be some differ-ences, like some divisions about free tradeagreements (NAFTA), or their support toafrmative action (would be consideredtotally illiberal in Europe), but still, how

much closer do you want this to be frommainstream European liberalism?

The main problem in the end relies on thefact that US politics are very much bipolar,and that therefore the US Democratic Partymust gather an electorate going beyond lib-erals to win elections. As a matter of fact,studies show that liberals constitute only22% of the electorate in the USA, some-thing pretty similar to the EU situation! Wecan thus only be happy that they representabout half of the Democratic voter base

You just need to look at certain liberal par-ties in Europe that managed to becomedominant in their national political land-scape (e.g. Venstre in Denmark, or CiU inCatalonia): in order to reach 30-40% of theelectorate, these parties had to catch voteson the right-wing or left-wing electorate.This is called political pragmatism, andagain, nothing really so surprising.

Yes liberalism is in the end also about prag-matism: we want progress, more and more

freedoms, but we sometimes forget theprice of each freedom we have gained.

The main problem inthe end relies on thefact that US politicsare very much bipolar,and that therefore theUS Democratic Partymust gather an elector-ate going beyondliberals to win elec-tions. .



EasternStrand

LaviniaTe

odorescu

The Eastern StrandLiberalism in Central and Eastern Europe in the 2000s

Article by Lavinia Teodorescu

National LiberalParty reemergedfrom the ashes of

the inter-war partyof the same name,

which had been dis-mantled in 1946.

Wanting to nd out more about liberal-ism in Eastern Europe, I met BlagovestaCholova, a Bulgarian political science PhDat the Universit Libre de Bruxelles. Sheis studying the construction of identity ofright-wing parties in Poland, Bulgaria andthe Czech Republic; sitting in the glass andsteel tower of the ULB, she told me that themain challenge is actually identifying whatmay be a right-wing party in a 21st centurycontext.

At rst, it would seem that seeing whichparties are liberal would be easy: if theycall themselves one, and if they belong to aliberal group like ELDR or the Internation-al Liberal, then thats what they are. Thereis, however, a vast array of cases in whichsome parties either identify themselves asliberal-conservatives, or their platform isliberal enough but choose to belong with

the EPP, which has swept up many of thecenter parties in a mass movement of sorts,or else are ethnic parties, which are, if pos-sible, even more difcult to align ideologi-cally.

The second step is, then, to analyze thevarious Central and Eastern European par-ties approach on different policy subjectsand then to label them accordingly. Thiswas very easy to do from the fall of theCommunist regimes to more or less 1995.

The right-wing parties, and especially theliberal ones, sprung up as a reaction andan alternative to Communism in the after-math of its collapse, and sometimes foughtagainst the still-communist bureaucracies

that took over; for instance, in Romania,the National Liberal Party reemerged fromthe ashes of the inter-war party of the samename, which had been dismantled in 1946.Its members, who were very keen on thetradition of the so-called historic par-ties, actively but pacically demonstratedagainst the newly-installed neo-communistgovernment, a protest from which the gov-ernment was saved only by the arrival ofminer squads in Bucharest and the subse-quent street ghts.

A liberal party, then, would have been infavor of Europe, reform and privatization,and proud of its anti-Communist and dissi-dent roots, as in, for instance, Poland, withthe Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD)and the Democratic Union (UD). In Slove-nia, on the other hand, the Liberal Democ-racy of Slovenia party (LDS) was formed

from the former Communist Youth organi-zation, which had been a critic of the for-mer system.

Around 1996 came the second wave ofdemocratic elections. In this case, shiftswere made: if the rst winners of the elec-tions had been former Communists, whohad by now become Social Democrats ofa fashion, they were usually replaced bybickering coalitions of small right-wingparties (again, Romania). If, on the other

hand, liberal parties had won the rst elec-tion, as in Poland, again, the unfavorableeffects of the economic reforms, even whenwell under way, as well as general populardisillusionment and reform fatigue made


7/24issue no.8 year 2009. 07

for the return of the Social Democrats. Inthis period, already, it was more difcult tosee who was who, because now, as the pos-sibility to join the EU had become real andthat there was a true target for all the ef-forts, everyone was pro-European. Besides,there were many changes with the partiesthemselves, such as in Hungary, where theAlliance of Young Democrats (FIDESZ)

went on to become, from initially liberal, acivic, popular, patriotic party.

Things got rather more confusing in theearly 2000s. First of all, in the candidatecountries for accession to the EuropeanUnion, policy choices were orientated bythe negotiations with the Commission andthe necessity to comply with the acquiscommunautaire. In this eld, then, the tra-ditional shift between social democracyand neo-liberalism was no longer a relevant

mean of identication.

Furthermore, many parties were confront-ed with an identity and legitimacy crisis,its results being a shift towards populism,nationalism and savior gures. In Bulgaria,for instance, in the aftermath of the eco-nomic crisis that hit the country in 1997, theliberal party of Simeon the IInd swept theelections in 2001, on the basis largely of hispopularity and appeal as a political gurewho would reform the country in 800 days.

Nowadays, the fragmentation, shifts anduncertainty continue, encouraged largelyby the lefts own identity crisis at a Euro-pean level. In the mean time, some of theliberal parties, the prime example being theCzech Republic and Poland, have switchedto a sort of euro-skeptic and essentially na-tionalistic brand of liberalism.

According to Blagovesta, it is unclear yetwhat direction the liberal parties of Cen-tral and Eastern Europe will head in. If one

extrapolates from what happened in theWestern European democracies, populist ornationalist streaks may be anticipated untilsuch a time as a new political identity takesshape. The electoral base of the right-wingparties is generally not getting younger; theGreen movement has a lot of appeal for theyoung, but it is not so well-developed in theECE area and doesnt quite function entire-ly like a party yet.

The future may also bring a different politi-

cal and institutional landscape, with NGOsand local groups taking the front scene,which will call for a radical redenition ofthe very notions of parties and political rep-resentation as they are now.

Are things similar in the perspective of anactual liberal militant? This is the questionI asked Julia Leferman of the National Lib-eral Party in Romania and former LYMECBureau member. She kindly answered ex-tensively despite being in Romania andon holiday, and according to her, the mainproblem is indeed communication and get-ting the message across to jaded and incon-

stant voters.

The Romanian PNL (National LiberalParty) was in a coalition government from1996 to 2000 and again from 2004 to 2008;during the last tenure, part of it as a mi-nority government, they managed to passacross some very liberal reforms namely,a at tax rate that radically simplied thetax system and encouraged private initia-tive, a change for which they are still wide-ly recognized. Now, the PNL is the main

opposition party (with 22%) and is keep-ing an eye on the presidential elections thisautumn. They may be advantaged by theunsuccessful management of the latest orindeed, ongoing nancial crisis by the in-cumbent coalition government.

Twenty years on after the 1989 Revolution,it is still too early for the Romanian public tohave acquired enough experience with thedifferent colors of the political spectrum.The hope, as always, lies with the future,and even if the youth are for the most partuninvolved and declare themselves disap-pointed with the political system, they are,however, quite open to liberal values suchfreedom of movement, of speech, initiativeand justice. The medium-term strategy ofthe PNL is pro-European, against corrup-tion, and promotes ambitious economicgrowth of a particularly alluring kind: sev-enth European country by size, seventhalso by economic power. And if the Roma-nian liberals are successful in their electoralendeavor, Luxembourg for one had better

watch out

1) To avoid confusion, the Romanian governing coali-tion, at the time that I am writing this, is a broad-spec-trum association of Social Democrats and Democrat-Liberals; the Democrat-Liberals are members of theEPP and broke off early on from the Social Democrats.

The Liberal appendage comes from a more recentmerger with a wing of the National Liberal Party.Their platform may be characterized as non-speci-cally right-wing. They are rather a good example forwhat was said in 2, that theres more to a name thanmeets the eye.

The medium-termstrategy of the PNL ispro-European, againstcorruption, andpromotes ambitiouseconomic growth ofa particularly allur-ing kind: seventhEuropean country by

size, seventh also byeconomic power..



Grah

amWatson

Marie-Lou

iseSchmidt&MichaelKruse

LYMEC supports Watson for president Having a good time in StrasburgArticle by Marie-Louise Schmidt and Michael Kruse

Just a week beforewe should arrive in

Strasbourg, GrahamWatson withdrewfrom the race for

uncertain reasons.

A real highlight of campaigning for Liberalthought took place just at the constitutionof the European Parliament in mid July2009. 30 Liberals from all over Europe cametogether to lobby for a Liberal President ofthe European Parliament his name oughtto be Graham Watson. It has been the bestcampaign for a Liberal becoming Presidentof the European Parliament so far. 22 coun-try leaders were visited by Graham Wat-son, everybody knew about the campaign.It was time for him to become the President.

Knowing that, it was a great pleasure join-ing the campaign for two days in Stras-bourg, which is quite a funny place to be atthat time: Almost 40 percent of MPs wereFreshmen, making the European Parlia-ment a place were most people need to re-orientate themselves.

Just a week before we should arrive in Stras-bourg, Graham Watson withdrew from therace for uncertain reasons. Flights werebooked, and so LYMEC decided to keepthe trip and make it a discovery for youngEuropeans interested in international poli-tics. It turned out to be a great trip that gavemost participants a deeper understandingof the European Parliament and of politicsas such.

On Monday, 13 July 2009 we met at the hos-

tel to travel to the European Parliament tomeet with Graham Watson. Meeting himwas denitely one of several highlights ofthis trip. He explained his personal interestin the job and why he withdrew. The groupgot in touch with him very easily

and experienced that he would have beenthe right guy to represent the EuropeanParliament. Also, the group was quite in fa-vor of him when he ordered 50 beers for us.

Having met the man we wanted to lobbyfor, we went back to our hostel to discoverthe best food that one can have in a hos-tel. Afterwards we want out and enjoyed alovely time in the centre of Strasburg. EarlyTuesday morning we went up to possiblymeet with another MP. After a very briefchat with the President of the EuropeanCommission Manuel Barosso we experi-enced the election of Jerzy Busek, who isPresident of the European Parliament sincethen and the right man to further strength-en the relationship between Eastern andWestern Europe. Good luck, Mr. Busek!

Next we had the great pleasure to meet

with Guy Verhofstadt, who was the newlyelected leader of the ALDE group in theEuropean Parliament. Mr. Verhofstadtexplained the Liberal claims for the Com-missions politics in the following years. Itwas very impressive to realize why GuyVerhofstadt has been leader of a nationalgovernment that considers a number of dif-ferent political groups his enormous tal-ent to channel many different opinions willbe a key essential for his way to lead ALDEin the next years.

We as participants of this trip really need tothank LYMEC for inviting us to Strasburg.Although the journey had a different aim atthe beginning it was a good time to be inStrasburg these days!


9/24issue no.7 year 2009. 09

Liberals in power in GermanyArticle by Berthold Haustein

Thought it is not yet a month ago that the general elections in Germany lead to governmental participation of the FDP

(Free Democratic Party) there is already a considerable liberal impact noticeable in German politics. First results of thenegotiations between the future partners of the FDP and the CDU (Christian Democratic Party) show that civil liber-ties will be a major issue in German politics again. Not only that the idea of blocking (and thus censoring) instead ofdeleting child pornography on internet pages will not be brought into power in the next years, also the cases in whichdata retention may be applied will be strictly limited. Moreover the ability to search private computer will be subjectonly to the national (instead of state or local) criminal authorities.

But the FDP has not only set cornerstones for liberal politics in the eld of civil rights: If it comes to nancial issues theyhave seen their ideas through, too. Although no ofcial gures have left the negotiations in Berlin yet, it has alreadybeen made clear by both involved parties, that there will be tax cuts in order to support families with low or middleincome.

The FDP will have their share in personal issues too. In the end 5 ministries will be held by liberal politicians in the nextfouryears. The minister of health will be Philipp Rsler from Lower Saxony. Born in 1973 it will be his task to representyoung people, their problems and perspectives!

After all not only the elections but also the following negotiations have been highly successful for liberals in Germany.After the rst steps are made we now have to see that liberals ideas will be implemented throughout the whole admin-istrative period so that Germany will be seen and named a more liberal country when the next elections will come!


10/24issue no.8 year 2008.10

BalticWay

GoudaLomanaite

When its all about the moment: The Baltic WayArticle by Gouda Lomanaite

This year the worldcommemorates thetwentieth anniver-

sary of the fall ofBerlin Wall, when

the iron curtain fell.

We nd ourselves in the year 2009. Theyear of European Parliament elections, the54th edition of the Eurovision song contest,the year that a man of Hope was inaugurat-ed as President. This year the world com-memorates the twentieth anniversary of thefall of Berlin Wall, when the iron curtainfell. If we look even deeper the list of eventsthat shaped world history will be difcultto end.

In Lithuania we nd this year rather festive.It is the thousandth year that we count theexistence of Lithuania as a state. One thou-sand years ago the pagan ancestors killedsome Christian on a mission to enlightenthem and this bloodshed event has beencarefully written down into the Annals ofQuedlinburg as all matters concerning theHoly Roman Empire. But it seems that fromthen on came the thousand years of war for

this small piece of land near the Baltic Sea.Lithuanians (as some Latvians and Esto-nians) fought the Crusaders, the Swedish,the Norwegians, the Turks, the Prussians,the Germans, the Polish and several otheruprising nations through the course of his-tory. Some battles were won, some werelost. However, one battle started some-where in a room full of conspiracy anticipa-tion.

This brings me to another memorable date

August 23, 1939. On this day the foreignministers of the USSR and Germany - Vy-acheslav Molotov and Joachim von Rib-bentrop, following the orders of their su-periors Stalin and Hitler, signed a treaty

ofcially entitled Treaty of Non-Aggres-sion between the Third German Reich andthe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics orto keep it short The Molotov-Ribbentroppact. To say the least it ended up a ratherimportant piece of document. Among thedeclaration of neutrality and promises notto join any alliances against the other party,the document included a secret protocoldividing Northern and Eastern Europe tothe disposition of Germany and the SovietUnion. In the initial pact the Baltic Stateswere divided as follows: Latvia and Esto-nia were assigned to the Soviet Union andLithuania assigned to the Reich sphere ofinuence. However, less than two weeksafter the start of war came another treatythe German-Soviet treaty of Friendship,Cooperation and Demarcation in whichthe map was modied giving the Germanside more of Poland territory and Lithu-

ania to the Soviet Union.

The war began and in mid 1940 the SovietUnion joyfully accepted the Baltic States into the Union on the ground of their requestto be admitted. Even though there were ac-tive initiatives to resist the occupation noneof them led to success and most of the ac-tivist were deported, imprisoned or killed.This gave a clear understanding that it ismuch better not to get deported or killedand steered the public to embrace unarmed

actions and underground protests all ofwhich sought independence. 14 years ear-lier from now, after the period of Stalin re-pression, Nikita Khrushchev de-Staliniza-tion and more liberal approach, after the


11/24issue no.8 year 2009. 11

stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev, two shortterm rule of Yuri Andropov and Konstan-tin Chernenko, came a man with a vision ofrevised Soviet Union and communism. De-claring the start of mostly economic reformsPerestroika (restructuring), Glasnost(openness), Uskoreniye (acceleration)and Demokratizatsiya (democratization)Mikhail Gorbachev gave the states a breath

of fresh air liberalizing the way people talk-ed, bought and spent.

If you would ask me what the startingpoint of massive civic engagement in thelate nineties was, I would answer music.Not only because all Baltic States have along lasting tradition of folk music gather-ings and festivals starting from mid 1870 inEstonia and Latvia and reaching Lithuaniain early 1920. The festivals during the inter-war period were kept alive and organized

mostly by civil society actors and differ-ent nongovernmental organizations. Evenin the times of occupation these festivalswould draw audiences up to 100 thousandpeople in each country.

Folk music and dance festivals served asa good gathering tool but in the late nine-ties something unexpected hit the culturalscene. The option of openly giving a con-cert was still not easy to fulll to musicians,but in 1987 one of the rst concert tours Rock March started. It brought togethera number of well known yet young bandsand held the unofcial slogan Somethinghappened. It had its roots in the storiesabout freedom, independence of speechand romantic idealism depicted in brightcolors of patriotic feelings. The March it-self at starting points did not seek politicalchanges, however for the rst time it pulledmany young people to daylight of theirchoice, even if it was for type of music. TheMarch swept across the country and pulledin crowds of people who would come to

listen to the new generation of the more lib-eralized and free. To put it in less romanticwords the music festivals gave a platformfor people to make connections, recruit ac-tivists and start the action.

And people did start the action: late nine-ties were full of massive street actions,protests and meetings. Estonians were therst one to create a structure for coordina-tion among initiatives. In 1988 the Popularfront of Estonia Rahvarinne and Sjdis

movement in Lithuania were established,last came in Popular front of Latvia Tautasfronts. After the start in the Baltic States anumber of Popular Fronts were created al-most simultaneously in many parts of the

USSR. The Baltic Popular fronts were verymuch separate structures having the sametargets to ensure that the three annexedcountries would regain independence. Thepartnership among the three structureswas on the political level seeking to con-demn the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and itsconsequences; however this type of mani-festation wasnt really reaching the target.

It was starting to be crystal clear that acommon action with the people within thecountries is needed.

The upcoming year 1989 gave a substantialreason for united gathering. The Nationalfronts in all Baltic States decided uponforming a human chain which would con-nect the territories of the countries. 50 yearsafter the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact wassigned, on August 23, 1989, three small na-tions living by the Baltic Sea surprised the

world by taking hold of each others handsdemanding the re-establishment of thetheir brutally deprived independence.

The route of the Baltic way was to connectthe three capitals; it started in Vilnius Gedi-minas castle and Cathedral square, cross-ing Ryga and Daugava river and ending inTallinn foot of Toompea going along theVia Baltica for around 650 kilometers. Thenews about this action spread mostly per-son to person, only two ofcial announce-ments were aired on the radio in Lithuania.People working at the main radio stationwithin their programs played the anthemof the action Bunda jau Baltija (The Bal-tic is rising) but also informed about thetrafc jams, delays, situation on the bor-ders. It was counted that for every kilome-ter of the road 1.5 thousand people wouldhave to show up.

In modern day terms what happened couldbe called something reminding a ash mobonly bigger and longer in duration. People

had to gather on a set route wait until theset time and at the moment when the clockstrikes 7 PM local time take each othershands and sing together for the freedom ofthe countries. The enthusiasm of the peo-ple was striking: people ocked the areawith their families in cars, buses and cargotrucks or anything that was capable of get-ting them to the set destination. Some didnot make it in time, thats why the Balticway has branches away from the ofcialroute.

When its all about the moment: 7 PM. 3countries. More than 2 million people. 1goal to change the world. It was all aboutpeace and unity in the struggle to be free.

In modern day termswhat happened couldbe called somethingreminding a ash mobonly bigger and longerin duration.


12/24issue no.8 year 2009.12

Libertarians

JonathanD

annemann

Libertarians Lockes dissatisfed heirsArticle by Jonathan Dannemann

The most coherenttheoretical founda-

tion of modern liber-tarianism is Robert

Nozicks Man, Stateand Utopia. It waspublished in 1974,

partly as a refutation

of John Rawls.

There is a broad consensus that John Lockeis the founder of the liberal tradition thatbegan during the Enlightenment age, cer-tainly to a greater extent than his fellowcontractualists Thomas Hobbes and Jean- Jacques Rousseau. However, present-dayreinventions of his theory, especially of hisSecond Treatise of Government, differ vast-ly and inevitably have begun to contradicteach other. The same is true for the compar-atively small branch of libertarian theoriesthat surfaced to revive the Enlightenmentspirit of Lockes theory. As is frequentlythe case among siblings, libertarians argueabout petty details at times, so there is nocoherent libertarian theory.

The very term libertarianism is contested.In the 19th century, it was frequently usedfor classical anarchists and syndicalists inthe Marxist tradition such as Proudhon.

After World War II in the United States, itwas, albeit reluctantly, coined and popu-larized by a group of concerned liberals.Liberalism ended up as the descriptiveterm for a more left-wing agenda which, attimes, justies the use of force for a changefor is perceived to be a better state of af-fairs. In contrast, libertarianism opposesgovernmental interventions. What neces-sitated this semantic shift? In less than 15years, the heartland of classical, albeit nev-er pure liberalism, the United States, had,

in the libertarian eye, caved in to the neces-sities of time. Not only had the Rooseveltgovernment launched the New Deal, amassive effort of redistribution, but it hadalso revived interventionism by establish-ing worldwide involvement not only by

entering the war, but being prepared toconfront the Soviet Union militarily, ifnecessary. As these policies were continu-ally sustained, political consensus held thatthese were liberal, and intellectuals andpundits felt the urge to redene themselves.However, conservative was regarded asan equally inadequate label, which is nosurprise when thinking of McCarthyismand later of Gerald Fords Great Society.

This awkward story of a word already indi-cates the breadth and minuteness of differ-ent libertarianisms that are out there today.I will, however, try to give an overview ofshared values and political preferences,alongside the example of two famous lib-ertarians.

These shared values and political prefer-ences are based precisely on a rm belief

in the primacy of the individual beforethe group and John Lockes theories. Lib-ertarians champion Lockes theory of self-ownership, deducing all other rights likecorporal integrity from it, as opposed to thegeneral enumeration of human rights be-ginning with the entitlement to life in rstplace. Self-ownership is the foundation thelibertarian theory of property, drawingon Locke again, who asserted that mixingones labor with external objects consti-tutes ownership. Ownership, in turn, can

be exchanged by contract, and as long asthis does not happen at the expense of oth-ers, any exchange of legitimate ownershipis justied. This is why libertarians denyLockes claim that there are reasonable lim-its as to how much property an individual


13/24issue no.8 year 2009. 13

should be allowed to accumulate. Theywould respond that an individual owesnothing to society, except where he or sheis obliged to honor a contract.

A second libertarian principle that can beinferred from self-ownership is non-aggres-sion. Any use of force or the threat thereofis regarded by libertarians as an act of ag-

gression and maybe therefore be repelledin a proportional manner. This principle in-spired 19th-century liberals on both shoresof the Atlantic to advocate free trade andthe termination of slavery while rejectingimperialism and wars. Whereas Manches-ter liberalism is nowadays frequently iden-tied with the excesses of the IndustrialRevolution, Richard Cobden expressed anidea that was highly controversial duringhis lifetime: War does not pay.

The non-aggression principle leads fairlystraightforwardly to the conclusion thatlibertarians strongly lean towards the ex-clusive interpretation of Isaiah Berlins def-inition of entitlements, commonly knownas negative rights. Berlin, although not alibertarian, opposed having the freedomto something. This, he thought, may openthe gates to the coercion of an individualfor others, allegedly for his or the commongood. The nearly forgotten 19th-centuryFrench economist and contemporary ofCobden, Frdric Bastiat, referred to thiswhen he observed that the state is an illu-sion whereby everybody aims to live at ev-erybody elses expense.

A libertarian of a certain kind has spawnedattention in the light of Barack Obamaselection as US president. Sales of the Amer-ican classic Atlas Shrugged, publishedby Russian-born Ayn Rand in 1957, havesoared to a high in the midst of the globalnancial crisis and the Obama administra-tions unprecedented bailout of the Ameri-

can economy, the second run on the booksince its release. What makes Rands theo-ries so special is that she praises selshnessas a virtue rather than a vice in an inten-tionally provocative manner. She concludesfrom this that only we ourselves knowwhat is best for us and can pursue our in-terests rationally. One of her characters inthe novel vows to never have anybody elselive at her expense, while pledging to neverlive at anybody elses expense herself.

The most coherent theoretical foundationof modern libertarianism is Robert NozicksMan, State and Utopia. It was published in1974, partly as a refutation of John Rawls.Unlike anarcho-capitalists, libertarians con-sistently opposing any kind of government,

Nozick thinks that a very limited form ofgovernment is not only defensible, butwould also develop automatically uninten-tionally among all societal participants, e.g.when issuing a currency.

Furthermore, alluding to the tragedy ofthe commons, he reasons that some publicgoods can simply not be justly physically

diversied among individuals, e.g. securityand the administration of the legal system,and it is those goods that Nozick deemsrightful public. Somebody who hires a cer-tain amount of security forces will ultimate-ly, whether intentionally or not, providefor the security of others. This is consideredillegitimate because some will enjoy a freeride, although their labor has contributednothing to the hiring of the security forces.This seems like an average case for a state,but bare in mind that Nozick disagreed with

a lot of governmental activity we considernormal regardless of whether it s the full-edged Scandinavian welfare state or indi-rect involvement through federal grants ineducation, pensions and health care like inthe United States. In return for the lack ofgovernmental guarantees, Nozick stressesthe importance of personal responsibilityand obligation towards others.

Would libertarianism work in the currentworld? Certainly not in Europe, where itsinuence is marginal. Most liberal orga-nizations are very much in favor of socialpolicies and positive liberty of a kind, andadvocacy of the free market is dead. Thererests, however, a certain charm of being atleast vaguely known to most liberals whileremaining with little inuence. In this role,libertarianism is very much suited to serveas a reminder that power is a corruptinginuence, and we should therefore neverplace too much condence in it, but ratherinto our peers. Although a cooperative andcompromising approach to politics is desir-

able, it can be a tough managerial business,and the ongoing promise of increasingprosperity, pleasure and personal prob-lems management that currently prevailsthroughout the largest parts of world maynot last forever.

By far the most important message that lib-ertarianism has to offer is that politics can-not, and thus never should be, a substitutefor personal responsibility in the veryspecic sense that politics does not enable

anything per se.

By far the most im-portant message thatlibertarianism has tooffer is that politicscannot, and thus nevershould be, a substitutefor personal responsi-bility


14/24issue no.7 year 2009.14

Individuals

JooPedro

CastroMendes

MLS/LYMEC Event in LisbonArticle by Joo Pedro Castro Mendes, Movimento Liberal Social

The EuropeanParliament must be

pro-active in gettingthe European people

directly involved.The transition from

a representative to adeliberative democ-racy means that Eu-ropean institutionsneed to start usingnew tools to reach

European citizens.

I arrived early. It was the rst internationalevent I was going to take part in as a mem-ber of MLS (Movimento Liberal Social),an exciting proposition. In fact, MLS wereeven co-organisers, adding to the feelingof excitement. The seminar took place at a5 star hotel in Lisbon, a recently renovatedbuilding, where our public television sta-tion used to be headquartered at. In thevery spacious entrance hall, I met Mauritsvan der Hoofd, our International AffairsOfcer, and, eventually, other MLS mem-bers, some of whom Id not yet met in per-son.

Eventually, it was time for the seminarto begin. We went up a staircase and sataround to listen to Susanne Hartig, fromthe European Liberal Forum, who gener-ously helped LYMEC and MLS fund thisevent. Ms Hartig explained what the ELF

is, how its funded and its membership,and told us ELF had plans to expand to EUcandidate countries. She also expressed thewish that we would take that opportunityto do some social networking, to meet otheryoung liberals from across Europe.

Then, Alexander Plahr, LYMEC Vice Presi-dent, briey introduced everyone to LY-MEC. This was of particular interest to me,who had glanced at the website but waseager to learn more. He too emphasised the

importance of networking in these events,and then introduced us to our topic: indi-vidual participation in European politics.There isnt any, he said, pointing to the factthat there isnt a truly European election,and also no real European political parties;

only umbrella parties like ELDR. He re-minded us that while individual member-ship of LYMEC exists, this in reality is notthe case for ELDR. Miguel Duarte, MLSPresident, then told the assembled par-ticipants, some of whom were still arriv-ing, about the importance of LYMEC forthe birth of MLS. Allan Witherick, the IMS(Individual Membership Section) delegate,then gave us a short presentation on whatIMS is. That concluded the rst meeting,and we all had dinner at a nearby restau-rant.

The afternoon session of the second daysaw Igor Caldeira, an MLS member, of-fer us his thoughts on Caf Babel (www.cafebabel.com) and Europa Viva (www.europaviva.eu), as examples of Europeanpolitical projects started by individuals.This brief presentation was followed by a

discussion on what constitutes a Europe-an identity. We discussed the importanceof individual perception of identity, ofshared values, of common citizenship, ofculture and education, and of a numberof other things on what we consider to beour identity and, also, European iden-tity. After lunch, we had the pleasure tolisten to Paulo Sande, from the Ofce ofthe European Parliament in Portugal. MrSandes presentation covered several top-ics, from a brief introduction to the institu-

tional framework of the European Union tothe European Parliament specically. Theemergence of truly European political par-ties, contesting truly European elections,and taking part in a truly European debatein a European public sphere would help


15/24issue no.7 year 2009. 15

individual participation in European poli-tics. At the moment, European debates areltered by national politics, and end up rel-egated to a secondary position. Europeancitizens will get involved once they feel thatEuropean debates affect them personally.The fact that the President of the Commis-sion is Portuguese has increased interest inEuropean affairs in Portugal. National self-

esteem is in play, but it also had the effectof increasing the number of Portuguese of-cials in top levels of the Commission.

The European Parliament must be pro-ac-tive in getting the European people directlyinvolved. The transition from a representa-tive to a deliberative democracy means thatEuropean institutions need to start usingnew tools to reach European citizens. Theseinclude social networking tools and inter-active media. The urgency of achieving this

goal is underlined by the fact that politicalintegration has gathered momentum, andthe EU, despite the fact it does not oftenspeak with one voice on foreign affairs, isgetting increasingly involved in matters re-lated to Defence. Mr Sande then briey dis-cussed the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon Trea-ty enhances opportunities for individualparticipation, at least slightly. The CitizensInitiative would allow proposals that gath-ered 1,000,000 signatures across Europe tobe forwarded to the Commission for con-sideration, and the European Parliamentwill now be co-legislator in around 97% oflegislative areas.

The so-called early warning system,where national Parliaments will get in-volved in the European legislative processby controlling whether the subsidiarityprinciple is being upheld in Commissionproposals. While acknowledging that thiscould slow down an already morose leg-islative process, Mr Sande argued thatthis measure will mean more networking

between national Parliaments, and willalso mean that legislative proposals willbe brought much closer to European citi-zens, blurring the line between nationaland European politics, while also settingup the opportunity for European mattersto be discussed across Europe at the sametime. After a brief discussion between par-ticipants and Mr Sande, the various groupsrepresented at the event were invited togive a brief presentation about themselvesand the political situation in their country.

We had interventions from Moldova, Cy-prus, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Nether-lands, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Italy,Croatia, Finland, Portugal and Poland. Af-ter a break, we departed to have dinner inParque das Naes, the area where Expo

98 took place. The morning of the thirdday began with a discussion between Pe-dro Corpeni, of Amnisty International, andRui Seabra, President of the National Asso-ciation for Free Software (ANSOL, Associa-o Nacional de Software Livre). The eventfocused, I learned, on the different experi-ences each of them had, coming from verydifferent movements, in shaping European

politics. The presentation and discussionwere followed by Aloys Rigaut, Presidentof LYMEC, who briey talked about the In-dividual Membership Section.

Antnio Serzedelo (founder of Opus Gay,http://www.opusgay.org/) and GabrielGoucha (former President of JEF Portu-gal) then followed, giving presentations ontheir own experiences as individuals tryingto shape the political sphere. Mr Serzedelofocused on the LGBT cause in Portugal, as

well at European level. Social inclusion isan objective of the Lisbon strategy, as iscombating exclusion at Member State lev-el. A European directive on employmentequality, as well as Art 13 of the Amster-dam Treaty, have given the LGBT commu-nities protection at European level. Tradeunions in Europe have themselves tried tocombat prejudice within the trade unionmovement, and businesses have startedthe International Business Equality SurveyIndex for these purposes. Poverty and ex-clusion, as well as discrimination againstthe LGBT communities in relation to edu-cation, healthcare, training and housingremains a concern. Citizenship educationfocusing on LGBT issues could help to un-dermine ongoing prejudices, but there arestill tensions within the LGBT communitiesthemselves.

Mr Goucha focused on the issue of individ-ual membership of a political organisation.He stated that individual members shouldhave equal rights to Member Organisa-

tions. Limits to the benets of being an in-dividual member would be detrimental toattracting individual members, who couldwell provide added value at federal level.Both presentations were followed by dis-cussions, which were themselves followedby lunch. In the afternoon, three workinggroups discussed the issue of individualmembership of LYMEC and, on Sunday,members of MLS, including myself, gaveinterested participants a guided tour ofLisbon.All in all, I believe this event was a

success, and I know for a fact that I enjoyedit immensely. I plan on becoming an indi-vidual member of LYMEC in due course,and look forward to getting involved in fu-ture events, as time permits.

The fact that thePresident of the Com-mission is Portuguesehas increased interestin European affairs inPortugal.


16/24issue no.8 year 2009.16

Nannystate

DavidIssm

er

Nanny state? No, thanks!Consumer protection between information and paternalism

Article by David Issmer

In the last years,it seems, the state

however has moreand more assumedthat the public are

clueless consumers.From a paternalistic

position, the statehas transformed

into an educator thattries through orders

and indoctrinationto create certain

behaviours amongconsumers.

Today, one is allowed again to eat a break-fast egg, and indeed should do so, nutsare valuable because of their healthy fattyacids what sounds like an excerpt froma nutrition guidebook is in fact from a gov-ernment declaration from the former Ger-man minister of agriculture and consumerprotection, Horst Seehofer.

He was presenting a national action planfor a healthy diet and exercise which isto help combat an overweight population.Now the campaign to reduce smoking is infull swing, the focus is now shifting to theover-weight.

From ghting obesity to introducing banson advertising, forbidding at rate partypromotions to outlawing patio heaters inmany areas of life the state is interferingand wants to inuence our behaviour.

The reason stated most of the time is thatconsumers need to be protected. But pro-tected from what? Protected from produc-ers, from dangers, or from themselves?

The task of the state in the area of consumerprotection can be dened easily: The statehas to protect citizens in their role as con-sumers of goods and services from dan-gers. This can for example be achieved byconstraining laws, security advices or pub-

lic warnings. That way the government canassure the safety of products.

The need for protection of the citizen fur-thermore results from the fact that indi-viduals mostly have less knowledge and

experience than the producer and onlyhave a limited ability to recognize dangers.Thats the only way that state interferencein the work of the producers and thus thefree market- can be justied.

Informing consumers in order to protectagainst health hazards is therefore right as

well as necessary in many cases. In the caseof rotten meat, dioxins inside mozzarellaor toxic toys for example the state needs tonot only warn, but instead needs to act im-mediately.

Because it has better knowledge of the dan-gers and the instruments to intervene, onlythe state can take measures that have animpact in a timely manner. For less acutedangers it is sometimes sufcient to informand enlighten people.

Regarding the legimatization as well as thescope of state activity, the views one holdson people and consumers are decisive: Aresponsible, rational citizen is much less inneed of protection than a badly informed,clueless and emotionally acting citizen.

In the last years, it seems, the state howeverhas more and more assumed that the publicare clueless consumers. From a paternalis-tic position, the state has transformed intoan educator that tries through orders and

indoctrination to create certain behavioursamong consumers.

In the ght against smoking the interests ofothers play a role. However that is not thecase with obesity, since it only has a negative


17/24issue no.8 year 2009. 17

effect on the health of the person them-selves. Marking foods with a trafc light,thus dividing into good and bad foodis just another example of the state mor-alizing with a wagging nger. This is notprotecting consumers from dangers butinstead trying to protect them from them-selves. However, a new danger is createdthat way: Consumers become accustomed

to using their own minds less and less andinstead put blind trust into public defaults.Common sense and life experience quicklygive way to state instructions.The failure ofsuch an approach can be seen in the UnitedStates of America: Even though the security

advice on products there are legion, theircitizens are among the worst informedconsumers of the Western world. So whatis the solution? Instead of moralizing andgesture politics, education is needed. Inthat regard, parents play a decisive role.But of course schools are important, too.They can for example inform pupils abouta healthy diet, the dangers of tobacco and

the responsible use of alcohol.Consumersthat are educated in such a way later on canmake rational choices on their own and usetheir common sense instead of being relianton public campaigns.

Consumers becomeaccustomed to usingtheir own minds lessand less and insteadput blind trust intopublic defaults.

The Ideas FactoryLynneth Mollis, member of JOVD, Netherlands.

Between April and July of this year the European Policy Centre held severalmeetings with bright young minds from different backgrounds called The IdeasFactory. During these meetings we discussed the impact of the economic crisison young people in Europe, climate change and Europes role in the world. Theparticipants were asked to come up with new ideas and after a brainstormsession to write an article on the topic explaining the idea in detail.

The European Policy Centre is a research centre and think thank for the Europe-an Union. It has prominent members from national governments, companies,business federations, trade unions, diplomatic missions, NGOs, foundationsand international and religious organizations. They come together with expertsand ofcials from the EU institutions to debate the key issues dominating theEU agenda. The European Policy Centre and her staff of policy analysts isconsulted by the European Union to research and advise on these key issues.

From our brainstorming sessions and the articles send in a few were selected

and served to compose a policy advice for the EU in particular the newlyelected European Parliament. Amongst these articles is an article written byyours truly, suggesting a humanitarian guard to protect NGOs in conict areas.Through participating in initiatives like this LYMEC can be successful in hav-ing a voice in the European Union through various channels and shall hope-fully continue to do so.


18/24issue no.8 year 2009.18

DENMARKRU Congress: Elections & resolutions

Radikal Ungdom (RU) at the end of

October held its yearly Congress in

Hje Taastrup near Copenhagen.

The three day gathering saw the

election of a new board for Den-

marks social-liberal youth organisa-

tion. Simon Dyhr managed to win a

competetive election and from now

on will lead the organisation as Pres-

ident. Interesting from a European

perspective are of course the resultsfor the positions of European Ofcer

and International Ofcer. While the

rst one now is lled by the newly

elected Sissel Kvist, the later one

continues to be handled by Chris-

tina Bach Harboe, who was broadly

conrmed by the around 110 young

liberals present. LYMEC Vice Presi-

dent Alexander Plahr, who was vis-

iting the Congress and together

with RUs own Mette Lykke Nielsen

represented the European Liberal

Youth, expressed huge satisfactionabout the great debating culture of

RU that showed during the whole

programmatic discussions. A special

focus of the Congress of course where

the upcoming local elections in Den-

mark. On Tuesday, November 17th,

RU hopes to place many young can-

didates in city councils across Den-mark.Additionally, many of the keynote

speakers including Magrethe Vestager,

Leader of Radikale Venstre, addressed

the importance of the UN Conference

on Climate Chance (COP15), hosted

by Copenhagen in December this year.

In connection with the COP15, RU wil

host various events in coorperation

with IFLRY.

Being part of a strongly pro-European

organization, the RU members as-sembled Hje Taastrup of course also

debated various resolutions in regard

to the European Union. Notably, Radi-

kal Ungdom called for the liberalization

of postal services and train operating

companies in the European Union, as

well as replacing the current price-cap

system for roaming calls by requiring

operators to charge the same price in

the whole Union, in order to complete

the internal market.

On the picture from left to right: Alexander Plahr,Sissel Kvist, Simon Dyhr, Christina Bach arboe,

Mette Lykke Nielsen

THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANYVisiting Neighbours: JuLis North Rhine-Westphaliaattending JDs Congress in Tilburg

After having hosted their LYMEC

neighbours from JD and JOVD attheir Landeskongress in Lnen ear-

ly 2009, JuLis NRW now visited the

Jonge Democraten in Tilburg during

their electoral congress on October

24th/25th 2009. In addition to an ex-

change of views on their cultures

of congress, JuLis NRW and JD

also discussed further cooperation

for crossborder campaigning for

upcoming municipal elections in the

Netherlands in May 2010 and state

elections in Germany in May 2010.JOVD members, who were also pres-

ent, joined these talks, which was

gladly accepted by both JD and JuLis

NRW.


19/24issue no.7 year 2009. 19

GOT NEWS?

Something happening in your organization that the

rest of Europe should know about?

Write to [email protected]

UNITED KINGDOMFreshers Season Ends With Record Breaking York

York University rounded off a stun-

ning Freshers season for LiberalYouth, signing up a record 115 mem-

bers to the Liberal Democrat party in

just 6 hours. This is the largest Fresh-

ers recruitment in the York Liberal

Democrat Societys history, and is a

reection of how students are ock-

ing to the Liberal Democrats, up and

down the country.

Craig Martin, President of the soci-

ety said: I am absolutely delighted

with the Freshers Fayre success, wewere hoping to sign up 30, and we

surpassed all expectations with 115.

We signed up more members than

the Tories and Labour combined and

now cannot wait for our rst event

with Phil Willis MP. Yorks successcomes on the back of similar stories

up and down the country. In cities

ranging from Glasgow to Reading and

Aberystwyth to London, it has been

the Liberal Democrats who have truly

engaged students and found them

eager to sign up. In just one day in

September, Liberal youth signed up

over 300 people to the party, break-

ing all previous records.

Elaine Bagshaw, Chair of Liberal

Youth added: Our success at Fresh-

ers shows how young people are

turning to the Liberal Democrats as

the real force in British politics. With

the Conservatives and Labour letting

young people down on issues likethe environment and civil liberties, it

is the Liberal Democrats who are the

only party who are willing to stand up

for young people.


20/24

1.Dont get scared by tractors andangry dairy producers

LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut: We are notscared by dairy farmers coming to Brussels to

protest and creating havoc. We believe thatthe current attempt from the liberal Commis-sioner Marian Fischer Boel to liberalize theCommon Agricultural Policy (CAP) is thepath that we should continue to follow.

LYMEC bureau member, Mette LykkeNielsen: The French and German proposal tofavour additional export subsidies would notbe the answer to this crisis. We believe thatin the long run, it will lead to unfair competi-tion if some countries allow additional export

subsidies. We need an equal playing eld,in which supply and demand determine theprices, not government intervention or quo-tas.

2.Germany turns more liberal:historical victory for FDP

LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut: This is a

good day for liberals not only in Germany,but across Europe. A coalition between theconservative CDU and the liberal FDP will re-place the last four years conservative-social-ist coalition, which was grand in name only.One of the European Unions biggest econo-mies will now be governed by economic rea-son instead of being plagued by standstill.

Johannes Vogel, President of Junge Liberale(JuLis), youth organisation of the FDP, andnow himself elected into Parliament: I want

to thank all the active young liberals whocontributed to this great result! With such astrong FDP in the next government, we canand will make sure that civil liberties are pro-tected and that intergenerational fairness willprevail.

LYMEC Vice President Alexander Plahr: Ger-many will now get a liberal Foreign Minister(who traditionally also is made Vice-Chancel-lor) by the name of Guido Westerwelle. Thatway, Germany returns to the pro-European,pro-integration policies that once was a trade-mark of its foreign policy.


21/24

3.Barroso uses EU money to promotehis candidacy

LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut: This is therst time something that comes close to an EU

government programme has been drafted,and we can only welcome such a symbol. Letme however immediately say that I am dis-appointed that this programme uses the sameEU jargon and remains so general, setting avision for 2020 instead of listing concrete pro-posals to be undertaken in the next 5 years. Itseems to have been drafted by Commissionbureaucrats, not by EU politicians.

LYMEC Vice President Alexander Plahr:This document is a step in the right direction.

However, it remains to be seen if the parlia-ment coalition (PES, EPP, ALDE) that Mr Bar-roso counts on really works out in the end.We as LYMEC are rather sceptical if such abroad coalition which is bound together bynothing than pure technical arrangements isthe right way to govern Europe.

Furthermore, we are very much irritated bythe fact that this election programme of candi-date Barroso is hosted on ofcial Commissionweb space. Not only that, it also is translatedin all of the Unions languages, leading to thequestion of who paid for this translation. IfMr Barroso used ofcial Commission resourc-es to advocate his own campaign for anotherterm as Commission President, that would beutterly unacceptable.

4.No sellout of personal bank data!

LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut: It is utterlyinacceptable to negotiate a deal, that basicallyis about giving away the nancial privacy ofall Europeans, during the summer recess andwithout even involving the parliament. If theUS gets automatic access to our nancial data,there will be no legal protection against thisfor the individual citizen. We move more andmore into the direction of a big brother state and now this big brother is sharing his knowl-edge with his pals who are even more recklesswhen it comes to ignoring data protection.

LYMEC Vice President Alexander Plahr: Thisdata sharing agreement must be stopped. Thenumber of European transactions handledby SWIFT will become a lot higher in the

coming years, as the Single Euro PaymentArea (SEPA) replaces traditional nationalclearing infrastructures. Doing your wiretransfers by IBAN and BIC number will thenbe the standard even within member states.

SWIFT moves its servers to Europe with thevery purpose to protect their customers ba-sically everyones- privacy from unlimitedaccess which is not allowed by a judge in arule-of-law way. Now member states foil that

intention by making the European databasejust as un-private as the current one in the US.This is a sellout of our bank data which cannot be tolerated! Us liberals believe that es-pecially in the ght against terrorism we as afree society must stick to our ideals and moralhigh ground. We do not protect our liberty byabolishing it!

5.European voters strengthen liberals

Aloys Rigaut, President of LYMEC: Centre-left parties in power in Britain, Spain andPortugal were sanctioned by their elector-ates while their allies in opposition such as inFrance suffered brutal losses. The vote marksa painful defeat for Socialists across Europe.In contrast, we liberals are set to strengthenour inuence in the next European Parlia-ment as our share of MEPs compared to 2004is increasing: we keep about 75 ELDR MEPswhilst the total number of MEPs is decreasing.

Alexander Plahr, Vice President of the Euro-pean Liberal Youth (LYMEC): This is an ex-cellent day for liberalism and an excellent dayfor Europe! I am especially pleased that manyyoung candidates got elected and will be ableto inuence EU politics in the years to come.However, besides the many gains we liberalshave made in many member states, there isstill room for improvement. Voters have beenchoosing representatives mainly based on na-tional issues. This has to change in the future we want to see a truly European election,

not 27 national ones! For this, it is necessary todo more Europe-wide and personalized cam-paigns in the future - for example about whoshould become President of the Commission!

LYMECSTATEMENTS


22/24

Noclearcut

NicolasBa

s

The US Democrats and liberalism:no clear cut case

Article by Nicolas Bas

American politics ismuch more compli-cated than it might

seem at rst sightand thus one must

be always carefulbefore making bold

statements.

One of the biggest misconceptions is thatAmerican liberalism stands for the sameideals as European liberalism. This isnot true. American liberalism is what wewould call in Europe social democracy.A little bit free market, but not too much,just enough to make sure that people earnmoney so the government can tax them.

A little bit of room for entrepreneurshipand creativity, but not too much becauseotherwise all these greedy capitalists willtake over world dominance. Some civilrights but not too much, we must makesure that no one gets offended. The most fa-mous American liberal is probably MichaelMoore, who blames capitalism and themoral values it entails for everything thatgoes wrong in society.

European liberalism however, is the oppo-

site. It stands for personal freedom, i.e. theright of a person to design his or her ownlife, economic freedom and a very strongprotection of civil rights.

The discrepancy between the two concep-tions is quite clear once explained. How-ever, there are quite some Europeans thatthink that they both mean the same thingand therefore believe for instance that TheDemocratic Party in the United States isa liberal (in the European meaning of the

word) party. This is not so.

The fact is that Democrats as well as Re-publicans cannot be seen as one ideologicalmonolithic bloc. There are socialists, socialdemocrats and liberals in the Democratic

Party whereas you can nd socialists, con-servatives, libertarians (classical liberals)and even people that we would call in Eu-rope far right in the Republican Part.

Within The Democratic Party there is forinstance the Blue Dog Coalition (BDC).This is a group of 52 Congressmen that are

scally conservative. They are a main op-position group to Obamas healthcare plan.Some of the members of the Coalition arealso in favor of gun ownership.

Although the Blue Dog Coalition only takesofcial stands on scal policy, it is believedthat some members are socially conserva-tive as well. This groups advocates bipar-tisanship and wants to transcend the con-straints of ideology as they call it. The BDCholds a lot of swing votes at crucial mo-ments and therefore is a powerful group in

the House of Representatives.

This example merely illustrates that com-paring The Democratic Party with Euro-pean liberalism or European party systemswith the American system is rather uselesssince the diversity within the Party.

American politics is much more complicat-ed than it might seem at rst sight and thusone must be always careful before makingbold statements.


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New European fnancial supervisory structures shouldprovide for a single authority

Commenting on proposals presented by the European Commission for revising the structures for macro and micro -nancial supervision, Guy Verhofstadt, ALDE group leader called for a bolder approach in presenting plans for a singlenancial supervisory authority that would mirror the European Central Bank, merge the overlapping industries ofbanking, insurance and securities and build on a network of national supervisory authorities.

The proposed structure currently lacks coherence, as not only the operational, but also the geographical fragmenta-tion between Paris, London and Frankfurt will endanger an efcient coordination and ow of information between thedifferent entities. Equally, effective supervision of cross-border nancial institutions cannot separate macro-prudentialfrom micro-prudential supervision. They are two sides of the same coin. A single European Financial Services Author-ity would be more effective in the co-ordination of market oversight and crisis prevention than three separate bodies inthree different countries and a fourth body dealing with wider systemic risks.

Schengen and Olympic security at risk over delayed database

The European Parliament has pressed the Commission over the lack of progress in implementing the upgraded Schen-gen Information System II (SIS II) and the new Visa Information System (VIS) which have been delayed by more thana year and a half due to difculties setting up the operational database. The smooth functioning of Schengen bordercontrols and visa issuing is essential to guarantee security and free circulation within the Schengen area, and also tosecurity for the 2012 London Olympics since the UK is set to join SIS II for access to Europ-wide police data

Sarah Ludford, ALDE spokesperson on EU visa policy and author of Parliaments report on the VIS system, com-mented: The delays in two such high prole databases vital to secure EU border management and internal security arevery regrettable, especially since the European Parliament adopted all the legislation in good time to avoid such delaysin operation. The European Commission owes us detailed explanations.

The UK could have joined the present Schengen Information System years ago to access data on wanted and suspectedterrorists and criminals but chose to wait for the new version. That decision now threatens to prejudice security for the2012 London Olympics since the new system may not be up and running in time. There has to a contingency plan suchthat Londoners and the games are not put at risk.,

European External Action Service will bring added value

Annemie Neyts MEP (Open-VLD, Belgium) ALDE spokesperson on foreign affairs and Andrew Duff MEP (LibDems,UK), ALDE spokesman on constitutional affairs and foreign affairs committee member, have used the European Parlia-ment plenary debate on the Brok report to urge progress towards a fully functioning European External Action Service(EAS). The EAS and the High Representative on Foreign Affairs will be appointed after such a time as the Lisbon Treatycomes into effect.

Ms Neyts commented: The EAS presents the EU with a golden opportunity to play its part on the stage of global di-plomacy. EU member states agree on many aspects of foreign policy, but we need an institution like the EAS to fullymarshal our foreign affairs politics, and to coordinate our external action.

Speaking in the debate, Mr Duff added: I welcome the genesis of the EAS, but we mustnt put the cart before the horse.

We should pause now in the further establishment of this ofce until we know who will occupy it. Real progress willcome when we know who the High Representative will be. Now is the time for Member States to put their candidatesforward, and let the real debate begin.


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different shades of liberalism

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