Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party is a European political party composed of 76 national-level parties from across Europe, mainly active in the European Union. The ALDE Party is affiliated with Liberal International and a recognised European political party, incorporated as a non-profit association under Belgian law.
It was founded on 26 March 1976 in Stuttgart as a confederation of national political parties under the name "Federation of Liberal and Democrat Parties in Europe" and renamed "European Liberals and Democrats" in 1977 and "European Liberal Democrats and Reformists" in 1986. On 30 April 2004, the ELDR was reformed as an official European party, the "European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party".
On 10 November 2012, under the leadership of Sir Graham Watson MEP, the party chose its current name ALDE Party, taken from its then-European Parliament group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, which had been formed on 20 July 2004 in conjunction with the European Democratic Party. Prior to the 2004 European election, the European party had been represented through its own group, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group Group. In June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by Renew Europe.
, ALDE Party is represented in European Union institutions, with 51 MEPs and five members of the European Commission. Of the 27 EU member states, there are two with ALDE-affiliated Prime Ministers: Kristen Michal in Estonia and Alexander De Croo in Belgium. ALDE Party members are also in governments in ten other EU member states: Cyprus, France, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands. Charles Michel, former Belgian prime minister, was the president of the European Council until December 2024.
ALDE's think tank is the European Liberal Forum, led by Jan-Christoph Oetjen MEP, and gathers 46 member organisations. The youth wing of ALDE is the European Liberal Youth, which is predominantly based upon youth and student liberal organisations but contains also a small number of individual members. LYMEC is led by Ines Holzegger.
In 2011, ALDE Party became the first pan-European party to create the status of . Since then, between 1000 and close to 3000 members maintained direct membership in the ALDE Party from several EU countries. Over 40 coordinators mobilised liberal ideas, initiatives and expertise across the continent under the leadership of the steering committee, which was first chaired by Julie Cantalou. The ALDE Party took a step further in the direction of becoming a truly pan-European party when granting voting rights to individual members’ delegates at the Party Congress. Individual membership was eventually discontinued in 2023.
In 2025, the Alliance was declared an undesirable organization in Russia.
Structure
Bureau
The day-to-day management of the ALDE Party is handled by the Bureau, the members of which are:| Office | Name | State member | Party member | ||||||||||||
| President | Svenja Hahn MEP |  GermanyPresidents
It evolved into the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party in 2004, when it was founded as an official European party under that name and incorporated under Belgian law at an extraordinary Congress in Brussels, held on 30 April 2004 the day before the enlargement of the European Union. At the same time the matching group in the European Parliament, the European Liberal Democrats and Reformists Group allied with the members of the newly elected European Democratic Party, forming the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe with a matching ALDE Group in the European Parliament. On 10 November 2012, the ELDR Party adopted the name of the alliance between the two parties, to match the parliamentary group and the alliance. On 12 June 2019, the ALDE group was succeeded by a new enlarged group, Renew Europe, which primarily consists of ALDE and EDP member parties and France's La République En Marche!. FundingAs a registered European political party, ALDE is entitled to European public funding, which it has received continuously since 2004.Below is the evolution of European public funding received by ALDE. In line with the Regulation on European political parties and European political foundations, ALDE also raises private funds to co-finance its activities. As of 2025, European parties must raise at least 10% of their reimbursable expenditure from private sources, while the rest can be covered using European public funding. Below is the evolution of contributions and donations received by the ALDE. European CommissionersMembers from ALDE Party political family contribute five out of the 27 members of the European Commission:
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Switzerland