Welcome to the European office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Our activities aim at fostering dialogue on European politics, democracy and human rights and transatlantic relations.
After the first month of the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency, ALDE Party and FNF’s European Dialogue Programme hosted their traditional liberal breakfast on the ongoing presidency in presence of the speakers Ilhan Kyuchyuk and Iskra Mihaylova, MEPs of the Bulgarian ALDE member “Movement for Rights and Freedoms”.
Erst vor zwei Wochen wurde die EU Opfer eines großen Cyberangriffs – zumindest theoretisch. Denn beim Treffen der Verteidigungsminister in der estnischen Hauptstadt Tallin probten die Minister den Ernstfall und nahmen an einer Übung zur Abwehr eines großangelegten Cyber-Angriffs auf die EU teil, die erste Übung dieser Art. Kein Wunder, dass Estland, das digitale Wunderkind der EU, seine digitale Kompetenz auch zum Leitmotiv der rotierenden EU-Ratspräsidentschaft gemacht hat.
At our Liberal Pub Talk event on the occasion of the Pride Festival we want to talk about how the situation of LGBTI+ rights looks like in the different Member States. You’ll have the possibility to ask everything you always wanted to know about LGBTI+ issues in the EU.
After the elections in the Netherlands, France is electing a new President May 7, one month before the British are called to the polls again.
In a joint series with the European Liberal Forum, FNF Europe has gathered liberal voices on the topic of European Security and Defence. This time President of the ALDE Party and MEP Hans van Baalen has given us an exclusive outlook on challenges and developments to watch out for in 2017.
Wer beim Familientreffen mit über 900 Verwandten zusammenkommt, kann guten Gewissens sagen, er oder sie gehört zu einer besonderen Familie. Die Stiftung für die Freiheit gehört zu so einer besonderen Familie, der Familie der europäischen Liberalen. Beim diesjährigen Kongress in Warschau trafen wir alte Bekannte und gewannen neue Freunde hinzu. Zusammen diskutierten wir über die Zukunft Europas, über Freiheit, über Chancen, über das, was uns am Herzen liegt. Und wie das in einer Familie eben ist, gibt es manchmal auch Meinungsverschiedenheiten. Über die wird dann gesprochen und geschaut, wo und wie ein Kompromiss zu finden ist. Wie das Familien eben tun.
The European Liberal Democrats, the ALDE Party, have elected a new president, Hans van Baalen, a Member of the European Parliament and Honorary President of Liberal International. Van Baalen hails from the liberal VVD Party in the Netherlands. Rounding off our series of Liberal Breakfasts FNF and the ALDE Party hosted an intimate breakfast discussion with Van Baalen to find out how he wants to run his term as the “hands-on” president, the slogan he brandished during his campaign.
In his introductory remarks van Baalen made 
clear that he saw his role as ALDE Party president much more in the tradition of British party chairmen than as a more political president. As a proverbial chairman he would focus more on bringing European liberals together in celebration of their diversity, rather than forcing uniform positions on European issues. He stressed that he was personally not a fan of labels such as social liberal, market liberal, left-liberal or conservative-liberal. Van Baalen underlined that liberals of all colours share a commitment to civil liberties on the one hand and a free market on the other. As president he will use this basic tenet work to bring liberals together and ensure that regardless of labels they work together for a more liberal Europe. Continue reading
