Tag: Guy Verhofstadt

Guy Verhofstadt and Daniel Cohn-Bendit won the European Leader Award on Thursday (6 June), after several weeks of  online voting organised ahead of the State of the European Union forum. 

The gradual erosion in Hungary of the fundamental checks and balances of a democratic society is not going unnoticed, writes Guy Verhofstadt.

MEPs urged EU political parties to propose candidates to succeed Commission President José Manuel Barroso, in a bid to give voters a bigger say over who becomes the top EU executive. They also voted to move the poll from June to May so that they have time to prepare for the presidential election in July 2014.

The liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament jumped onto the bandwagon to oppose the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) by declaring yesterday (25 April) that they will vote against it, as "too many provisions" were "unclear". In case a plenary vote was held before the summer, a majority of MEPs would therefore reject ACTA.

Europe’s socialist and liberal party leaders have hit out at Hungary’s controversial new constitution, demanding that the country and its ruling Fidesz party be ostracised.

ELDR, the European liberal political family comprising 55 national liberal and liberal-democratic parties across Europe, elected MEP Sir Graham Watson as its leader for the next two years. EurActiv Italy contributed to this article.

The European Parliament is getting closer to a breakthrough on the 'six-pack' of economic governance legislation, Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal ALDE group, told Brussels journalists yesterday (7 September).

Ahead of a European Parliament vote tomorrow (7 July) on reforming the EU's electoral system, UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff told EurActiv Germany that according to an amendment to his proposal, the 25 additional MEPs to be elected from transnational lists could be selected from existing MEPs.

Member states need to have more faith in pooling sovereignty via the EU if they are to respond more quickly and concertedly to the eurozone crisis, argues ALDE group leader Guy Verhoftstadt.

Three prominent MEPs proposed to completely revise the structure of the EU budget yesterday (6 April), replacing national contributions with the EU's own resources, primarily through a 'carbon tariff' on imported products and a value-added tax. EurActiv France reports.

A recently-established federalist body, the Spinelli Group, invited all its members to the European Parliament for the first time yesterday (12 January) for a debate on how to bring forward greater unity between Europeans.

Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal ALDE group, told EurActiv that the newly established Spinelli Group, which is promoting federalism across Europe, is to hold a public event on 15 December, as an ideological challenge to a key EU summit starting the next day.

Anti-federalists loathe the idea of introducing a transnational list of 25 MEPs in the next European Parliament, because they fear one of them would gain the legitimacy to claim to become the next Commission President, MEP Andrew Duff told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Prominent MEPs yesterday (15 September) launched the Spinelli Group, presented as a network aimed at overcoming nationalism and promoting federalism across Europe. They invited citizens to join the circle, making clear it was not a political party.

Proposals on the shape of Europe's economic governance infrastructure should be put forward by the EU executive – not the Van Rompuy task force – according to Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament.

At a rally to launch the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party's campaign for the EU elections last night (15 April), former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt attacked EU leaders for failing to agree on a common recovery plan to tackle the global crisis and called on fellow liberals to seek to "move Europe forward".

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has formed a new four-party coalition government, ending two months of negotiations between the Dutch and French-speaking Liberals and Socialists.