L. ~") r\1 E c: ELEI:TORAL. COr JI~F:ESS. Copenhagen, Denmark. 11th - 13th May 2012 CONGRESS BOOK

Transcription

1 L. ~") r\1 E c: ELEI:TORAL COr JI~F:ESS Copenhagen, Denmark 11th - 13th May 2012 CONGRESS BOOK 1

2 The Buddy program Introduction First time at a new congress is always difficult. It takes time to learn procedures and also takes some courage to get on the speaker s desk for the first time. That is why LYMEC introduce a new buddy program, where you as a first time participant get a buddy that has experienced LYMEC congress before and can tell you what to do when and help you a bit during the congress. The body program is made to make more new people active in LYMEC and take active part in the congress. What should the buddy do? When the participant list is ready the LYMEC secretariat looks and find a buddy for all new participants. The buddy contacts the new participant per and asks if there are any questions beforehand. At the congress the buddy makes sure that the new participant knows what is going on and helps with the agenda. The new participant The new participant can ask the buddy any question and also get help to get on the speaker s chair. The speaker s desk LYMEC bureau will offer new participants an introduction 30 minutes before the congress. The purpose is to give the new participants a quick introduction to the congress. At the end of the Congress book you can find the Congress Alphabet. 2

3 AGENDA OF THE ELECTORAL CONGRESS 11th 13th of May 2012, Copenhagen 1. Opening speech by LYMEC President 2. Roll call and voting rights 3. Election of Congress chairs and secretaries 4. Adoption of the agenda 5. Urgency of resolutions (in case of urgency resolutions handed in) 6. Adoption of minutes from the Congress in Barcelona 7. Bureau Members reports and debate about the reports 8. Secretary General report and debate about the reports 9. Snap vote on the order of resolutions 10. Annual report 2011 and debate (for information) 11. Finances Financial report for 2011 Financial report January May 2012 (for information) Internal Auditor s reports (for information) Change of the Budget for Discharge of the Bureau 13. Elections of the Bureau members (presentations, questions and voting) 14. Membership issues: Disaffiliations MLBiH, Bosnia and Herzegovina LiDEM, Macedonia Youth Alliance, UK 15. Announcement of the elected Bureau members 16. Speech of the elected President 17. Elections of the Auditors and substitutes (presentations, questions and voting) 18. Announcement of the elected Auditors and substitutes 19. Resolutions 20. Reports from member organisations 21. Any Other Business 22. Closing 3

4 MINUTES OF THE CONGRESS IN BARCELONA (FOR ADOPTION) Barcelona, November Opening by the LYMEC Bureau LYMEC President Alexander Plahr opened the Congress. He noted that the Congress had been called in accordance with the regulations laid out in the statutes. Welcome speeches were given by: Speech Josep Rull, Deputy leader CiU Parliament group Speech Gerard Figueras President of JNC Speech Ramon Tremosa (MEP) 2. Roll call and voting rights LYMEC Secretary General, Slaven Klobucar, started the roll call. The voting cards were distributed as follows: Fédération des Etudiants Libéraux FEL Belgium 3 Jeunes MR Belgium 9 Jong-VLD Belgium 6 YMRF Bulgaria 10 Joventut Nacionalista de Catalunya - JNC Catalunya 8 Istrian Democratic Youth - IDY Croatia (Hrvatska) 4 Mladi Hrvatske Narodne Stranke Croatia (Hrvatska) 7 Mladi hrvatski liberali (MHL) Croatia (Hrvatska) 5 Radikal Ungdom - RU Denmark 4 Venstres Ungdom - VU Denmark 6 Estonian Reform Party Youth (ERPY) Estonia 6 Keskustan Opiskelijaliitto - KOL Finland 4 Suomen Keskustanuoret - FCY Finland 10 Svensk Ungdom - SU Finland 6 Junge Liberale - JuLis Germany 10 LHG Germany 5 GIV - Giovani dell'italia dei Valori Italy 6 Lietuvos Liberalus Jaunimas - LLJ Lithuania 5 Jonge Democraten - JD Netherlands, The 7 JOVD Netherlands, The 6 Norges Unge Venstre - NUV Norway 5 Liberal Student Club Romania 8 Tineretul National Liberal- TNL Romania 10 Centerpartiets Ungdomsförbund - CUF Sweden 5 Liberala Ungdomsförbundet - LUF Sweden 6 Liberal Youth United Kingdom 8 IMS Europe Election of Congress chairs and secretaries The Bureau proposed following persons to be the chairs of the Congress: 1. Simon Dyhr 2. Laurens Heinen 4

5 3. Pietro Paganini The proposal was put on vote and adopted with only 1 vote against it. Proposed Congress minute takers by the Bureau were: 1. Jelena Jesajana 2. Timo Roeleveld The proposal was put on vote and adopted with only 1 vote against and 2 abstentions. Proposed Congress scruitieers by the Bureau were: 1. Ed Sanderson 2. Trine Laumann 3. Ben Burgers 4. Anne Van der Graaf 5. Antoinette Bakker The proposal was put on vote and adopted unanimously. 4. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was presented by the chairs of the congress. Alexander Plahr took the floor and introduced an amendment to the Agenda. Amendment to delete point 14 of agenda, which was proposed by Alexander Plahr, was adopted unanimously. The amended agenda was put on vote and adopted unanimously. 5. Urgency of resolutions Following resolutions were presented as urgencies: 1. Mediterranean Railway Corridor, proposed by JNC. Jordi Domingo took the floor presenting the resolution. Following persons took the floor : Daniel George (IMS), Jordi Domingo JNC) Urgency of the resolution was put on vote. The urgency of resolution was not carried with 21 votes in favor, 71 against and 12 abstaining. 2. European Constituency, proposed by Individual Members Igor Caldeira, Antonio Fusco, Lorenzo Marchese, Kseniya Shvedova, Johanna Sundberg, Ermanno Martignetti, Lynneth Mollis, Julius Lizunas, Jamal Zyat, Ben Burgers. Igor Caldeira took the floor presenting the urgency of resolution. Urgency of the resolution was put on vote. The urgency of resolution was carried with 107 votes in favour and 10 abstentions. 5

6 3. Freedom and Democracy in Ukraine, proposed by Daniel George (IMS) and JD. Daniel George took the floor presenting the urgency of the resolution. Anna Rogovchenko took the floor stating EYU support for the resolution and withdrawing EYU resolution on Curtailing freedom and democracy in Ukraine. Urgency of resolution was put on vote and carried unanimously. 4. Resolution related to the Parti Radical de Gauche and the Jeunes Radicaux de Gauche (France), proposed by FEL. Florent Baudewyns took the floor presenting the urgency of resolution. Following persons took the floor: Lukas Schweiger (LUF), Igor Caldeira (IMS) and Florent Baudewyns (FEL). Urgency of resolution was put on vote. The urgency of resolution was not carried with 122 votes against and 18 in favour. 5. Save stem cell research in Europe, proposed by LUF. Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the urgency of resolution. Urgency of the resolution was put on vote and carried with 110 votes in favour and 3 against. 6. Responsibility First, proposed by YMRF, HNS, mldp, CSL and TNL. Stanislav Anastassov took the floor presenting the urgency of the resolution. Following persons took the floor: Anne Van der Graaf (JD), Stanislav Anastassov (YMRF) and Timo Roeleveld (JOVD). Urgency of the resolution was put on vote and carried as urgent with 126 votes in favour, 15 against and 17 abstaining. 7. On Flexicurity and the European Labour Market, proposed by Lukas Schweiger (IMS). Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the resolution. Urgency of the resolution was put on vote and unanimously carried as urgent. 8. A True European Customs Union, proposed by LUF. Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the urgency of the resolution. Urgency of the resolution was put on vote and carried as urgent with 93 votes in favour, 22 against and 35 abstaining. After voting on final urgency of resolutions Congress Chair Laurens Heinen took the floor explaining points 9 and 19 of the Congress Agenda. 6. Opening speech by the LYMEC President 6

7 Alexander Plahr took the floor delivering the opening speech. 7. Debate about the speech Leszek Jazdzewski (Projekt Polska) took the floor. 8. Adoption of minutes from the Congress in Utrecht, The Netherlands The minutes were adopted with 105 votes in favour and 8 votes abstaining. 9. Snap vote on order of resolutions Congress Chairs announced that point 9 of the agenda will be discussed tomorrow and instead continued with point 13 of the agenda. 13. Statutory Changes Alexander Plahr took the floor presenting statutory changes suggested by the Bureau. Following persons took the floor: Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Alexander Plahr Congress chairs established that there was a quorum for the vote (161 votes). Statutory changes were put on vote and unanimously adopted. 9. Snap vote on order of resolutions Secretary General, Slaven Klobucar made a new roll call to distribute voting ballots for the vote on the order of resolutions. Vote was taken and the result of the vote is as follows: 1. Youth Unemployment with 91 votes 2. Freedom and Democracy in Ukraine with 51 votes 3. Roaming Free Europe with 50 votes 4. Responsibility first with 49 votes 5. Free Armenia with 46 votes 6. On Europe s Sovereign Debt Crisis with 43 votes 7. A True European Customs Union with 36 votes 8. Regarding the European Commission s decision concerning the reinstatement by Spain of labour market restrictions for Romanian workers with 32 votes 9. Save stem cell research in Europe with 28 votes 10. Freedom of Movement for All Families in Europe with 27 votes 11. Legalising the production, the trade and the use of soft and hard drugs with 24 votes 12. On Flexicurity and the European Labour Market with 23 votes 13. Towards a more transparent and accountable Europe with 21 votes 14. Enhancing the Single Market for Retail Financial Services with 18 votes 15. On Immigration with 18 votes 16. On the Completion of the Single Market for Pharmacy with 14 votes 17. Health is Wealth with 8 votes 18. European Constituency with 5 votes 19. European Commission President Member of the European Parliament with 4 votes 20. Against European Endowment for Democracy with 2 votes 7

8 10. Bureau Members reports for information Alexander Plahr took the floor and reported on his duties and activities as the President since the previous congress. Mette Lykke Nielsen took the floor reporting on her duties and activities as the Vice-President. Vedrana Gujic took the floor giving the report on her duties and activities as the Bureau member. Matilda Flemming took the floor and reported on her activities and duties as a Treasurer. Jeroen Diepemaat took the floor giving his report on his duties and activities as a Bureau Member. Mireia Huerta I Sala took the floor reporting on her duties and activities as a Bureau Member. Claudia Benchescu took the floor reporting on her duties and activities as a Bureau Member. 11. Secretary-general report Slaven Klobucar took the floor reporting on his duties and activities as the Secretary General, as well as on work of the LYMEC Office. 12. Debate about the reports by Bureau and Secretary General Following persons took the floor: Daniel George (IMS), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Robson Brown (Liberal Youth), Chris Ward (Liberal Youth), Alexander Plahr, Mette Lykke Nielsen, Vedrana Gujic, Jeroen Diepemaat, Claudia Benchescu, Igor Caldeira (IMS), Alexander Plahr 15. Resolutions 1. Youth Unemployment, proposed by JNC and JOVD. The resolution was presented by: Timo Roeleveld Following persons took the floor: Lukas Schweiger (LUF), Evi Van Den Dungen (JD), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Robson Brown (Liberal Youth), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD). Amendment from GIV After Line 33 add line with following text: LYMEC to promote in cooperation with ELDR the drafting of a joint manifesto according to the orientations issued in Trieste s meeting from October 7 th Antonio Fusco took the floor presenting the amendment. Following persons took the floor: Igor Caldeira (IMS), Vedrana Gujic. Amendment was adopted by the mover. 8

9 Amended resolution was put on vote and passed with 108 votes in favor, 32 against and 7 abstaining. 2. Freedom and Democracy in Ukraine, proposed by Daniel George (IMS) and JD. Daniel George took the floor presenting the resolution. Following persons took the floor: Olena Martseniuk (EYU), Sven Sipos (MHL), Anna Rogovchenko (EYU), Anne van der Graaf (JD) Amendment 1 from Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS) Add to end of Welcomes following text: And the support which the ALDE group has given in the European Parliament The amendment was adopted by the mover. Amendment 2 from Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS) Add at the end following text: Calls on the LYMEC Bureau to ensure our concerns are heard in the ELDR party. The amendment was adopted by the mover. Resolution as a whole was put on vote and unanimously adopted. 3. Roaming Free Europe, proposed by JNC. Jordi Domingo took the floor presenting the resolution. Following persons took the floor: Ben Burgers (IMS), Florent Baudewyns (FEL), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Ed Sanderson (Liberal Youth), Kazimieras Celiesius (LLJ), Alexander Plahr, Sissel Kvist (RU). Delete lines 4 29 Amendment adopted by the mover Amendment 1 from Tomas de Jager (IMS) Amendment 2 from Tomas de Jager (IMS) Replace lines 56-61: Maintaining and standardizing existing contracts with your Provider. This includes those calls sent and received, sms, and data services that have occurred while outside your home country. Allowing you to switch to another operator in the new country and being able to maintain the same phone number. This would add the international prefix to your number to avoid conflicts with that country's numbering system. With following text: Maintaining and standardizing existing contract between customers and their providers. This includes those calls sent and received, text, and data services that have occurred while outside the customer s home country. Allowing customers to switch to another operator in the new country and being able to maintain the same phone number. This would add the international prefix to the phone number in order to avoid conflicts with that country's numbering system. 9

10 Amendment adopted by the mover. Delete lines Amendment 3 from Tomas de Jager (IMS) Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 4 from Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS) Add the following text at the end: The creation of an international prefix for Europe, recognizing the success of.eu for the Internet Amendment was adopted by the mover. Following persons took the floor: Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Antonio Fusco (GIV). Amended resolution was put on vote and passed with 89 votes in favor, 52 against and 7 abstaining. 4. Responsibility First, proposed by YMRF Stanislav Anastassov took the floor presenting the resolution. Change Title From Responsibility First To No double Standards Amendment 1 from JOVD, presented by Timo Roeleveld Amendment adopted by the mover Amendment 2 from JOVD, presented by Timo Roeleveld Delete Lines 8 10 Whole text starting with Placing the following Amendment adopted by the mover Change whole text Line 13 Amendment 3 from JOVD, presented by Timo Roeleveld From: The European Union is a union of unanimity where no serious division should exist: neither racial nor cultural or linguistic To: The European Union is a union of unanimity where no discrimination should exist: neither racial nor cultural or linguistic nor on nationality Amendment adopted by the mover Change Lines Amendment 4 from JOVD, presented by Timo Roeleveld From: to do that as soon as possible preventing issues dangerous to internal integration, such as Why is this possible for them and not for us? 10

11 To: to do that as soon as possible preventing issues dangerous to internal integration without double standards, such as Why is this possible for them and not for us? Adopted by the mover Amendment 5 from JOVD, presented by Timo Roeleveld Delete line 30 For stronger integration of the European Union, which will resolve these issues Not adopted by the mover Following persons took the floor: Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Stanislav Anastassov (YMRF), Anne Van Der Graaf (JD), Igor Caldeira (IMS), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD) took the floor to change the wording of the 5 th Amendment Change whole text Line 30 Amendment 5 (updated) from JOVD From: For stronger integration of the European Union, which will resolve these issues To: for stronger integration of mutual regulatory mechanisms of the member states Amendment adopted by the mover Anne Van Der Graaf took the floor asking to refute last amendment and keep the old text. The proposal was put on vote and not accepted with 71 votes in favor, 61 against and 17 abstaining. Thus resolution text remains with the last amendment from JOVD. Amendment 6 from Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS) Delete all references to individual countries Amendment not adopted by the mover Following persons took the floor: Stanislav Anastassov (YMRF), Igor Caldeira (IMS), Joonas Vänto (ERPY) Amendment was put on vote and carried with 85 votes in favor, 48 against and 19 abstaining. Amendment 7 from JuLis, presented by Katrin Säckel Change lines From: the governments of these countries to introduce a nationally responsible policy and to apply the same fiscal restrictions as East European countries To: the governments of these countries to introduce a nationally responsible policy and put the European criteria for stability into effect Amendment not adopted by the mover. Amendment was put on vote and not carried with 63 votes in favor, 81 against and 16 abstaining. Resolution as a whole was put on vote and adopted with 131 votes in favor and 18 against. 11

12 5. Free Armenia, proposed by Ben Burgers Ben Burgers took the floor to withdraw the resolution. 6. On Europe s Sovereign Debt Crisis, proposed by LUF, JOVD, Young Liberals of Slovakia Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the resolution Following persons took the floor: Igor Caldeira (IMS), Anne Van Der Graaf (JD), Cosimo Avesani (GIV), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Alexander Plahr, Lukas Schweiger Amendment 1 from JD, presented by Anne Van Der Graaf Delete line 47 Amendment not adopted by the mover Following persons took the floor: Lukas Schweiger (LUF), Igor Caldeira (IMS), Anne Van der Graaf (JD) Amendment was put on vote and not carried with 65 votes in favor and 97 against. Amendment 2 from JD, presented by Anne Van Der Graaf Change Lines From: Calling upon the European Union not to extend the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and furthermore abandon all plans to implement a permanent successor such as the envisioned European Stability Mechanism (ESM) To: Calling upon the European Union to extend the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) and furthermore to implement a permanent successor such as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Amendment was not adopted by the mover. Following persons took the floor: Lukas Schweiger (LUF), Cosimo Avesani (GIV), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Alexander Plahr, Robson Brown (Liberal Youth), Anne Van Der Graaf (JD) Amendment was put on vote and not carried with 49 votes in favour and 113 against. Amendment 3 from JD and GIV, presented by Anne Van Der Graaf Add after Line 82 following text: Second, Italy s political financial situation needs to be addressed. Common productivity should be prioritized; austerity measures need to be taken by the Italian Government. For the measure to be effective, they must be compliant with the Stability and Growth Pact. The European Commission will implement austerity measures in Italy if the Italian government [..] Amendment was not adopted by the mover. Following persons took the floor: Cosimo Avesani (GIV), Robson Brown (Liberal Youth), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Florent Baudewyns (FEL), Leo Pierini (CUF), Anne Van Der Graaf (JD), Alexander Plahr, Ivo Thijssen, Anne Van Der Graaf. Amendment was put on vote and not carried with 30 votes in favour, 127 against and 15 abstaining. 12

13 Resolution as a whole was put on vote and adopted with 95 votes in favour, 55 against and 8 abstaining. 7. A True European Customs Union, proposed by LUF Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the resolution. Following persons took the floor: Timo Roeleveld (JOVD) The resolution was put on vote and carried with 107 votes in favor, 24 against and 8 abstaining. 8. Regarding the European Commission s decision concerning the reinstatement by Spain of labour market restrictions for Romanian workers, proposed by TNL Silviu Grigorescu took the floor presenting a new version of the resolution with amendments from RU that were adopted by the mover. End all Restrictions on the Free Movement of Labour, proposed by TNL and RU Following persons took the floor: Jordi Domingo (JNC), Sissel Kvist (RU) Resolution was put on vote and adopted with 128 votes in favor and 3 abstaining. 9. Save stem cell research in Europe, proposed by LUF Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the resolution. Following persons took the floor: Timo Roeleveld (JOVD) Amendment 1 from Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS) Change wording Lines From: LYMEC will put forward an urgency resolution in this spirit to the 2011 ELDR congress To: LYMEC will consider an urgency resolution in this spirit to the 2011 ELDR congress Amendment is not adopted by the mover and is put on vote. Amendment is carried with 59 votes in favour, 6 against and 58 abstaining. Amended resolution is put on vote and adopted with 135 votes in favour, 7 against and 22 abstaining. 10. Freedom of Movement for All Families in Europe, proposed by Igor Caldeira (IMS) and Mario Tocci (IMS) Igor Caldeira took the floor presenting the resolution. Resolution was put on vote and adopted with 131 votes in favor and 14 abstaining. 11. Legalising the production, the trade and the use of soft and hard drugs, proposed by FEL and LVSV Florent Baudewyns took the floor to present the resolution. Amendment 1 from GIV, presented by Ermanno Martignetti 13

14 Lines delete phrase and hard drugs Following persons took the floor: Tim Huiskes (IMS), Lyneth Mollis (IMS) Amendment was put on vote and carried with 49 votes in favor, 36 against and 23 abstaining. Amendment 2 from GIV, presented by Federico Minca Delete Line 6 Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 3 from GIV, presented by Federico Minca Change Lines 7 8 From: Nowadays, there are nearly 200,000,000 drug users around the world, most of them being occasional users. The struggle against narcotics traffic is and kills people every day. To: Nowadays, are estimated nearly 200,000,000 drug users around the world, most of them being occasional users. The struggle against narcotics traffic is expensive and sometimes ineffective related to the resources used. Amendment adopted by the mover Delete Lines 9 12 Amendment 4 from GIV, presented by Federico Minca Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 5 from GIV, presented by Federico Minca Delete following phrase from Line 15: deterioration of the quality and purity of products Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 6 from GIV, presented by Federico Minca Change Lines From: It transforms consumers-citizens in severed repressed criminals. To: Some Legislation system transforms consumers-citizens in repressed criminals and becoming a social problem. Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 7 from GIV, presented by Federico Minca Delete following text from Lines It seems also that no relation has been proved between the rate of use and the severity of authorities. Amendment is not adopted by the mover and is put on vote. Amendment is not carried with 17 votes in favour, 37 against and 45 abstaining. Amendment 8 from GIV, presented by Cosimo Avesani Delete following words from Line 45: the quality and Amendment adopted by the mover. 14

15 Amendment 9 from GIV, presented by Cosimo Avesani Delete following phrase from Lines 58 59: and that some of them are used in a different way than the one for which they are sold Amendment adopted by the mover. Delete Lines Amendment 10 from Liberal Youth, presented by Robson Brown Amendment adopted by the mover Amendment 11 from Liberal Youth, presented by Robson Brown Replace instances of verb legalise with verb decriminalise in whole text. Amendment not adopted by the mover. Following persons took the floor: Igor Caldeira (IMS), Florent Baudewyns (FEL), Tims Huiskes (IMS), Robson Brown (Liberal Youth) Amendment is put on vote and not carried with 31 votes in favour, 33 against and 58 abstaining. Amendment 12 from Liberal Youth, presented by Robson Brown Add following text to Lines 20-21: That there is increasing evidence that the drugs policy of criminal prohibition is not only ineffective and expensive, but actually harmful, impacting severely on the poorest and most marginalised. Amendment adopted by the mover Amendment 13 from Liberal Youth, presented by Robson Brown Add following text on Line 109: Calls for evidence based policy making on drugs with a clear focus on prevention and reduction of harm, instead of puritan ideology and moralising as at present. Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 14 from Liberal Youth, presented by Robson Brown Add following text before Line 114 Declares that independent experts, scientists, and health professionals should be at the heart of European drugs policies and not partisan politicians or national commissioners Amendment adopted by the mover Amendment 15 from Tim Huiskes (IMS) Delete all reference to hard drugs for recreational use throughout the entire resolution, to the effect that all proposals only relate to soft drugs. Furthermore add soft to every mention of drugs. Amendment was not adopted by the mover. 15

16 No vote taken on this amendment, because the mover of the amendment was not present in the congress room. Resolution as a whole was put for the discussion. Following persons took the floor: Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Ed Sanderson (Liberal Youth), Tomas de Jager (IMS), Silviu Grigorescu (TNL), Lynneth Mollis (IMS), Tim Huiskes (IMS), Florent Baudewyns (FEL). Resolution was put on vote and not carried with 59 votes in favour and 108 abstaining. 12. On Flexicurity and the European Labour Market, proposed by Lukas Schweiger Lukas Schweiger took the floor presenting the resolution. Delete lines Amendment 1 from JOVD, presented by Timo Roeleveld Amendment not adopted by the mover and put on vote. Amendment was not carried with 39 votes in favor, 57 against and 11 abstaining. Following persons took the floor: Tim Huiske (IMS), Lukas Schweiger (LUF) Resolution was put on vote and adopted with 118 votes in favor, 18 against and 7 abstaining. 13. Towards a more transparent and accountable Europe, proposed by JD Robert Wintraecken took the floor presenting the resolution Amendment 1 from LUF, presented by Lukas Schweiger Delete Lines Amendment adopted by the mover. Amendment 2 from LUF, presented by Lukas Schweiger Delete Lines Amendment was not adopted by the mover. Following persons took the floor: Igor Caldeira (IMS), Alexander Plahr, Robert Wintraecken (JD), Robson Brown (Liberal Youth) Amendment was put on vote and carried with 81 votes in favor and 39 against. Amended resolution was put on vote and was unanimously adopted. Following resolutions have been postponed to the next congress: Enhancing the Single Market for Retail Financial Services On Immigration On the Completion of the Single Market for Pharmacy Health is Wealth European Constituency European Commission President Member of the European Parliament Against European Endowment for Democracy 16

17 16. Membership issues: disaffiliations 16.1 DLS, Denmark Mette Lykke Nielsen took the floor to present Bureau s position. Disaffiliation was put on vote and with 143 votes in favor and 3 against DLS was disaffiliated from LYMEC YPD, Ireland Jeroen Diepemaat took the floor to present Bureau s position. Disaffiliation was put on vote and with 152 votes in favor and 5 against YPD was disaffiliated from LYMEC New Generation, Hungary Vedrana Gujic took the floor presenting Bureau s position. Following persons took the floor: Daniel George (IMS) Disaffiliation was put on vote and New Generation was unanimously disaffiliated LiDem, Macedonia Vedrana Gujic took the floor presenting Bureau s position. Following persons took the floor: Tim Huiskes (IMS), Vedrana Gujic, Stanislav Anastassov (YMRF), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Matilda Flemming, Daniel George (IMS), Tims Huiskes (IMS), Alexander Plahr, Robson Brown (Liberal Youth) Disaffiliation was put on vote and with 56 votes in favor, 108 against and 11 abstaining LiDem was not disaffiliated from LYMEC OT AMN, Moldova Claudia Benchescu took the floor presenting Bureau s position. Disaffiliation was put on vote and OT AMN was unanimously disaffiliated from LYMEC. 17. Membership issues 17.1 Youth of LDP, Serbia, for full membership Milos Kuzmanovic took the floor presenting the organization and its application. Following persons took the floor: Nils Ter Braake (JD), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Vedrana Gujic, Chris Ward (Liberal Youth), Stanislav Anastassov (YMRF) The mldp delegation left the congress room. Full Membership Application was put on vote and mldp was unanimously accepted as a full member to LYMEC. 17

18 Following persons took the floor: Milos Kuzmanovic and Alexander Plahr Secretary General, Slaven Klobucar, gave 10 voting right to mldp European Youth of Ukraine, Ukraine, for applicant membership Natalia Tserklevych and Anna Rogovchenko presented the organization and its application. Following persons took the floor: Daniel George (IMS), Olena Martseniuk (EYU), Erik Van Der Meij (JD), Sunniva Skjeggestad (NUV), Natalia Tserklevych (EYU), Anna Rogovchenko (EYU), Alexander Plahr, Ed Sanderson (Liberal Youth), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Tim Huiskes (IMS), Tatiana Lyubimova (IMS), Sven Sipoc (MHL). The EYU delegation left the congress room. Claudia Benchescu took the floor presenting Bureau s position. Following persons took the floor: Daniel George (IMS), Igor Caldeira (IMS), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Kseniya Shvedova (IMS), Tatiana Lyubimova (IMS), Priit Kallakas (ERPY), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD), Robert Wintraecken (JD), Sven Sipoc (MHL), Alexander Plahr, Tim Huiskes (IMS), Leszek Jazdzewski (Projekt Polska) Vote on postponing the vote on EYU s application was announced. With 131 votes in favor, 34 against and 8 abstaining the vote was postponed to the next Congress Alliance of Young Liberals, Lithuania, for applicant membership Arturas Laktionkinas took the floor to present the organization and its application. Following persons took the floor: Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Timo Roeleveld (JOVD) The AYL delegation left the congress room. Matilda Flemming took the floor presenting Bureau s position. Following persons took the floor: Kazimieras Celiesius (LLJ), Daniel George (IMS), Thomas Leys (IFLRY) Applicant membership was put on vote and was unanimously approved Liberal Club, Belarus, for observer membership Claudia Benchescu took the floor presenting Bureau s position. Following persons took the floor: Tomas de Jager (IMS), Daniel George (IMS), Kseniya Shvedova (IMS). The vote on non-deliberations was suggested. With 143 votes in favor of non-deliberation and 22 against, the Congress did not vote on this application. 18. Finances 18.1 Financial Report Treasurer Matilda Flemming presented Financial report January October 2011 (for information). 18

19 Following persons took the floor: Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Slaven Klobucar 18.2 Internal Auditor s Report Lukas Schweiger and Daniel George took the floor presenting internal auditor s report Draft Budget 2012 Treasurer Matilda Flemming took the floor discussing membership fees for organizations. Membership fees were put on vote and were unanimously approved. Matilda Flemming continued presenting the draft budget Following persons took the floor: Anne Van Der Graaf (JD), Lukas Schweiger (LUF), Alexander Plahr, Tim Huiskes (IMS), Allan Siao Ming Witherick (IMS), Matilda Flemming Draft Budget 2012 was put on vote and was approved with 128 votes in favor and 1 abstaining. 19. Report from Member Organizations As suggested by the Congress Chairs, point 19 of the Congress Agenda was spread throughout the Congress. Following Member Organizations took the floor to report: LLJ, presented by Kazimieras Celiesius RU, presented by Sissel Kvist and Christopher Roehl Andersen SU, presented by Silja Borgarsdóttir Sandelin NUV, presented by Sunniva Skjeggestad MHL, presented by Sven Sipos IFLRY, presented by Thomas Leys FEL, presented by Florent Baudewyns YMRF, presented by Stanislav Anastassov and Ikmal Dzhomova Liberal Club, presented by Robson Brown 20. Any other business There were no discussing suggestions for this point; therefore agenda point 20 was skipped. 21. Closing President Alexander Plahr took the floor and closed the Congress. 19

20 BUREAU MEMBERS REPORTS PRESIDENT: Alexander Plahr Dear delegates, Dear guests Dear liberal friends, in 2008 you elected me into the LYMEC Bureau for the first time. After many Bureau reports in the last four years this now is the final time I have the duty and pleasure to report to you. I am sure most of you by now know which tasks are associated with the role of the LYMEC President: Leading the organization, external representation, legal representation, doing political statements, preparation and chairing of the Bureau meetings, being LYMEC s voice in ELDR, working with our partners and sponsors, cocoordination of the office and the finances and much, much more. Altogether a very challenging job that consists of many different, independent but nonetheless interconnected tasks and details. Therefore, let me take the liberty of once not summarizing all this, and just state that it also was done in the last half year and done as you expect it to be done. Instead, I want to focus on a few special points worth mentioning that other than our day-to-day tasks are specific for the activity of LYMEC in the period between November 2011 and May ELDR Congress The Congress of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party saw both the election of a new ELDR leadership as well as debates about resolutions. To maximize our influence in the election process and to make LYMEC visible to the rest of the Congress, we as it is good tradition by now- interviewed the candidates for the ELDR Bureau one by one and confronted them with tough questions. We grilled them thoroughly they even had only a limited time to answer each question. Feedback from the candidates afterwards indicated they liked it ;-) In the resolution debate LYMEC was an extremely influential force: ELDR Congress adopted a resolution on a topic LYMEC has been fighting for during the last years in the Deletion, not blocking campaign: No to internet censorship infrastructure by European governments. We furthermore succeeded in convincing the ELDR to reject a financial transaction tax as well as an EU-leverage on Value Added Tax. ELSN Reviving the European Liberal Students Network (ELSN) inside LYMEC after some of the former coordinators did not have sufficient time anymore to manage the network on a day-to-day basis was high on our agenda. The Bureau therefore is extremely happy that with Kristina Kämpfer a dedicated and capable new coordinator for the network has been found. Some of you might still know Kristina from her time as LHG President and thus are aware about both her political skills as well as her passion for student politics. Together with her co-coordinators she will now work on making ELSN more active and visible. If you or your organization are interested in ELSN, do not hesitate to contact Kristina in Copenhagen at the fringe of our Congress. Moving the office 20

21 Following the election of Sir Graham Watson as ELDR President, the party needed more space in their headquarters for their ambitions. Therefore, LYMEC which was co-located in the ELDR office- needed to move out and find a new venue. With much dedication we started looking for a new office that is bigger, better, nicer and yet still affordable. Thanks to the commitment of our Secretary General Slaven Klobučar (who will be the person most affected by our office situation - wink) we found such a place it even has a garden. After we finished moving all our stuff over in early March, we are confident that our new premises will serve us well in the future and are a solid base camp for all of our activities. Thanks I would like to thank the two Bureaus and two Secretary Generals I could serve with during the last four years. A big thank you also to our auditors, who have provided extremely valuable suggestions and never made our job easy, as it is their task. Thanks to all the interns we had. And of course a big thank you to you, the members of LYMEC. You are the ones who make this organization awesome! Closing thoughts Our common conviction as European liberals is that freedom is more important than equality. That the individual is both at the core as well as the boundary of all political action. That regardless of what society thinks, I can live my life any way I want as long as I do not infringe on the freedom of others. That Europe should bring more freedom for its citizens, not more well-intended paternalism. For this, we fought in the period this report covers. For this, we need to fight even more in the future. Non-exhaustive list of events attended: November LYMEC Congress and Bureau Meeting in Barcelona, Spain November ELDR Congress, Council and Bureau meeting in Palermo, Italy 06 December Debate about sovereign debt crisis in Vreden, Germany 07 December Debate about sovereign debt crisis in Warendorf, Germany 08 December ELDR leaders meeting in Brussels, Belgium 09 December ELDR Bureau meeting in Brussels, Germany February LYMEC Bureau meeting and debate with other political youth organizations in Brussels, Belgium 29 February Skype ELSN meeting 02 March ELDR Bureau meeting in Brussels, Belgium March JuLis Congress in Saarbrücken, Germany April Speech and debate at ESTIEM seminar in Ilmenau, Germany April ELF General Assembly in Brussels, Belgium May LYMEC Seminar and Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark Remaining at your entire disposal for additional questions, Best liberal regards, Alexander Plahr - President of LYMEC 21

22 BUREAU MEMBERS REPORTS VICE PRESIDENT: Mette Lykke Nielsen Dear liberal friends Time has come to write my last bureau report. I have been in the bureau for 4 years and it has been such a pleasure to work for LYMEC. I have learned a lot and I have also achieved many of the things that I aimed to do in my candidatures. It is not a secret to you that I really enjoyed being campaign officer in the previous bureau, and looking back I think the shift from being that to being Vice-President was harder than I thought. There was more organisational tasks - more focus on the reports and more focus on the overall picture. It has been interesting, but it takes a lot to create your own space in the bureau. The position as vice-president is not very well defined. This bureau has been working hard, so there was not really a need for me to step in and help. My advice for the new vice-president would be to make sure that there is a set and well defined role - especially between the president and the vice president, so that you don't get the task of being writing the reports, as the only one defined. But overall it has been two very exiting years and I am going to miss the work in the bureau and all the interesting and nice people I have meet during my time in LYMEC. But back to what this report is really about - what I have done since the last autumn congress in Barcelona. Besides the day-to-day job in the bureau answering s and following up on different tasks, there are two things that have taken my time. One was the preparation of the congress in Copenhagen, where I have helped with fundraising and coordination from LYMEC side with Radikal Ungdom and Venstre Ungdom. The other main task was our annual report that I wrote. Events that I attended: 4th to 5th November 6th of November 9th to 11th December 3rd to 4th February 15th to 18th March 23rd to 24th March 10th-11th May 11th-12th May Autumn Congress, Barcelona Bureau meeting, Barcelona Participated on Julis seminar on equality, Berlin Bureau meeting, Brussels LYMEC seminar on communications, Tallin Participated in Brussels Young Leaders Forum, Brussels LYMEC seminar digital agenda, Copenhagen LYMEC Congress, Copenhagen If there is questions, don't hesitate to ask them to me on or during the congress in Denmark. 22

23 BUREAU MEMBERS REPORTS Treasurer: Matilda Flemming Matilda s Bureau report is the financial report which you can find further down the document. BUREAU MEMBERS REPORTS Bureau member: Vedrana Gujic December 2011-May 2012 INTRODUCTION This report presents my activities in LYMEC from December 2011 to May This period did not produce many LYMEC activities, as it is usual low political season in the life of a political youth organization, but we used this time to prepare for the upcoming Congress and work more intensely on intra-organisational networking and regional responsibilities. PRIMARY WORKING AREAS As a political officer, I lead the LYMEC delegation to the ELDR Congress in Palermo, Sicily, where we ve put forward 3 resolutions (On the new Hungarian constitution, on the planned increase of the EU budget and on Deletion of criminal online content instead of mere blocking) which were all successfully adopted by the ELDR Congress (having in mind that the same resolution Deletion, not blocking was voted down just a year before). LYMEC again played an important role during the Congress and proved to be the most prepared and most active delegation there, ready to advocate its policies during all of the discussions. We took part on all of the discussion and organised the question time with the candidates for the leadership of our mother party, which is accepted by now as a traditional activities welcomed by both sides, the delegates and the candidates. In January 2012, we ve held a Joint Board meeting with all other political party youth organizations under the umbrella of European youth forum. We ve discussed numerous topics, from the economic crisis to the current social affairs, with the separate discussion on the topic of Commission proposal for the new Youth in action programme, which directly affects all of the PPYOs and YFJ itself. On the margins of this meeting, LYMEC visited our liberal commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, where we had a fruitful debate about the new proposal for PNR agreement, as well as liberal approach to migration and asylum. In March, I represented LYMEC on respectable event of GMf, the Brussels Forum, where we ve exchanged views with business and political young professionals from around the world on a range of international affairs topics. REGIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES We ve had two mayor elections in the region, Croatian and Slovenian. Croatian elections resulted in the excellent result for the liberals, with 2 liberal parties entering the government (HNS, IDS). Elections in Slovenia unfortunately did not produce similar results, where conservative government is formed. The focus now is on Serbia, where we are following the results of LDP on joint elections for president, the parliament and local municipalities. Next to the regular contacts with my regional MOs, we ve managed to intensify the relations with long inactive MLBIH, who reactivated themselves and showed interest in returning to LYMEC events. Also, we ve discussed possible future membership of the liberals in Montenegro and Hungary. Regional liberal network, ISEEL, held its meeting in Bulgaria, where they discussed organizational issues and future activities and approved another mandate of the current chair. 23

24 OTHER I would like to thank all of my fellow Bureau members, Secretary General, Treasurer Vice president and our President for all the good work we had in this mandate. I am very pleased with our results and the level of professionalism we ve achieved. It was an honour working with all of you. Vedrana Gujić LIST OF EVENTS ATTENDED 1. Bureau meetings (BM) January 2012 LYMEC BM, Brussels 2. Meetings with MOs 3. March 2012 mhns Congress 3. Other events November 2011 ELDR Congress in Palermo, Sicily January 2012 YFJ Joint Board Meeting with PPYO, Brussels 03. January 2012 Meeting with Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, Brussels March 2012 Brussels Forum, Brussels 24

25 BUREAU MEMBERS REPORTS Bureau member: Jeroen Diepemaat INTRODUCTION This is my fourth and last bureau report for my two year mandate as a LYMEC bureau member. It covers the work done since the autumn-congress in Barcelona, First of all I want to thank my bureau-colleagues for the good and nice time we had since our election in Two years seems to be a long time, but time flies when you re doing what you like to do and especially if that is together with nice and inspiring people that have the same passion for politics and liberalism. I learned a lot from them and from the work I did and I am convinced that we managed to enstrengthen LYMEC even more on a politically and organizational level. It was a wonderful experience to serve LYMEC as press officer and thus contribute to a (hopefully ) more liberal Europe in the end. I want to thank all our members for the support and help in the last two years, without you all we did would not have been possible! ELDR At the ELDR-congress in Palermo I was one of the delegates representing LYMEC. We managed to get most of our input adopted. The delegates of ELDR voted in favour of our resolutions about the (un)democratic developments in Hungary and the worrying developments in Ukraine. Last but not least the congress also adopted our resolution on deletion-not blocking, a point that we have been pushing for a long time. Apart from that we managed to get a lot of amendments on the (theme-)resolutions approved. PRIMARY WORKING AREAS Press I have been involved in most of the press work for LYMEC in the last period. As press officer I always try to keep track of interesting debates in the European public sphere that are interesting for us to take part in. Furthermore I usually prepare and send out the LYMEC press releases, but of course the whole bureau is involved in preparing and writing the press statements. Worth mentioning is the fact that the statement we issues about the PNR agreement was received very well. We got a lot of response and support from MEP s and other stakeholders on the statement. Website Nothing special to mention. Website functions very good and the cooperation with goalgorilla is going very well. The new bureau could easily implement new functionalities if needed. New Libertas Chief-editor Julian Kirchherr and his team did a good job making two issues already, the latest one will be ready for the congress. I am very satisfied with the way it works right now, with a chiefeditor that works more or less independent from the bureau. He can invest all the time he has in developing our magazine. Special thanks for Julian and Paul for the good work, hope they will continue to work on New Libertas! REGIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES Each bureau member has his or her own countries to keep in touch with. To refresh your minds I will list the countries where I am responsible for: - The Netherlands - Belgium 25

26 - Luxembourg - United Kingdom - Ireland - Austria - Switzerland - Liechtenstein - Iceland - Czech Republic - Slovakia In the first place I always try to be as up-to-date as possible about the current political situation in the above listed countries. I maintained the contact with them as good as possible. Next to these fixed regional responsibilities I represented LYMEC towards MO s and non-mo s in several other cases. Most recently I visited Kiev to attend the congress of European Youth of Ukraine. They adopted new statutes after recommendations from our side that improved the structure of the organization and tackles a lot of the critic that has been casted at them at the Barcelona congress. Furthermore I visited 3H-movement in Turkey again, as trainer on behalf of JOVD/VVD. I visited the general assembly of IFLRY in Budapest on behalf of LYMEC. The IFLRY bureau wrote a plan of action that was adopted with broad support. Also some interesting panel debates took place on the political situation in Ukraine and Hungary. LIST OF EVENTS ATTENDED 3 november 6 november: LYMEC autumn congress + bureau meeting, Barcelona, Spain 22 november 26 november: LYMEC-delegate at ELDR congress, Parlermo, Italy 3 december 4 december: JOVD congress, The Hague, The Netherlands 8 december 11 december: Trainer on seminar JOVD/VVD/FNF for 3H movement, Istanbul, Turkey 3 february 5 february: Joint bureau meeting PPYO + meeting Cecilia Malmström + bureau meeting LYMEC, Brussels, Belgium 15 march 18 march: LYMEC training seminar on communication skills, Tallinn, Estonia 7 april 8 april: IFLRY executive committee on behalf of LYMEC, Budapest, Hungary 21 april 22 april: JOVD congress, The Hague, The Netherlands 25 april: Visit to LYMEC office to pick up stuff for congress, Brussels, Belgium 27 april 30 april: Visit to congress European Youth of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine 4 may 6 may: Trainer on behalf of VVD international at IDS/NDI seminar, Porec, Croatia 10 may 13 may: LYMEC spring congress, Copenhagen, Denmark 26

27 BUREAU MEMBERS REPORTS IFLRY representative: Ivo Thijssen BUREAU REPORT: Ivo Thijssen IFLRY Bureau Member on behalf of LYMEC Dear liberal friends, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 11 March 2012 It is not only an honour, but also a great pleasure to help globalize freedom. Please allow me to give you a short update on IFLRY s operations. IFLRY GA follow-up As fundraiser for the IFLRY GA in Istanbul (December 2011), I ve spent time on the (financial) reporting duties. I can say that our sponsors were very pleased with the outcome. Fundraising 2012 has started with spectacular success in fundraising. Working closely with D66 and VVD (Netherlands), I managed to secure funding for the Belarus program ( ), Moldova GA ( ), JD/IFLRY Azerbaijan mission ( ) and the Caucasus training tour ( ). Maikel Nabil In April 2011, Maikel Nabil was sentenced to prison (by a military tribunal) for three years for criticizing the army in his blog. I have used every single opportunity to raise awareness about his situation and worked on various statements regarding his case. I am happy to report that our first IFLRY Freedom Award laureate has finally been released in January 2012! Free Trade Program After a slow start of the Free Trade Program, we had to let Adrian Proos go. After an open call, IFLRY appointed Timo Roeleveld. Timo is one of the founding fathers of the program and has already revitalised the program. I look forward to working with Timo. Special thanks I like to use this section to show my appreciation for individuals that have been of great help. This time my special thanks go out to former IFLRY president Bart Woord. Bart and I are personal friends, so we meet regularly. Not a beer goes by, without discussing IFLRY. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. I d be happy to answer them. 27

28 Sincerely, Ivo Thijssen IFLRY Bureau Member on behalf of LYMEC Events I have attended 15 February Lunch meeting with Free Trade Program Manager Timo Roeleveld. Amsterdam, Netherlands. Lunch at my own expense February EU-China Youth Policy Dialogue on Urbanisation, Social Policies and EU-China Relations. Chengdu, China. Transportation and accommodation paid for by various EU and Chinese sponsors. 10 March JD Azerbaijan prepatory meeting. Amsterdam, Netherlands. No expenses involved. Events I will attend March. JuLis congress. Saarbrücken, Germany. Transportation at my own expense, accommodation partly paid for by JuLis March Liberal International Executive Committee. Barcelona, Spain. Transportation partly paid for by D66, accommodation at my own expense. 1-6 April JD & IFLRY Azerbaijan mission to EuroNest Conference, Baku, Azerbaijan. Transportation and accommodation paid for by D66 grants. 6-8 April IFLRY Executive Committee. Budapest, Hungary. Transportation and accommodation paid for by IFLRY May ELDR Council (organizer of IFLRY/D66/VVD fringe meeting). Yerevan, Armenia. Transportation and accommodation paid for by D66 and VVD grants May IFLRY Belarus training session. Kiev, Ukraine. Transportation and accommodation paid for by D66. 28

29 SECRETARY GENERAL S REPORT November May 2012 Dear liberal friends, It is my pleasure to present you the Secretary General's report for the period from November 2011 to May During this time LYMEC has passed through a major change, we have moved out from the ELDR office after sharing the office with them for years from the joint premises in the European Parliament, to Rue Montoyer 40 and finally Rue Montoyer 31. We have also passed through some administrative changes and change of the assistants in the Offices. Moving to LYMEC's own premises Due to continuous growth of ELDR party in view of the employees, in agreement with ELDR Party and their financial and organisational help we have moved out of the ELDR office to the new premises in Ixelles, a neighborhood of Brussels close to the ELDR Party, European Parliament and the ELF. The search for the office has been rather short as we managed to get a great deal and rent out a beautiful, newly renovated office, three times the size of our office in the ELDR Party. It has indeed been a short but extremely stressful move, but thanks to the help of all ELDR staff members and notably LYMEC's assistant Jelena Jesajana and Xosé Casas, the process has finished within ten days only. LYMEC will stay on the new address at least until the end of Finances Finances have been very stabile. Even though you will see that we are declaring a loss of over Euros, you have to be aware that it is an administrative error and error in the accounting program and not the actual loss or liquidity issue for LYMEC. This situation is surely regretful as overall the external auditors were very pleased by the state of finances and our accounting system and methods. We have also improved the gathering of the participation fees, the process of claiming the travel refunds and the transparency of the financial flow of our events. We have also started declaring the VAT in Belgium, being the first European youth organisation to do so. Overall I am very pleased with the financial situation of LYMEC. The situation should stay the same until the end of the mandate of the new LYMEC Bureau. As of 2014 LYMEC, alongside with other youth organisations, is potentially going to lose the European Commission's Operational Grant. We are currently fighting the Commission's proposal with other European youth organisations. LYMEC Assistants Jelena Jesajana finished her term in LYMEC office at the end of February. Jelena gave quite a contribution to the work dynamics of the office, and as her final task she has also gave an artistic touch to the look of our new office. As of March we have hired a new assistant, Xosé Casas from Spain who has recently finished his studies in Minnesota, USA. Xosé stepped in and helped us to move even before his official start. LYMEC Events Since November we have organized Congress and seminar in Barcelona, which went very well thanks to commitment of JNC, especially Ivette and Carlota to whom I would like to thank for all the help. The first event of 2012 was training on communication skills in Tallinn, Estonia in March. It was a rather different event compared to what we usually do and according to the participants certainly an appreciated change. This event was made possible thanks to ERPY and especially Priit and Kristjan. Besides our events we have organised a Bureau meeting during the meeting of political youth organisations in Brussels. Representation Together with LYMEC assistants I have been attending a number of events in Brussels and Europe representing LYMEC. Below you can find the list of events attended. 29

30 Events attended (non exhausting list) LYMEC Congress and Seminar, Barcelona SDA event on Digital civil liberties, Brussels ALDE Conference on Eurobonds, Brussels ALDE New Year's reception, Brussels Youth Forum multi annual planning meeting, Brussels ALDE Conference on solidarity, Brussels EP platform for secularism conference, Brussels Youth Forum joint Bureau meeting, Brussels LYMEC Bureau meeting, Brussels New Year's representation in Austrian representation to the EU, Brussels German Marshal Fund - Transatlantic Brussels youth forum, Brussels Friedrich Naumann Stiftung conference on USA elections, Brussels LYMEC Internal audit, Brussels Friedrich Naumann Stiftung conference on "More Europe", Brussels Consultations on the European Commission, DG Markt, Brussels LYMEC training on Communication skills, Tallinn Celebration of the Spanish constitution, ELDR event, Brussels Young Professionals Summit, Brussels Thanks Lastly, I would like to use this opportunity to thank the outgoing Bureau. It has been a great pleasure to work with you guys and for those of you, who will not continue, I will surely miss you and I wish you all the best in your private lives and careers. I would also like to thank the Individual members delegates and auditors for their continuous work and contribution to the development of our organisation! Slaven Klobucar 30

31 ANNUAL REPORT Table of contents: 1. Political priorities 2. Political tools 3. Calendar of activities 4. Organisational aspects INTRODUCTION Dear friends, We think that 2011 was a very active year of LYMEC. Please have a look at the following pages to get an impression of the activities conducted. In 2011 LYMEC had the yearly theme Intergenerational fairness. At the same time the organisation had to react to the economic woes all over Europe with the crisis in Greece as the most worrying example of unsustainable financial policies of state spending. We put focus on this with several press statements on the topic was an extremely active year for LYMEC with several good seminars and conferences across Europe, as well as a press conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. If you have any questions that this report does not answer, please do not hesitate to state them in Copenhagen at our Congress. Until then, we remain at your disposal. Liberally yours, Alexander Plahr LYMEC President Mette Lykke Nielsen LYMEC Vice-President 1. POLITICAL PRIORITIES In 2010 LYMEC started to produce a programme of action covering two years. For this Bureau, the timespan covered In 2010 the yearly theme was liberal economy. And this year 2011 it was intergenerational fairness. Below you will find the priorities for our work, which were outlined and acted upon. Gaining influence within ELDR / ALDE LYMEC was present through President Alexander Plahr at all ELDR Bureau meetings and ELDR Leaders meetings, and through both the President and bureau member Vedrana Gujic at the ELDR Councils, expressing our political convictions and giving a voice to issues important to our membership. In November, the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) assembled in Palermo, Italy, hold its 32th Congress. The European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) attended the Congress with ten delegates. The delegation was very active in both policy making and in terms of the elections of a new ELDR president and bureau. The delegation put forward three resolutions and all of them were adopted. Strengthen individual participation in LYMEC 31

32 The IMS section has after the statutory changes in Sinaia, Romania last year started to be more active at the congresses with now three delegates. The IMS members also started to put forward more resolutions to the congress. In October 2011 we had one event especially dedicated to IMS members in Porec, Croatia. Several new IMS members attended this event. The event was organized by the European Liberal Forum (ELF) in cooperation with LYMEC and CatDem, and was hosted by the Istrian Democratic Youth (IDY). The seminar attracted 31 participants representing various liberal organizations or young liberals themselves from all over Europe. After discussing idea of Flexicurity with its advantages and disadvantages, participants held a heated but nonetheless constructive debate about European labour markets, firing and hiring laws, welfare states and social security systems. As a result of the debate, participants drafted a resolution that was presented at the LYMEC Congress in Barcelona in November The seminar team and participants of the seminar were addressed by two key speakers. Daniel Hinst, CEA President, presented a liberal perspective on Flexicurity. Mr Hinst s presentation was followed by a lecture from Nikolaj Lykke, Assistantto the Ambassador, Embassy of Denmark in Croatia. Mr Lykke lectured on Danish example and experience with the Flexicurity model. His lecture was followed by a Q&A session that further deepened common understanding of challenges and advantages of Flexicurity. 2. POLITICAL TOOLS Political activities a. Spring Congress in Utrecht, The Netherlands The spring congress in 2011 was organized in The Netherlands. From Wednesday the 4 th until Friday the 6 th a seminar took place on pension systems in Europe. This gathered 30 members of LYMEC that worked on a liberal plan for the future of pension systems in Europe. The seminar took place in Haarlem. The congress itself started on Friday the 6 th and ended on Sunday the 8 th. It gathered more then 120 members of LYMEC and took place in Utrecht. The topic of the congress was also pension systems. Some economists, politicians and other speakers addressed the participants and discussed their views with them. Also the resolution made by the seminar participants was adopted on the congress. b. Autumn Congress, Barcelona, Catalonia/Spain The European Liberal Youth held its autumn congress in Barcelona. Around 150 young liberals where present there to celebrate LYMEC s 35th anniversary and discuss about a wide variety of resolutions. The delegates accepted a new, more liberal path, towards recovery from the current sovereign debt and currency crisis. They opposed the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the use of bailouts and instead argued for debt relieves and adherence to the Treaties. Furthermore the congress accepted two membership applications, expanding the liberal family in Europe even more. Youth of LDP from Serbia got accepted as a full member of LYMEC, and the Alliance of Young Liberals from Lithuania got accepted as an applicant member of LYMEC. The congress was closed by a gala-dinner on Saturday evening to celebrate the 35th anniversary and look back on many successful years. The presence of Sir Graham Watson MEP, vice-president of the ELDR and former leader of the ALDE group, Marc Guerrero i Tarragó, vice-president of the ELDR, and many more former young 32

33 liberals made it a big success. Sir Graham, who was involved in the founding of LYMEC, provided participants with valuable insights about the early days of the organization. c. Young Leaders Meeting, Vilnius, Lithuania 30 young leaders gathered in Vilnius, Lituania. The event was hosted by the Lithuanian Liberal Youth, who this year also celebrate their 20th anniversary. The topic of the conference was youth participation. Besides discussing the need of getting young people active in political parties, the young leaders meeting formed an ideal platform to exchange best practices in gaining influence in mother parties and getting young candidates for city councils or parliaments elected. Two liberal Lithuanian ministers were present at the young leaders meeting. The minister of Justice, Remigijus Šimašius and the minister of transport & communication Eligijus Masiulis. They addressed the participants in the morning. Both of them have been active in Lithuanian Liberal Youth before and shared many interesting insights and experiences with the seminar participants. d. Seminars and trainings Porec, Croatia The seminar on Flexicurity has finally taken place in Porec, Croatia. The event was organized by the European Liberal Forum (ELF) in cooperation with LYMEC and CatDem, and was hosted by the Istrian Democratic Youth (IDY). The seminar attracted 31 participants representing various liberal organizations or young liberals themselves from all over Europe. After discussing idea of Flexicurity with its advantages and disadvantages, participants held a heated but nonetheless constructive debate about European labor markets, firing and hiring laws, welfare states and social security systems. As a result of the debate, participants drafted a resolution that was present at the autumn congress. European campaigns Campaign on yearly theme In 2011 we have held a campaign under the title Intergenerational Theft that was focusing on the unsustainable system of debt accumulation that exists now and its impact on the pension and healthcare systems. We have created a leaflet for the campaign that was distributed on our events. Publications a. Newsletter We continued sending out an newsletter once a month. The newsletter is sent to all our e-community (members, partners and non-members) and it is already today attracting more people to visit lymec.eu thanks to hyperlinks from the newsletter to further contents on our website. The design of the newsletter was improved by Slaven Klobucar. b. New Libertas New Libertas provides our membership with news from the liberal scene from across Europe. But it is no one-way street! Everybody is invited to contribute articles to the magazine, thus making it a lively forum for debate and exchange, contributing a bit to the creation of a European public sphere. 33

34 New Libertas issued a thirty fifth anniversary issue which had contributions from outstanding liberal leaders such as Graham Watson. By the end of the year we have appointed the new Board of New Libertas lead by Julian Kirrchher and changed the name of the magazine into Libertas. c. Website A new website was launched in After having gathered various proposals from different companies, we choose to work with Goalgorilla from The Netherlands. They developed a website according to the demands we set in our request for proposal. The CMS (content management system) is much more user-friendly then it used to be and easy to use for as well the office and bureau of LYMEC as the member organizations. Member organizations do now have an own account on the website. They can update their own information and contact details. The events section is also improved in such a way that it is possible for member organizations to apply for events online, and for LYMEC to manage the applications in a tool within the back-office of the website. Furthermore individual members also have a possibility to publish themselves on the map of Europe, to show they are a member of LYMEC. Same counts for the MOs. Furthermore also the newsletter system is integrated in the website. The CMS of the site is based on Drupal, an open-source system that is easy to manage for different companies in the future. External representation and cooperation a. European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) Cooperation and exchange with both our mother party ELDR and the liberal group in the European Parliament ALDE are of paramount importance to LYMEC. These are our representatives, which much more than LYMEC on itself could, can shape politics on a European level. We therefore maintained close contact with both trough Alexander Plahr (most notably ELDR Bureau meetings and leaders meeting), Vedrana Gujic (ELDR Council), Matilda Flemming (ELDR Steering Committee), our Secretariat and the Bureau as whole. b. National and European Political foundations The European Liberal Forum (ELF) -which LYMEC is a member of- became one of our most important partners during the last years. Of course, we on a regular basis attend the ELF General assembly trough our President Alexander Plahr, taking part in the governance of the foundation. ELF funded many of our events in 2011, such as the seminar in Porec and the autumn congress in Barcelona. We take special pride in the fact of being known as one of the most thoroughly scrutinizing member organizations of ELF when it comes to accepting new members in the General Assembly. c. International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) LYMEC has since 2007 been a regional member of IFRLY and was represented at IFLRY s General Assembly. Representative of LYMEC in the IFLRY bureau has been Ivo Thiessen. There also was excellent understanding between the IFLRY and the LYMEC President. Both organizations share the same vision regarding work-sharing and areas of competence. d. European Youth Forum (YFJ) Different LYMEC Bureau members represented LYMEC at the European Youth Forum. During the last year, LYMEC specifically worked to coordinating our positions and actions in The Youth Forum with other liberal players such as IFLRY. 34

35 Furthermore, we did send people to many YFJ events such as campaign and media trainings, also reaching out to people beyond the LYMEC Bureau. LYMEC has a representative in the Bureau of YFJ, namely Guoda Lomanaite. e. Other organisations: Furthermore, we continued to have regular meeting with other Political Party Youth Organisations (PPYOs) in form of monthly meetings at the Youth Forum (YFJ). 3. CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES Seminar in Healthcare in Vienna, Austria Date and Time: 07th 10th April, 2011 Congress, Seminar and Bureau meeting in Utrecht Date and Time: 05th 08th May, 2011 ALDE/LYMEC/YDE summer school in Brussels Date and Time: 29th 30 June, 2011 LYMEC Bureau meeting in Luxemburg Date and Time: 09th 11th September LYMEC Young Leaders Meeting and bureau meeting Date and Time: 23 rd 25 th of September 2011 LYMEC Seminar in Porec, Istria Date and Time: 6th 9th October Congress and Bureau meeting Barcelona Date and Time: 4th 6th November ORGANISATIONAL ASPECTS LYMEC Bureau The current bureau was elected in 2010 and consists of Alexander Plahr (President), Mette Lykke Nielsen (Vice- President), Matilda Flemming (Treasurer), Vedrana Gujic (Political Officer), Claudia Benchescu (Campaign Officer), Jeroen Diepemaat (Press Officer) and Mireia Huerta i Sala (Project Officer). The division of the bureau changed from previous years and the division was send to the member organisations to make it easier and more transparent for them to see what happens in the bureau. We managed to send out Bureau statements and press releases on a regular basis, reacting to or even preempting European political debates, thus slowly moving from a passive, re-active stance to becoming an agenda setter for at least the liberal family, though we are constantly improving our reach. Bureau meetings where held in connection to other LYMEC events whenever possible, in order to minimize costs and time-loss. In addition, one Bureau meeting was conducted in Brussels and one online. Internal Communication: a. Members 35

36 LYMEC Bureau Members attended various MO Congresses during the year, with the objective to make LYMEC more well-known at the level of the members of member organisations. Visited MO events: JuLis federal Congress, Gütersloh, Germany April Alexander Plahr Panel Debate on behalf of LYMEC 16th May Alexander Plahr Congress IDY in Novigrad 11th June Vedrana Gujic IFLRY GA in Timisoara 22nd 24th July Alexander Plahr Meeting with Venstres Ungdom and Radikal Ungdom 17th August Mette Lykke Visit to Ogra Fianna Fail, Dublin, Ireland 17 may 19 May: Jeroen Diepemaat and Claudia Benchescu Visit to National Council of MNDSV, Plovdiv, Bulgaria 27 May 29 May Jeroen Diepemaat Meeting JOVD international committee, The Hague, The Netherlands 16 September Jeroen Diepemaat TNL Election Convention, Bucharest, Romania 8. May 2011 Claudia Benchecu ISEEL Conference Balkan Benelux Common Political Action, Belgrade, Serbia 30. September Claudia Benchecu JuLis federal Congress, Oldenburg, Germany October Alexander Plahr Panel debate about disenchantment with politics European Liberal Forum, Vienna, Austria 25. October Jeroen Diepemaat 36

37 b. Mailings LYMEC continued sending mailings for all member organisations and individual members approximately 1-2 times a month. Sometimes statutory deadlines or other urgent needs meant that we had to send out special mailings. It is also LYMEC policy not to send out any attachments, and therefore all documents continued to be made available on our website through our restricted documents section on our website. d. Other We continued sending letters of congratulations or support to newly elected Presidents, International Officers and MPs of our Member Organisations. Internal committees and networks a. Twinning between MOs The 4nd annual conference of Beneliberales (young liberals of the Benelux countries) was held in b. European Liberal Student network The European Liberal Students Network went through a big change in 2009 and in 2010 the leadership of ELSN changed. They are currently working on a student campaign aiming at European Universities. Current head of the ELSN network is Kristina Kampfer from Germany c. Sub-regional liberal youth networks We continued our cooperation with sub-regional liberal networks such ISEEL, NLRU and NCY. Membership issues a. Member Organisations The autumn congress welcomed Youth of LDP from Serbia is accepted as a full member of LYMEC, and the Alliance of Young Liberals from Lithuania is accepted as an applicant member of LYMEC.. b. Individual Membership In 2011 LYMEC welcomed many new IMS to our organisation. There is an increasing interest in becoming individual member of LYMEC. LYMEC Secretariat The Secretariat is the centre of information and help for member organisations. It coordinates activities taking place within the organisation, serves the Bureau in its role of the daily administrator of LYMEC affairs and is a place of first contact with LYMEC for the outside world. Since November 2010 Slaven Klocubar has been acting as secretary general of LYMEC. The LYMEC Secretary General is assisted in his tasks by stagiaires. In the reported period we had the following stagiaires: Kinga Szemere, Hungary Lorenzo Marchese, Italy 37

38 Jelena Jesajana, Latvia The LYMEC secretariat has welcomed numerous individual members to LYMEC in 2011, by processing their payments, adding their contacts to our online and static databases, and sending them welcome packages. The secretariat has also welcomed the following delegations to our office in Brussels or met with them during the course of the year: LYMEC Finances Julis Austria, Austria JD, The Netherlands JOVD, The Netherlands HNS, Croatia Young liberals of Ghana, Ghana ALDE Group trainees, Europe The Bureau had to work very carefully and strictly maintain a low level of expenses in order to avoid a situation of low liquidity like in 2008.The budget for 2011 was adopted at a time where the financial stability of the organisation finally was secured. More information on the finances for 2011 can be found in the LYMEC Annual Financial Report for

39 FINANCES FINANCIAL REPORT 2011 Dear Congress delegates, I am very happy to present to you my final financial report covering the period January 1 to December 31, I am furthermore happy to convey to you that the steady financial path of the organization has continued. LYMEC has during 2011 continued to follow in the footsteps of the previous budget by keeping costs low while we have seen a growth in the general income has been the first year in many years where saving has not been the key priority of the Bureau. Budget Variance As you can see from the budget variance, LYMEC made a loss of euro in This was not expected and is due to a misjudgment when last year s accounts were closed. In last year s financial report we had a claim on the European Commission on euro for the remaining installment of the operational grant. However, after the European Commission had assessed LYMEC s report, only 6500 euro was paid. This means that we had to take a loss of the remaining claim, euro, in However, it is important to understand that despite this loss the LYMEC finances remain in good order. Furthermore, after the audit and reporting to the European Commission, I noticed that the remainder of the 2010 Grant from EC was not booked correctly. The negative impact on both the budget variance and equity as presented is EUR. This has been rectified in the 2012 accounting as cost of previous years. On the income side, we unfortunately had to make a repayment to the Council of Europe on a grant from last year, as we didn t manage to spend it. The discrepancy in budgeted and actual income from ELDR is due to the fact that ELDR has paid a number of invoices directly to providers as a part of their grant. The extraordinary revenue is income from the LYMEC apartment. We made an agreement with Srd, the former Secretary General, that he could stay in the apartment for a set amount of time, as long as he covered the costs of it. Since July, the contract on the apartment is canceled, and we are no longer offering it as an addition to the salary of the Secretary General. As for the expenses, the apartment costs are higher than budgeted simply because of inaccurate budgeting, however, when taking the income from the apartment into account, the balance of the costs for the apartment is in accordance with the budget. Audit expenses are over budget as the external audit was more expensive than expected and as an extraordinary audit was held in autumn. The budget lines of the Bureau are under budget due to the fact that most bureau meetings have been held in connection with other events. The campaigns account is severely under budget, and based on the recommendations of the auditors this account has been scrapped in the budget for As regards the events, there has been both over and under budgeting on both the income and the expense side. However, crucially the aggregated balance of the events is according to budget as can be seen in the table below. Throughout the year we have been working on decreasing the participation fees of events now as the financial situation is better. 39

40 Table 1: Overview of incomes and expenses of LYMEC events 2011 Event Income Expenses Net result Actual Budget Actual Budget Actual Budget Barcelona , , , , , ,00 Flexicurity , , , , , ,00 Netherlands , , , , , ,00 Summer School 2 500,00 900, , ,00-244,85-100,00 Vienna , , , , , ,00 Young Leaders 17,39 0, , , , ,00 Meeting Total , , , , , ,00 The Bureau was committed to spending more on representation as well as other political activities. As can be seen in the report there has been adequate spending on representation, whereas the other political activities, which is a budget line including all political activities besides events and representation, is still severely under budget. Balance sheet LYMEC has during the past year finally been able to create some reserves as can be seen on the Savings Account. The Bureau views the current level of reserves as adequate and will try to keep reserves at the current level in the future. As regards the Accounts Receivables, the Bureau together with the Secretary General has been working very hard to collect receivables during the year. This has meant that very few claims have been added to the list. As compared to last year, Accounts Receivables has diminished with 2/3 from euro to euro. In order to account for the potential of unrealizable claims and to give you an as realistic view as possible of our financial situation, I have made a provision of 3649 euro. No remainder of the European Commission administrative grant rant has been set up as receivable since the calculation is too complex to estimate the exact amount to be received as has been illustrated with this years over all negative result. To conclude, it is important that the new Bureau do not become complacent regarding the finances. Even if the current state of affairs is positive and stable the long term scenario is unknown. We know that the Commission is restructuring the Youth in Action grant and that the system of operational grants is likely to disappear as of is furthermore decisive as the European elections will be held then. The election result for liberals all over Europe will eventually determine LYMEC s income level, as both ALDE and ELDR account for major income sources. I would finally like to direct a very big thank you to Slaven in the office for handling the day to day finances as well as to the auditors, Daniel George and Lukas Schweiger who have given me great constructive criticism and support. A big thank you also to my fellow Bureau members for working hard to keep LYMEC on this steady financial path. Would you have any questions regarding the finances, do not hesitate to contact me. Kindly, Matilda Flemming LYMEC Treasurer 40

41 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Aged Payables LYMEC asbl December 2011 Current November October September Older Total Payables ELDR 691 Groupe S 2,385 Jelena Jesajana 572 Mastercard 98 Matilda Flemming 45 Service Public Federal TVA 130 Slaven Klobucar 1,690 Ticket Restaurant 324 Total Payables 5, , , ,935 Total Expense Claims Current November October September Older Total Total 5, % 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5,935 Aged Payables LYMEC asbl 25 March 2012 Page 1 of 1 41

42 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl December 2011 Current November October September Older Total Receivables Alliance Youth Egle Markeviciute (AYL,LI) Fotescu Vasile GIV - Giovani dell'ltalia dei Valori Jeunesse Democrate et Liberale du Luxembourg - JDL Jongeren Organisatie Vrijheid & Democratie - JOVD Joventut Li beral d 'Andorra - JLA Liberaal Vlaams Studenten Verbond - LVSV Liberal Student Club (Ciuburile Studentesti Liberale) Liberal Youth Assembly of the National Movement Simeon the Second LIDEM Macedonia Mladi Liberati Bosne i Hercegovine -MLBiH Oktavian Dot (CSL, RO) Orkhan Nabiyev (Oalga, AZ) Surugiu Radu (CSL) Tineretul National Liberal - TNL Youth of NMSP ZARES- Aktivni Total Receivables 0.0% so % 1.7% 2.8% , % ,608 Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl 25 March 2012 Page 1 of 1 42

43 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Balance Sheet LYMEC asbl As at 31 December Dec Dec2010 Assets Current Assets Accounts Receivable Cash account Provision noncollectable claims Total Current Assets Bank KBC Current Account KBC Savings Account KBC Security Deposit Account Lymec VISA Card Total Bank Fixed Assets Hardware assets Total Fixed Assets Total Assets Liabilities Current Liabilities Accounts Payable Total Current Liabilities Total Liabilities Net Assets Equity Current Year Earnings Retained Earnings Total Equity 4,608 (3,648) ,984 28,944 40,928 41,888 5,935 5,935 5,935 35,953 (11,681) 47,634 35,953 30,860 7 (7,691) 23,175 7,717 22,244 1,538 (30) 31, ,974 7,340 7,340 7,340 47,634 40,203 7,431 47,634 Balance Sheet LYMEC asbl 25 March 2012 Page 1 of 1 43

44 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Budget Variance LYMEC asbl For the 12 months ended 31 December 2011 Actual Budget VarEUR Var % Income ALDE Group Grants 35,000 Council of Europe Grants (1,147) ELDR Party Grants 33,961 European Commission Grants 40,000 Event income- Barcelona ,886 Event income - Flexicurity ,817 Event income - Netherlands ,276 Event income - Summer School 2,500 Event income - Vienna ,879 Event income - Young Leaders Meeting 17 Extraordinary revenues 4,572 Individual Membership fees 695 Member Organisation Membership fees 20,106 Other travel refunds 1,380 Travel refunds by ELDR 1,005 Travel refunds by YF J 603 Total Income 178,548 Gross Profit 178,548 35,000 2,000 (3,147)T 49,000 (15,039)T 50,000 (1 0,000)T 12,000 3, ,000 (2,183)T 15,000 (3,724)..., ,60oA 5,000 4,87gA , (105)T 20, oA ,000 (397)T 197,350 (18,802) 197,350 (18,802) 0.0% %..., % %..., % % % % % % % % % % % % % 10.0% Plus Other Income Income previous financial year 6,532 Interest bank accounts 16 Rounding (2) Total Other Income 6,546 Less Operating Expenses Apartment costs 3,875 Association fees 5,557 Audit expenses 3,802 Bank Fees 602 Bureau communications costs 755 Bureau meetings 5,610 Bureau other expenses 330 Campaigns 241 Events Barcelona , , (234)T (3)T 451 6, , , ,600 1, 20~ 800 (198)... 1,600 (84S)T (390)T 800 (470)T 2,000 (1,759)T 23,000 12, % % % % 976.3% % % % %..., % %T -87.9% %... Budget Variance LYMEC asbl 25 March 2012 Page 1 of2 44

45 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Budget Variance Actual Events - Flexicurity ,823 Events- Netherlands Events - Summer School 2,745 Events- Vienna ,292 Events - Young Leaders Meeting 8,686 Expenses previous financial year 382 Expenses unrealizable claims 13,801 Internet, website, e-marketing 5,890 Mailing expenses 442 Office Expenses 11,391 Office telecommunication costs 1,544 Other expenses 7 Other political activities 1,916 Printed material 3,085 Promot ional material 2,715 Representation- ELDR Party & ALDE Group 2,367 Representation IFLRY & Li beral International 251 Representation- LYMEC MOs 3,099 Representation - Youth Forum 689 Staff expenses 56,604 Total Operating Expenses 196,775 Net Profit (11,681) Budget VarEUR 3, ,000 (13,51S)T 1,000 1, ,500 4, , ~ 2,000 11, ,500 (7,610)T ,500 2, , (1,193)T 7,000 (5,084)T 6,500 (3.41S)T 3,000 (28S)T 1, (249)T 3,000 gga 1,000 (311)... 59,000 (2,396)T 193,560 3,215 4,241 (15,922) Var '% 9.2% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % '% 375.0'% Budget Variance LYMEC asbl 25 March 2012 Page 2 of2 45

46 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS FINANCES FINANCIAL REPORT January May Aged Payables LYMEC asbl April2012 Current March February January Older Total Payables Groupe S 1,877 1,877 Slaven Klobucar 1,716 1,716 Ticket Restaurant XoseCasas 790 Total Payables 4, ,730 Total Expense Claims Current March February January Older Total Total 4,730 4, % 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Aged Payables LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 1 of 1 46

47 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl April2012 Current March February January Older Total Receivables Adrian O'Higgins (FF, IR) Alberto Ceccanti (GIV, IT) Alliance of Young liberals Lithuania Alliance Youth Anastassov, Stanislav (YMRF, BG) Andreas Skjaeret (NUV. NO) Anne Hyyrylainen (KOL. Fl) Antti Kurvinen (FCY, Fl) Arlene Carter Olba (LPP, 100 Philippines) 100 Armenian National Movement Youth Benedikt Yavuz (Julis, DE) Carlota Macia Fontanals (JNC, 120 CAT) 120 Christian Rademaker (Julis, DE) Christoforos PAVLAKIS (DAY. GR) Civil Forum- Gramadyanski Forum Claudia Bellano (GIV, IT) Cluburile Studentesti Liberale Cosmin Lefter (CSL. RO) Cristian Predescu (TNL, RO) Dan Aria Schucuri (LUF, SE) Dan-Area Sucuri (LUF, SE) Daniel Eberz Daniel Kaddik (IMS, DE) de Jager, Tomas (IMS, NL) Dirkx, Bram (JOVD, NL) Djordjo Zujovic (LOP. RS) Eamon Quinlan (FF. IR) Ed Sanderson (LY, GB) Eesti Keskerakonna Noortekogu YAECP Egle Markeviciute ( LU, LIJ Egle Markeviciute (AYL,LI) Erman no Martignetti (GIV. IT) European Youth of Ukraine Fatme Ramadan (YMRF. BG) Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 1 of4 47

48 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Aged Receivables Fotescu Vasile Gioventu fiber ale ita Iiana - Italian Li beral Youth Current GIV- Giovani dell'ltalia dei Valori 100 Grigori Gajdukow (Julis, DE) 100 Hrvoje Horvat (MHL, HR) 120 Hugo VAN HAASTERT 100 lsak engqvist (CS, SE) 100 luliia Rudenko (EYU, Ukraine) 100 Ivan Nekic (mhns, HR) 120 Jan van Run (IMS, Nl ) Jasper Pillen (Jong VLD, BE) 100 Jens Husted (VU, OK) Jeunesse Democrate et liberale du luxembourg JDL Jongeren Organisatie Vrijheid & Democratie - JOVD Jonk, Martijn (JOVD, Nl) 100 Joonas Van to (ERPY, EE) 100 Joventut liberal d'andorra- JLA Jukka Koivula (KOL, Fl) 100 Julis Austria 80 KATERYNA SENYK (EYU, Ukraine) 80 Kazimieras Celiesius (LU, ll) 120 Kenneth Gudmundsrud (NUV. NO) 100 Keskustan Opiskelijaliitto - KOL Komes, Marino (IMS, HR) 120 Krishna, Ashmita (JOVD, Nl) 100 Kristjan Heamae (ERPY, EE) 120 Lana Gobec (MLD, 51) 120 Laurens Heinen (IMS, Nl) 100 Leo Pierini (CUF, SE) 100 Leon PLOEGSTRA (JD, Nl) 100 Liberaal Vlaams Studenten Verbond - LVSV Liberal Party Youth Organization Liberal Student Club (Ciuburile Studentesti Liberale) Liberal Youth Assembly of the National Movement Simeon the Second Li beralno-demokratska Mladina- Li DeM LI DEM Macedonia Lietuvos Liberal us Jaunimas - LU so so March February January Older so Total so 100 so Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 2 of4 48

49 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Aged Receivables Current Linnea Frank (LUF, SEJ 100 Linus Hannedahl (CUF, SE) 120 Lode Cossaer (LVSV, BE) 100 Lorenzo Marchese (I MS. IT) 120 Ludmila Lupu (LPYO, MO) 120 LYA - National Movement Maier Elias (JFS, CH) 100 Manon leblanc (IMS, NL) 125 Marc Vidiella Costa (JNC, CAT) 100 Marijana Milic (MHL, HR) 100 Markus Ylimaa ( FCV. Fl) 100 Martijn Jonk 25 Masson Quentin (FEL, BE) 100 Matilda Molander (CUF, SE) 100 Mihkel Lees (ERPY, EE) 100 Milos Kuzmanovic (LOP. RS) 100 Milosz Hodun (Projekt Polska, PL) 120 Mladi Hrvatski Liberali (MHL) Mladi Liberali Bosne i Hercegovine - MLBiH Mladi Liberati Slovakia MLD Slovenia mldp Serbia Mollis, Lynneth (I MS. BE) 100 Musavat Youth Organization Nanna 0stergaard (VU, OK) 50 Nikie Petronella van Th iel (JO, NL) 100 Niklas Arvidsson (LUF, SE) 100 Niklas R. Milthers (VU, OK) 50 Nils ter Braake 100 Nivesse lora (JMR, BE) 100 Norges Liberale Studentforbund- NLSF Oever, Dennis van den (JOVD, Nl) 100 Oktavian Dot (CSL, RO) Orkhan Nabiyev (Dalga. AZ) Petri Honkonen (FCY, Fl) 100 Rocco Oi Filippo (GIV, IT) 100 Roeleveld, Timo (JOVO, Nl) 100 Roman Levi (YMRF, BG) 100 Shvedova Kseniya(IMS, BE) 120 Silviu Grigorescu (TN L, RO) 100 Sophia bengtsson (CS, SE) 100 Stefan F. Windberger (Julis, AT) 100 March February January Older Total Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 3 of4 49

50 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Aged Receivables Current Sunniva Rebekka Skjeggestad 100 (NUV,NO) Surugiu Radu (CSL) Tineretul National Liberal - TNL Topi Seppala (FCY, Fl) 100 VAN DER GRAAF, Anne (JD, Nl) 120 Vlad Colteanu (TNL, RO) 120 Vos, Jarico (JOVD, NL) 120 Youth of NMSP ZARES - Aktivni March Total Receivables 8, % 0.0% February January 7, % 0.0% Older , % Total , ,008 20,860 Aged Receivables LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 4 of4 50

51 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Balance Sheet LYMEC asbl As at 30 April Apr Apr 2011 Assets Current Assets Accounts Receivable Cash account Provision noncollectable claims Total Current Assets Bank KBC Current Account KBC Savings Account KBC Security Deposit Account Lymec VISA Card Total Bank Fixed Assets Hardware assets Total Fixed Assets Total Assets Liabilities Current Liabilities Accounts Payable Total Current Liabilities Total Liabilities Net Assets Equity Current Year Earnings Retained Earnings Total Equity 20,860 (3,648) 17,212 8,245 7,944 1,515 17,704 34,916 4,730 4,730 4,730 30,186 (5,767) 35,953 30,186 41,624 7 (7,691) 33,939 50,892 17,244 1,538 (30) 69, ,913 4,120 4,120 4,120 99,793 52,159 47,634 99,793 Balance Sheet LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 1 of 1 51

52 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Budget Variance LYMEC asbl January 2012 to December 2012 Actual Budget VarEUR Var ~ Income ALOE Group Grants 35,000 Donations ELDR Party Grants 24,067 40,000 European Commission Grants 50,000 Event income - Belgrade ,000 Event income - Copenhagen ,960 21,000 Event income - NED 31,540 Event income- Sofia ,000 Event income Summer School 2,000 Event income-tallinn ,000 Extraordinary revenues 500 Individual Membership fees Member Organisation Membership fees 18,614 20,000 Other Grants 1,000 Other t ravel refunds 500 Travel refunds by ELDR Travel refu nds by IFLRY 300 Travel refunds by YF J Total Income 60, ,140 Gross Profit 60, ,140 (35,00Q)T (498)T (15,933)T (50.000)T (11,00Q)T (10,040)T (31,540)T (21,00Q)T (2,000)T (4,52Q)T (500)T (450)T (1,386)T (1,000)... (SOO)T (354)T (300)T (306)T (186,327) (186,327) Q%T -99.6% %T 100.0% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % ~ -75.0~ Plus Other Income Income previous financial year Interest bank accounts 250 Rounding Total Other Income 301 Less Operating Expenses Association fees 500 6,000 Audit expenses ,500 Bank Fees Bureau communications costs 345 1,600 Bureau meetings 2,664 7,000 Bureau other expenses 47 1,000 Events- Belgrade ,000 so (50)T (250)T (1)T (301) (5,500)T (2,588)... (541)T (1,255)T (4,336)T (953)T (6,00Q)T % % % ~ -91.7% % % % % % %... Budget Variance LYMEC asbl 27 April 2012 Page 1 of2 52

53 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Budget Va riance Actual Events - Copenhagen ,174 Events- NED Events - Sofia Events - Summer School Events - Tallinn ,452 Events - Young Leaders Meeting Expenses previous financial year 6,502 Expenses unrealizable claims Insurance 412 Interest Expense 650 Internet, website, e-marketing 690 Mailing expenses 265 Office Expenses 6,820 Office telecommunication costs 278 Other expenses Other missions 198 Other political activities 307 Printed material 1,079 Promotional material 2,537 Representation- ELDR Party & ALOE Group 290 Representation - IFLRY & Liberal International 382 Representation- LYMEC MOs Representation - Youth Forum Staff expenses 20,745 Unallocated costs/revenues 60 Total Operating Expenses 66,581 Net Profit (5,767) Budget VarEUR 28,000 (1 3,826)... 31,540 (31,540)'Y 26,000 (25,987)'Y 3,500 (3,500)'Y ,000 (9,000)'Y 200 6, ,000 (2,000)'Y ~ 3,500 (2,810)'Y 300 (35)'Y 9,000 (2.180)'Y 1,500 (1,222)'Y 1,500 (1,500)'Y ,800 (5.493)'Y (6,92 1)'Y 4,000 (1,463) (2,410)'Y 500 (118)'Y 5,000 (5,000)'Y 1,000 (1,000)'Y 67,000 (46,255)'Y ,940 (175,359) 5,501 (11,268) Var ~ -49.4%'Y % % % % % % % % 0.0% -80.3% % %'Y -81.5% % % -94.7% % % % % % % %'Y 0.0% -72.5~ ~ Budget Variance LYMEC asbl 27 April201 2 Page 2 of2 53

54 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS FINANCES EXTERNAL AUDITOR S REPORT 1.5:\' =~~ \ ie'id~ edge alliance AUDITOR'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31/12/ 2011 TO THE MEMBERS' MEETING OFTHEASBL 'LYMEC'- European Liberal Youth , RUE DE L'ARBRE BENIT 1050 BRUXELLES In accordance with legal and statutory requirements, we report to you on the performance of the audit mandate you have entrusted to us. This report includes our opinion on the fair presentation of the 'Balance sheet, budget variance and annual report drawn up by the Treasurer, hereafter 'Annual Financial Report'. Unqualified audit opinion on the 'Annual Financial Report' We have audited the 'Annual Financial Report' for the year ended 31/12/2011 which has been prepared in accordance with the financial reporting framework applicable in Belgium, and which shows a total assets of EUR and a loss for the year of EUR The preparation of the 'Annual Financial Report' is the responsibility of the Treasurer. This responsibility includes designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation of the Annual Financial Report that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies as well as making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances. It is our responsibility to issue an opinion on the Annual Financial Report based on our audit. We have carried out our audit in accordance with the legal requirements and the auditing standards applicable in Belgium, as issued by the "Institut des Reviseurs d'entreprises". Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In accordance with those auditing standards, we considered the ASBL's administrative and accounting organisation, as well as its internal control procedures. ASBL officials have responded clearly to our requests for explanations and information. We have examined, on a test basis, the evidence supporting the amounts in the 'Annual Financial Report'. We have assessed the appropriateness of the accounting policies used, the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by the ASBL, as well as the overall 'Annual Financial Report' presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion. In our opinion the 'Annual Financial Report' for the year ended 31/12/2011 presents fairly, in all material respects, the ASBL's financial position, income and expenses of its operations for the year then ended, in accordance with the financial reporting framework applicable in Belgium. Vaodelanotte Bedrijfsrevisoren cvba Burgerlijke vennootschap die President Kennedypar1< la de rechtsvorm van een CVBA B-8500 Kortrijk heeft aaogenomen. www. vandelanotte.be T RPR Kortrljk F BE

55 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS 2 1-~ ~;';,g edge alliance Lymec Organisation ASBL Additional information Compliance with the statutory provisions and the law applicable on the ASBL's and AISBL's are the responsibility of the Treasurer. It is our responsibility to supplement our report with the following additional information which does not modify our audit opinion on the 'Annual Financial Report': Without prejudice to certain formal aspects of minor importance, the accounting records are maintained in accordance with the legal and regulatory requirements applicable in Belgium. No transactions have been undertaken or decisions have been taken in violation with the statutory provisions and the law applicable on the ASBL's and AISBL's. The 'Annual Financial Report' follows the accrual accounting basis. 55

56 FINANCES INTERNAL AUDITOR S REPORT 30 April 2012 Dear LYMEC Member Organisations, in the past two years that the current LYMEC leadership has been in office, we have seen many positive changes in the financial regime. In short, these were the implementation of the new online-based accrual accounting system (Xero), the adoption of the Financial Protocol and the LYMEC Bureau s demonstrated commitment to accountability. Moreover the order and system the financial paper-work is kept in the office was significantly improved. As Internal Auditors, we are very pleased with the overall development and at this point want to especially thank Treasurer Matilda Flemming and Secretary General Slaven Klobucar for exemplary cooperation and transparency throughout the last two years. Auditing Procedures According to the Financial Protocol, which was formally approved by the Congress in Ljubljana, the Treasurer has to report to the Internal Auditors on a quarterly basis, which was the case. The Internal Auditors were also provided with updated documents and reports during the auditing period. In case of problems, e.g. overspendings, the auditors were always informed by the treasurer immediately. The statutory audit, which this report is based on, took place on 4 March 2012 at LYMEC s new office in Brussels. Present during the audit were LYMEC Treasurer Matilda Flemming and Secretary General Slaven Klobucar. Subject of the Audit We audited the finances of LYMEC for the period of 1 October 2011 to 29 February More concretely, we looked at the following documents: o bank statements and credit card bills o bills, invoices, receipts o proof for any cash withdrawals or cash transaction o any financial agreements or contracts (e.g. with MOs for events) o up-to-date overview of all claims and debts o financial report for 2011 o specific problems that were discovered during the audit in October 2011 All payables were verified in-depth, so were the aged receivables. Spot checks were conducted for all other items. Also items that raised immediate concern were checked against the actual bank statements. General Findings and Recommendations Whereas bank statements were kept and booked accordingly, payments made using the LYMEC credit card were not booked properly. This is partly due to a difficult realisation of this in the Xero bookkeeping system. This also concerns booking dates, which vary for a number of credit card payments. Guidelines on the use of the LYMEC credit card as well as a harmonised way of booking credit card payments need to be established. The auditors are pleased that outstanding participation fees, name change fees and cancellation fees are now invoiced to the respective MOs if there is no reaction from the individual participants. To enforce this policy, the auditors also recommended that voting rights of MOs will be suspended if they have any 56

57 outstanding debts (not just outstanding membership fees) from previous years, for which a change of the statues is recommendable and advisable. Again, it is necessary to point out that Bureau Members travelling by car should include a separate route-planning printout that shows the travelled distance with their refund form. For some travels this document was still missing. Also, as a reminder, financial decisions with a value of more than 1000 Euros need the vote or agreement of the full bureau such decisions should be more visible in the minutes of the bureau meetings. During the external audit, it came to light that LYMEC made a loss of EUR in 2011 (see also the Treasurer s report). This is due to three problems: The first, and least significant one, was that old debt from MOs was deleted from the accounting instead of properly cancelled from the books. The second one is related to a grant from the Commission which was not realised in the full amount ( EUR), but rather only EUR were paid out. The third mistake was an indirect result of this misjudgement, namely that the grant was booked a second time as extra income. The main question now is why has this not been noticed earlier by the Treasurer, Secretary General or the Internal Auditors? The answer to that is threefold: First, even though LYMEC s new online-based accounting system Xero has proven to be an excellent choice for the organisation, it does have some weaknesses, that were already known when the system was implemented. We pointed this out above as well on the credit card issue, and it becomes relevant here too, as many other bookkeeping systems don t let entries be deleted but rather forces the user to cancel the booking properly. In this way the canceled booking would still show in the reports. Second, and this is related to Xero as well, it is also the fact that we are at the very tail end of the adaptation of Xero as a system. Although mistakes especially in that magnitude are always inacceptable, especially when performing actions that haven t been performed before. These mistakes, despite being major, should be regarded as one-time errors. The same thing goes not only for the Treasurer or the SG who performed these operations, but also for the Internal Auditors, who have always left certain tasks (such as checking the roll over from one financial year to the next) to the external auditors, but also, for efficiency s sake, have not thoroughly checked the realisation of institutional grants as they had been thought to be close to 100 per cent realistic. Perhaps the most important thing we want to stress in regard to this issue is that we are convinced that LYMEC s financial situation is not threatened by this loss incurred in 2011 and that the general outlook remains positive. This is especially the case as part of the problem can be solved by a correctionbooking but this can only be made in the new financial year due to the fact that the books were already closed at the time of discovery. In terms of consequences that have to be drawn from this, we already stated that for reasons mentioned above these are one-time mistakes that, now we are aware of those blind spots, would not be repeated. More attention should be paid by the Treasurer and the Secretary General to the roll over between financial years as well as to the way bookings are canceled and booking mistakes are corrected. For their first Internal Audit in the next term, the new Internal Auditors should maybe focus also on areas that have been assumed to be rather fail-proof. We do not believe that the idea of hiring a professional accountant would be very expedient. The practice established with the last two internal audits to be held well in advance of the external audit should be continued. Bank statements are still being issued to the name of the former treasurer Sibel Rezheb. 57

58 Small receipts such as taxi-bills, subway tickets etc. should be glued to paper and labelled accordingly and not simply kept loosely in plactic pockets. An appropriate refund form should be present even if spendings were booked on the LYMEC Credit or for travels of LYMEC staff. A number of invoices for IMS fees were missing and had to be reprinted. There should be a separate filing for this account where the printouts of the payment- receipts are collected. Outstanding debts of MO s The following organisations have outstanding debts from the year 2011 or earlier and will have their voting rights suspended at this congress unless the outstanding debt has been paid in the meantime: Alliance Youth (Northern Ireland, UK) Jeunesse Democrate et Liberale du Luxembourg JDL (Luxembourg) Liberal Youth Assembly of the National Movement Simeon the Second (Bulgaria) Joventut Liberal d Andorra - JLA (Andorra) LIDEM (Macedonia) Mladi Liberali (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Zares (Slovenia) Discovered Booking Mistakes / Problems Account Nr. Description Amount 332 Booking 213&239 Cash Withdrawal 17,36 EUR The bookings of the Cash-Withdrawal don t match with Credit-Card and with the Receipt from the Cash- Withdrawal. The first issue might be due to currency-change. 332 Booking 180 Credit-Card Flights 617,27 EUR The bookings were incorrectly split and don t match the receipt. Also the service-charge needs to be split-booked correctly. 506 Booking 268 Ticket Kseniya Shvedova 250,00 EUR The whole booking of the FNF-Refund needs to be checked. As it is pass-through there needs to be a value on the income-side. 505 Booking 277 Place de l academia 235,00 EUR The receipt shows a value of 235,50 EUR. 470 All bookings 570,00 EUR All of the bookings in this account are booked incorrectly as this is not income from the Young Leaders Meeting but income from the Barcelona Congress. 477 ELF Refund concerning Ticket Kseniya Shvedova 30,00 EUR 58

59 This should be connected with the issue above. Furthermore it is strange that an expense shows up in the income account. Bookings with missing or insufficient proof Account Nr. Description Amount 334 Payment: Post office 6.89 EUR 265 Alexander Plahr Parking Düsseldorf 70.5 EUR 238 Alexander Plahr STIB Tickets 12.5 EUR 320 Jeroen Diepemaat Palermo Airport Bus 11.6 EUR 320 Jeroen Diepemaat Parking Weeze Airport 42.5 EUR For all these bookings we were not able to find proof in forms of receipts, invoices or booking-confirmations during the audit, or the proof was insufficient. The treasurer and the Secretary General are asked to revise these bookings and present complete proof as soon as possible. It should furthermore be noted that the detailed findings are presented as of the day of the audit. Most of these problems have been investigated and/or solved by the Treasurer and the Secretary General by the time of the Copenhagen Congress. Daniel George Lukas Schweiger 59

60 FINANCES UPDATE OF THE BUDGET FOR 2012 Adjusted Budget 5/2012 Approved Budget 2012 Budget 2011 Income ALDE Group Grants (421) , , ,00 Council of Europe Grants (426) 0,00 0, ,00 Donations (452) 100,00 500,00 0,00 ELDR Party Grants (422) , , ,00 European Commission Grants (424) , , ,00 Events Spring Congress (Copenhagen) , , ,00 Events - Autumn Congress (Sofia) , , ,00 Events Young Leaders Meeting ,00 0,00 0,00 Events - Seminar (Belgrade) 9.500, , ,00 Events - Seminar (Tallinn) 9.100, , ,00 Events - Summer school (Brussels) 2.400, ,00 900,00 Extraordinary revenues (459) 300,00 500,00 150,00 Individual Membership fees (412) 800,00 800,00 800,00 Member Organisation Membership fees (411) , , ,00 Other Grants (429) 0, ,00 0,00 Other travel refunds (449) 1.500,00 500,00 900,00 Travel refunds by ELDR (441) 1.100,00 500,00 600,00 Travel refunds by IFLRY (443) 300,00 300,00 0,00 Travel refunds by YFJ (442) 650,00 500, ,00 Total Income , , ,00 Gross Profit , , ,00 Other Income Income previous financial year (489) 50,00 50,00 200,00 Interest bank accounts (451) 20,00 250,00 250,00 Rounding (860) 1,00 1,00 1,00 Total Other Income 71,00 301,00 451,00 Less Operating Expenses Association fees (350) 5.600, , ,00 Audit expenses (316) 3.500, , ,00 Bank Fees (371) 650,00 800,00 800,00 Bureau communications costs (321) 1.000, , ,00 Bureau meetings (322) 6.500, , ,00 Bureau other expenses (323) 500, ,00 800,00 Events Spring Congress (Copenhagen) , , ,00 Events - Autumn Congress (Sofia) , , ,00 Events Young Leaders Meeting , , ,00 Events - Seminar (Belgrade) 8.500, , ,00 Events - Seminar (Tallinn) , , ,00 Events - Summer school (Brussels) 2.500, , ,00 Expenses previous financial year (389) 100,00 200,00 200,00 Expenses unrealizable claims 1.500, , ,00 Internet, website, e-marketing (343) 2.800, , ,00 Mailing expenses (315) 450,00 300,00 300,00 60

61 Office Expenses (313) , , ,00 Office telecommunication costs (314) 600, , ,00 Other expenses (390) 100, , ,00 Other political activities (339) 3.500, , ,00 Printed material (341) 7.500, , ,00 Promotional material (342) 3.500, , ,00 Representation - ELDR Party & ALDE Group (362) 4.000, , ,00 Representation - IFLRY & Liberal International (363) 500,00 500,00 500,00 Representation - LYMEC MOs (361) 3.500, , ,00 Representation - Youth Forum (364) 700, , ,00 Staff expenses (311) , , ,00 Total Operating Expenses , , ,00 Total Expenses , , ,00 Net Profit 321, , ,00 61

62 REQUESTS FOR REDUCED MEMBERSHIP FEES CIVIL FORUM, Belarus Рэспублiканская грамадская маладзёжная арганiзацыя ГРАМАДЗЯНСКI ФОРУМ National Non-governmental Youth Organization Civil Forum CIVIL FORUM #19 To LYMEC Secretariat c/o ELDR Party, Rue Montoyer 31/7, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium I d like to ask for the 80% reduction of LYMEC membership fees for the Liberal Youth Organization Civil Forum (Belarus) starting from The reason for this request is the difficult financial situation of the organization. In Belarus we are not allowed to have any kind of state or business, or foreign financing and we face constant pressure from the current government. The members of the organization bearing the most of organization expenses cannot afford themselves to sacrifice their really low salaries and scholarships to the organization. In case the situation in Belarus and our organization turns out for the best we would be happy to perform our financial responsibilities in full measure. Sincerely, Siarhei Varankevich Chairman 62

63 LVSV, Belgium Dear Members of the Bureau, Dear Congress, As one of the few liberal youth organizations in Europe, LYMEC is an important organization. It promotes liberal values and brings like-minded people together. It is therefore that the LVSV highly values its membership of LYMEC and we happily contribute to the finances of LYMEC by paying our membership fee. This year however, the National Board of the LVSV, although confirming its commitment to our membership with LYMEC, wants to request the LYMEC Congress for a reduction of the membership fee due to our financial situation which requires us to be very economical, now and in the near future. This situation has a few acute and structural causes. The LVSV consists of 5 chapters, each of them being fully autonomous. The national board of the LVSV has no decision-making power without the unanimous consent of all 5 chapters. This autonomy is the strength of the LVSV but as a consequence, it has no structural finances. All chapters can decide to allocate some money to the national board. Because we are an ideologically consistent and consequentialist organization, we refuse to accept any subsidy from the state. We are therefore fully reliant on contributions from sponsors and members to each of the chapters. Although we have 1000 members (all chapters combined), the fee they pay varies. All of the revenue that is generated through that, directly goes to the organization of events on campus and their promotion. We do not have an office, neither any sort of paid employee. Everything we do is purely voluntarily. The LVSV has no funds to cover its international commitments. International Officers and other board members fully fund their own travels and attendance fees. With regard to the banking system in Belgium (an issue LYMEC requires us to address for this procedure), we are in a relatively stable but still precarious situation. Considering this letter, we therefore kindly ask the Congress to grant the Bureau permission to charge the LVSV a reduced membership fee. Our Board would greatly appreciate such decision and continue to support our commitment in light of scrutinizing our finances. On behalf of the LVSV Sincerely, Michiel Rogiers President Nicolas Bas International Officer 63

64 LYA, Bulgaria To Alexander Plahr President of LYMEC Dear Mr. President, Unfortunately, the continues financial crisis in Europe hit my country too. Due to that reason, many of the members of our organization -Liberal youth assembly - LYA lost their jobs and did not pay their membership fees. We met many difficulties in our work at the end of 2011 and in the beginning of 2012, as in all Our partners have canceled our EU projects because they could not provide money for project co-financing. Since 2010, the number of our members decreased significantly! As a result, we have big difficulties to pay our membership fees in LYMEC. I would be grateful if you suggest us a solution, which could help us to survive! This would be the opportunity to pay the minimum participation fee of 30 euro for 2012 and to decrease our pending fee for 2010 to 100 euro (2010 is the year that we became non - party liberal organization but with the old party membership fee). Dear Mr. President, I hope you would take a decision, which would allow us to continue our work and to promote the Liberalism together with our partners not only in my country but also in Europe, being member of LYMEC a prestigious European youth organization! Thanks in advance for your understanding and support! Liberally yours, Boris Vardev President of Liberal Youth Assembly - LYA 64

65 YAECEP, ESTONIA Hello This letter is to inform you about YAECP request to reduce the annual membership fee for our organisation. This request is caused by difficult financial state of YAECP. To give you an overview of financial state of YAECP I send you an annual financial report for Unfortunately we do not have an annual report for 2011 because the congress of YAECP will be held in July 2011 and there the last year report will be confirmed. Please take into account that in 2010 there were in foce a krones in Estonia (now we settle in euros). The rate is following: 1 eur = 15,6466 krones. Some comments for better understanding the annual report: The table on the seventh page reflects the balance (statement of account) of 2009 and 2010 years. Varad = assets. *Raha = money. Kokku varad = total assets. In 2009 = krones = 2 873,15 eur. In 2010 = krones = 534,3 eur. Kohustused ja netovara = obligations and net assets. *Võlad ja ettemaksud = debts and prepayments. In 2009 = krones = 2 957,56 eur. In 2010 = krones = 3 777,63 eur. *Kokku lühiajalised kohustused = Total short term obligations. *Kokku kohustuses = Total obligations. Netovara = net assets *Eelmiste perioodide akumuleeritud tulem = accumulated result of prior periods. In 2009 = krones = ,98 eur. In 2010 = krones = -84,42 eur. *Aruandeaasta tulem = Result of the year = krones = 1 182,55 eur = krones = ,89 eur. *Kokku netovara = Total net assets. In 2009 = krones = -84,42 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,32 eur. Kokku kohustused ja netovara = Total obligations and net assets. In 2009 = krones = 2 873,15 eur. In 2010 = krones = 534,30 eur. On the eighth page is the table of results. 65

66 Tulud = income, benefit. *Annetused ja toetused = donations and grants. In 2009 = krones = ,85 eur. In 2010 = krones = 1 866,22 eur. Kulud = outgo, expenses. *Sihtotstarbeliselt finantseeritud projektide otsesed kulud = the direct costs of the assigned projects. In 2009 = krones = ,77 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,92 eur. *Mitmesugused tegevuskulud = Different operating expenses. In 2009 = krones = ,75 eur. In 2010 = krones = -702, 19 eur. *Muud kulud = other costs. In 2009 = 0 krones = 0 eur. In 2010 = krones = -82,13 eur. *Kokku kulud = Total costs. In 2009 = krones = ,51 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,25 eur. Kokku põhitegevuse tulem = Total result of operating activities. In 2009 = krones = 1 178,34 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,03 eur. * Finantstulud ja -kulud = Financial income and financial expenses. In 2009 = 66 krones = 4,22 eur. In 2010 = 2 krones = 0,13 eur. *Aruandeaasta tulem = The result of annual report. In 2009 = krones = 1 182,56 eur. In 2010 = krones = 3 158,89 eur. On the ninth page is the report of cash flows. Rahavood põhitegevusest= cash flows from the basic activity. *Põhitegevuse tulem = the income from main activity. In 2009 = krones = 1 178,34 eur. In 2010 = krones = -3159, 03 eur. *Põhitegevusega seotud kohustuste ja ettemaksete muutus = The change of obligations and prepayment related to the basic activities. In 2009 = krones = 3 099,27 eur. In 2010 = krones = 820,05 eur. *Kokku rahavood põhitegevusest = Total cash flow from the main activities. In 2009 = krones = ,93 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,98 eur. Rahavood investeerimistegevusest = Cash flow wrom investments. *Laekunud intressid = received interest. In 2009 = 66 krones = 4,22 eur. In 2010 = 2 krones = 0,13 eur. *Kokku rahavood = Total cash flows. In 2009 = krones = ,71 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,85 eur. Raha ja raha ekvivalendid perioodi alguses = Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period. In 2009 = krones = 4 789,86 eur. In 2010 = krones = 2 873,15 eur. 66

67 *Raha ja raha ekvivalentide muutus = The change of the cash and cash equivalents. In 2009 = krones = ,71 eur. In 2010 = krones = ,85 eur. *Raha ja raha ekvivalendid perioodi lõpus = Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period. In 2009 = krones = 2 873,15 eur. In 2010 = krones = 534,30 eur. On the tenth page is the report of changes of net assets Akumuleeritud tulem = The accumulated result. Kokku netuvara = Total net assets. Aruande tulem = The result of the report. (Lisa nr = the number of appendix) Because of the hard financial state of our organisation we also ask you to reduce our debt. Please send me the extract of our financial statement. We would like to settlement of all invoices, but we request you to reduce our debt. For better owerview of annual budget for previous year I inform you, that this was eur. Regards Jelena Kalbina International officer of YAECP 67

68 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS MLD, Slovenia Mlada liberalna demokracija Youth Politi<;~l Party of Uberat Democracy of Slovenia Ounaj<ko 5, Sl-1000 Ljubljana T: ; F: E: mld@ld<.<l ; Ljubljana, 17th April 2012 European Liberal Youth (LYMEC} Rue de l'arbre Benit 93 B-1050, lxelles, Brussels Dear L YMEC bureau and LYMEC Congress participants, In accordance with Article 5 of rules of Association mld would like to apply for reduced membership fee for 2012 because: - mlo does not have a permanent office and organization and uses room in headquarters of mother party, - mlo does not have any permanent staff; the responsibilities are shared by the Board members who work voluntarily, - mld does not have a state funding, -The membership fee in our organization is very symbolic (5 EUR per year), - mlo does not have a separate service for international work. International team works voluntarily, - mlo does not have a separate budget and therefore not full financial independence from mother party. Additionally our mother party Liberalna demokracija Slovenije (LOS) is facing serious financial problems after last year's parliamentary elections where LOS didn't go over the threshold of votes needed to enter the Parliament. Therefore mld would like to apply for the reduced membership fee of 100 EUR. Sincerely, Borut Cink president of mld Lana Gobec International officer 68

69 PRESENTATION OF THE CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU CANDIDATES FOR THE PRESIDENT Jeroen Diepemaat JOVD, The Netherlands 69

70 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS CURRICULUM VITAE Personal information Name A dress Telephone Website Date of birth Birthplace Gender Nationality Jeroen Bastiaan Diepemaat Espoortstraat CM Enschede The Netherlands +31 (0) jeroendiepemaat@gmail.com www. jeroendiepemaat.nl 1 April 1989 Hengelo (Overijssel) Male Dutch Educations present Public administration University of Twente, Enschede Kadercursus Haya van Someren foundation, VVD Course in debating, speaking, liberalism and finances, economics etc. Masterclass VVD Overijssel Haya van Someren foundation, VVD Masterclass speeching Youth Organisation Freedom and Democracy {JOVD) Various trainings JOVD Speeching, debating, liberalism, media training etc. Electrical Engineering University of Twente, Enschede Grammar School Pius X College, Alme/o Work experience 03/ present 01/ / / City councillor for WD Municipality of Enschede Political assistant WDEnschede Service employee Gamma (hardware store), Almelo/Enschede Sidelines 05/2010- present 06/ present 11 / present 04/2009- present Bureau member L YMEC - European Liberal Youth Candidate in parliamentary elections People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) 48th place on the list. Currently 9th successor for parliamentary group. Member of the International Secretariat JOVD Trainer JOVD 70

71 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS 11/ / / / / / / / / /2004 Trainer in debating, speeching, liberalism, communication, etc. President National board of JOVO Secretary general National board of JOVD Chair of committee on foreign affairs and defense JOVD Co-organizer of multiple JOVD events/congresses JOVD Vice-president of local branch (Twente) JOVD Chair Model European Parliament, province of Overijssel Member Model European Parliament, Netherlands Skills Computer skills Languages Other Interests MS Office Basis knowledge of webdesign (HTML, PHP) Dutch (Native tongue) English (Fluent) German (Average) French (Moderate) Drivers licence (International) politics, debating, reading, traveling and music 71

72 Jeroen Diepemaat Espoortstraat CM Enschede The Netherlands LYMEC ~ ' ELECTORAL CONGRESS Copenhagefl Of'nmark 11th U!h May 20U jeroendiepemaat@gmail.com Enschede, 20 March 2012 Dear liberal friends, It is a great pleasure and a huge challenge for me to announce my candidacy for President of LYMEC. I have been active in politics since First as an active member of JOVD, being active on local and national level in various positions. Later on also as city councilor and most recently as bureau member responsible for press contacts and communication in the LYMEC bureau. Through all these years European politics and cooperation between liberals in Europe has been of great importance to me. The European Union became a big factor in our democracies. Not because of the economic and debt crisis, but because it changed the way we work together. Liberals have always been pushing for European integration, because we share values and we want people to have the freedom to work, travel and trade wherever they want - without any government creating borders. At the same time that liberal force in Europe needs a critical mind that is not affected by coa lition politics or declining opinion polls. LYMEC has been that critical mind and it is my deepest conviction that this is one of the main challenges for us as young liberals. However, the freedom we might enjoy is not so obvious in some parts of Europe. And unfortunately sometimes even less obvious in other parts of the world. That obliges us, young liberals, to fight for our ideals. Not only to help and support our friends in difficulty, but also to ensure that we do not rest on the status quo within our own European Union. It would be a big honor for me to be your president and to work wit h the new bureau and the member organizations to strengthen LYMEC as a political force and a critical mind that moves Europe in the only right direction: forward. Please do not hesitate to contact me whenever you have questions regarding my candidacy or to share your ideas for the improvement of LYMEC's work. Yours sincerely, ~~- ~ Jeroen Diepemaat 72

73 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS I I JOVD Algemeen Secretariaat Herengracht 38b 2511 EJ Den Haag Tel: Fax: info@jovd.nl Internet: Nomination of Jeroen Diepemaat for LYMEC President Dear liberal friends, It is our great pleasure to inform you about our unanimous decision to nominate Jeroen Diepemaat for the position of President in the LYMEC Bureau. Jeroen has been a dedicated member of JOVD since 2005 and has also been active in international politics ever since. Du ring this period, he has continuously been active on various levels within the organisation. After being active in the board of a local branch and having organized many events, seminars and congresses, he was elected as a member of the national board in May It did not take long for us to see how talented and motivated Jeroen was, that is why he was elected as President of our organisation while he was on ly 18 years old. He successfully held this position for two years, until November After his presidency he became an active member of the International Secretariat, the engine behind JOVD's international work. Furthermore, he was elected as local councillor for our mother party VVD in the city of Enschede and he ra n as a youth candidate for VVD in the parliamentary elections of June Besides his political activities, he is a student in Pu blic Administration at the University oftwente. Jeroen has served in the current LYMEC bureau as bureau member, responsible for press contacts and communication. He shaped the communication strategy of the last bureau and was responsible for making LYMEC's opinions known to the European press and public. He wrote many press releases and statements and worked on the press coverage of LYMEC events. He developed a brand new state of the art website for the organization. Besides, he also participated in the organisation of various events, among which the seminar and congress in Utrecht. He frequently represented LYMEC to member organizations, in debates and towards other partners like European Youth Forum, ELF and t he ELDR. We strongly believe in Jeroen's candidacy as LYMEC President beca use of his personality, his proven ability to lead a political organization and his accomplishments in t he past. In short, Jeroen is a dedicated and hard working person. He has proven to be an excellent debater and great supporter of liberalism on a national as well as an international level since he became active within JOVD and LYMEC. 73

74 LYMEC ~ ' We are convinced that Jeroen's experience in the LYMEC Bureau and in the JOVD-board, the knowledge of running a big political organisation, and his fascination for international affairs and co-operation will make him a great President of LYMEC. We strongly believe that he will be able to give LYMEC the boost that it needs to spread the liberal cause throughout Europe! ELECTORAL CONGRESS Copenhagefl Of'nmark 11th U!h May 20U We are counting on your support. Please do not hesitate to contact us or Jeroen himself for further information. Best regards, Bram Dirkx JOVD President bram.dirkx@jovd.nl Jarico Vas JOVD International Officer jarico. vos@ jovd. n I 74

75 CANDIDATES FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT Vedrana Gujic mhns, Croatia 75

76 Curriculum vitae of Vedrana Gujić VEDRANA GUJIĆ Gtalk Facebook Vedrana Gujic Mobile Education and training: Advanced Master of European Studies (Faculty of political science - FPZG) International relations and Political communication (FPZG) Intercultural Spanish language course (Instituto de la Juventud, Mollina) Academy for Political Development (Schools of Political Studies Network, CoE) Work experience: 2012 Ministry of foreign and European affairs (Advisor to Vesna Pusic, minister, ELDR Vice-president) National Committee for Monitoring the EU Accession Negotiations (Assistant to Vesna Pusic, MP, ELDR Vice-president) Cabinet of ALDE Group leader Graham Watson (Internship) Office of MEP Istvan Szent-Ivanyi (Internship) International experience: 2011 LIBSEEN Steering committee LYMEC Bureau member political officer 2009 ELDR Council member (on behalf of HNS) ISEEL president 2004 ISEEL board member Membership in organisations: Croatian Political Science Association (since 2001), HNS / Mladi HNS-a (since 2003), ISEEL Initiative of South East European Liberals (since 2004), LYMEC European Liberal Youth (since 2004), IFLRY International federation of liberal youth (since 2004), Alumni of Academy for Political development (since 2006), ELDR European Liberal Democrats (since 2008), LIBSEEN Liberals of South-eastern Europe (since 2008) 76

77 To: European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) Congress / LYMEC Member organisations Nomination of Vedrana Gujić for LYMEC Vice president Dear liberal friends, Zagreb, April 2012 With this letter, we would like to put forward a nomination of Vedrana Gujić for LYMEC Vice president for the elections taking place on the upcoming LYMEC Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark in May Vedrana Gujić, member of Mladi HNS, has been active inside LYMEC since 2004, primarily as an international officer of her member organisation, but also as a project leader and an activist inside LYMEC. In 2010 she was elected a Bureau member of LYMEC, taking the post of organisation s political officer during the last 2 years. In her mandate in LYMEC, her prime focus was LYMEC relations and performance with its partner organisations, ELDR and ALDE. She was LYMEC delegation leader on all of ELDR Congresses, where LYMEC successfully built its significance and pushed through its policies. Also, she strongly improved the organisation and management of LYMEC projects and events, through her personal contributions in event preparations and by setting up the seminar team model, which proved to be an efficient way of event management inside LYMEC. Her regional responsibility in LYMEC was South Eastern Europe, a region she follows professionally for a number of years. Her work with the member organisations on bilateral level and trough LYMEC and ISEEL resulted in numerous projects and activities aimed at strengthening and further development of this part of Europe. Her political and professional background is strongly interlinked with international liberal affairs. She was a president of ISEEL, intern of an MEP, stagier in the ALDE group and now a member of LIBSEEN steering committee, Council member of ELDR and member of national boards of her political youth organisation and its mother party. Vedrana studied International relations and European studies, after which she worked on the Croatian accession process in the Croatian Parliament. She is now advisor to the Croatian minister of foreign and European affairs. 77

78 We believe that Vedrana s capabilities and experience can strongly contribute to the future functioning and development of LYMEC; therefore her nomination for LYMEC Vice president has our strongest support. Presidents of LYMEC member organisations: 78

79 CANDIDATES FOR THE TREASURER Lukas Schweiger 79

80 To the members and representatives of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) On behalf of the Liberal Youth of Sweden (Liberala ungdomsförbundet - LUF), we are proud to recommend Lukas Schweiger for LYMEC Treasurer. In this election, LUF seeks to nominate and elect individuals that will prioritise LYMEC, and work to continue and improve upon the progress that has been achieved over the past mandate period. Lukas has the desire and commitment to continue to make LYMEC his concern over the next two years. Lukas has a rich history of successful international collaboration and involvement in youth and student politics. He started gaining invaluable experience in administration and organisation back in his home country of Austria, serving as Secretary General of LSF-JuLis, managing nationwide campaigns, and representing the organisation at the student council of his university. As European Union has allowed for mobility, our youth organisations and memberships have become more interconnected within the general framework of LYMEC, and so, upon moving to Sweden some years ago, he left LSF-JuLis and affiliated with LUF. Since then, he has been become invaluable to both LUF s international work as well as to the activities in LYMEC. Amongst other things, he attended eleven LYMEC statutory events, helped to organise three LYMEC seminars, represented LYMEC at three congresses of ELDR, and has served as LYMEC internal auditor during the mandate period. Beyond his political and organisational experience, Lukas finished graduate degrees in Political Science and Business Administration. His intellectual capabilities are complemented by the time he has spent immersing himself in other cultures and languages, having lived, worked and studied in a number of European countries. Our organisation is pleased to nominate Lukas for the position of Treasurer. We believe that Lukas will be an important addition to the LYMEC Bureau, and we urge the delegates to vote for him as an individual that can help LYMEC become a stronger bastion for liberal ideology and develop the organisation to further meet the demands of its members. Best regards Filip Wästberg International Officer, LUF Adam Cwejman President, LUF 80

81 CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU MEMBERS Anne van der Graaf JD, The Netherlands 81

82 Curriculum Vitae PERSONALIA Title Bsc Name Graaf, van der First names Anne Elisabeth Atlee adress Birth Date 13 December 1988 Gender female Nationality Dutch Education August Currently Erasmus University, Rotterdam Faculty of Social Sciences: Bsc. Sociology August 2007 August 2011 Erasmus Universiteit te Rotterdam Erasmus School of Economics: BSc. Econometrics and Operational Reseach August 2000 June 2006 Willem Lodewijk Gymnasium, Groningen, Profile: Economics and Society with Mathematics B1, French 2 and Old-Greek Cum Laude Languages Dutch Mothertongue English Fluent TOEFL Score of 116 out of 120 Spanish Fluent German Sufficient French sufficient Work Experience September 2011 March 2012 Triodos Bank International Specialist in European synchronisation of project financing model for renewable energy October 2011 September 2011 Triodos Bank Netherlands Intern at business banking, investigating pricing of business loans 82

83 From march employee determining pricing policy of business loans and determining accompanying pricing model September 2007 December 2008 Shop and Bakery Employee Koekela, Rotterdam. Mei July 2007 English Teacher Langland Institute Montevideo, Uruguay Other Experience November 2010 Current Internal Auditor Jonge Democraten Netherlands Oktober Oktober 2010 Chairwoman Jonge Democraten Rotterdam Chairwoman of Rotterdam branch(400 members) December 2008-June 2009 January 2009-April 2009 Member European Campaign Team Jonge Democraten European elections 2009 campaign of Jonge Democraten. Member Congres Committee Jonge Democraten Responsible for organisation of three day congress of Jonge Democraten for 140 people August 2006 August 2007 Travelled through Spain, United States, Argentina, Uruguay and Chili During journey: Course Spanish in Sevilla at Enforex Interne education of English teacher at Langland Institute, Montevideo, Uruguay, where living at the time Other Interests Literature, current affairs, cycling and art 83

84 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS.~.:) \~ i._; [ t).~ tl~ c; (' ;~ ~~t\ r ( ~~~ The Hague, April 14th To the Congres of LYMEC. gathered in Copenhagen 11 13"" May 2012, Dear liberol friends, We are honored to nominate Anne van der Grilaf for Bureau Member of the l YMEC Bureau on behaif of the OtJtch Young Democrats. (JongeDemocr a ten}. Anne is an involved and dedicated member of our organiz.ation since She started as president of" one of our iocal branches where she engaged many new me.mbers, he!ped with municipal elections and organized activities and campaigns. In recent years she has performed excellently as auditor, where she provides a sharp reflection on the organization's expenses. Anne ;s deeply involved in the local and national organization, although her passion strongly lies with lnl ~ rnational politics. She has been active in the International Committee since 2.009, where she founded lhe latin American Committee. In the cart'paign for the European Electionsin 2009 Anne has played an important and substantive role. Anne can have a strong personal opinion on policies, bul has the ability to put her own ideas aside and achieve consensus by looking ror connections, not tmferences.having iived for sorne time in Uruguay, she has experienced how to balance cultural differences and find strength in thern and use thern as starting point for new and creative ideas. Anne has a strong motivation and ability to strengthen the (young) liberal voice of Europeans and the role of lymec as a platform of knowledge sharing. f urthermore, she has the creativity and capacity to be a constructive and hardworking member of the Bureau. Anne has proven to be committed, involved and a good team player. We believe.she has rhe motivation and skills ro attribute to the LYMEC Bureau and the ability to put human rights and democracyat the top of European and national agenda's. With her motivation, experiencl! and skills we know she wiu he a great contribution to the tp.<trn and the organization of the European Young Liberals LYMEC. If you have any questions or comments regarding the candidacy of Anne van der Graaf, please do not hesitate lo contact us or Anne Lool,ing forward to meeting you at the General Assembly in Copenhagen, Kind regards, Nikie van Thiel Pauline Kastermans lnlf!rnational Officer Jonge Oemocraten 84

85 CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU MEMBERS Claudia Benchescu TNL, Romania 85

86 LYMEC ~ ' ELECTORAL CONGRESS Copenhagefl Of'nmark 11th U!h May 20U To: European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) Congress I LYMEC Member organisations Nomination of CLAUDIA BENCHESCU for LYMEC Bureau Member Bucharest, April 2012 Dear liberal friends, First of all, it is my honor that I, Radu Surugiu, as the President of CSL Romania (Liberal Students Clubs), recommend Claudia Benchescu to you for the upcoming event, the LYMEC Electoral Congress, organized in Copenhagen, Denmark from 11th to 13th of May As an active political organization both at national and international levels, CSL Romania is always promoting and involving active young people in the projects it implements. We are dedicated to undertaking youthoriented projects, by involving young people in debates and practical political activities around diversified topics. Claudia Benchescu, as a Vice president of CSL Romania, has been working in the implementation of different projects with the board members of CSL. During this period I had the great pleasure of seeing her progress, always eager to get involved. Also, Claudia Benchescu is hard-working person, who invariably understands exactly what a project is all about from the outset, and how to get it done quickly and effectively. During the period we have collaborating, I cannot remember an instance in which she missed a deadline. Not forgeting the personal implication of Claudia in organizing t he last LYMEC Congress, held in Sinaia, Romania, in Through that contribution, she evidenced her management and organizational capacities. As an individual, Claudia Benchescu is a resourceful, professional and responsibly person and she has the qualities of a natural leader: genuineness, intelligence and integrity. Also, except the above mentioned, I believed that ever since she has been involved both in national and international projects she has improved the key competences and it is undoubted t hat her experience will have a profound effect on her involvement in the LYMEC Bu reau. Also, her professional background indicate her as one of those who can naturally blend political and professional activities. 86

87 LYMEC ~ ' ELECTORAL CONGRESS Copenhagefl Of'nmark 11th U!h May 20U In closing, as detailed above, based on my experience working with her, I can unreservedly recommend Claudia Benchescu for LYMEC Bureau Member and the nomination is strongly supported on her last successful mandate. Presidents of LYMEC member organisations: egres YOUTH - ~ mladald llberalna demokracija ~ A-k"rlvMI mhl....,. f'.t\11'~1-~-.,l'q,j,\iine Pt~ 1' \tk,nt n'" I.I) I, IMLADI 87

88 CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU MEMBERS Ed Sanderson Liberal Youth, UK 88

89 ED SANDERSON FOR LYMEC BUREAU MEMBER Dear friends, I m very honoured to be running for the Bureau on behalf of Liberal Youth. I ve been an active campaigner in the Liberal Democrats for over 9 years, during which time I ve stood for parliament in the last general election, and spent 1 ½ years on the LY national executive, including a year as Vice-Chair for Membership Development. I have seen at first hand that LYMEC is a fantastic organisation, but I m standing for the Bureau because I believe it can be even better. Below are my proposals. Ed Improve Bureau communication with wider membership through webcasts and blogs. Widen LYMEC s campaigning base to put greater focus on environmental and social policy and to ensure it becomes more responsive to membership input and ideas. Bring member organisations closer together through effective twinning projects and events. Expand LYMEC s role with other political organisations, campaigning bodies and charities. Give members a greater say in the content and form of seminars. Widen participation and access for individual members, including extended voting delegation. Push for greater flexibility in member organisation participation fees. Extend LYMEC s voice in the press and social media, and improve website content. Increase communication on a local and national level with elected representatives, in addition to those within the European Parliament and Commission. If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in contact: e.g.v.sanderson@gmail.com Skype: edsanderson

90 CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU MEMBERS Igor Caldeira GIV, Italy 90

91 CURRICULUM VITÆ PERSONAL INFORMATION First name(s) / Surname(s) Igor Alexandre Claro Caldeira Address Rue du Viaduc Bruxelles (Belgique) Telephone(s) 0032(0) (s) igorccaldeira@gmail.com Nationality Portuguese Date of birth Gender Languages and Level Male Potuguese (Native); English (C2); French (C1); Spanish/Castilian (B2); Italian (A2); Dutch (A1) WORK and EDUCATION Dates Occupation or position held 01/09/2011 University Researcher / Philosopher Business Ethics Name and location of institution Legal Philosophy Centre - Université catholique de Louvain - Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) Occupation or position held Name and location of institution Dates 01/10/ /08/2011 University Researcher / Philosopher Business Ethics Centre for Social and Economical Ethics - Université catholique de Louvain - Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) Dates 04/04/ /07/2009 Occupation or position held Compliance and Customer Relations Manager Name and location of institution Sonae - Lisbon (Portugal) Occupation or position held Dates 01/03/ /09/2007 Intern - Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Name and location of institution INETI Portuguese National Institute for Technology and Innovation Centre for Sustainable Corporate Development - Lisbon (Portugal) Occupation or position held Dates 01/10/ /07/2007 Master's student - Philosophy - Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility 91

92 Name and location of institution Universidade de Lisboa - Lisbon (Portugal) Occupation or position held Name and location of institution Dates 01/10/ /07/2005 Post-graduate student - Public Management Economical, Financial and Fiscal Law Institute - Universidade de Lisboa (Lisbon) Dates 01/10/ /07/2004 Occupation or position held Graduate student - Political Science and International Relations Name and location of institution Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Lisbon (Portugal) AFFILIATIONS Political Name and location of institution Occupation or position held LYMEC - Europe Individual Member Name and location of institution Occupation or position held ELDR - Europe Associate Member Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Movimento Liberal Social - Lisbon (Portugal) International Officer Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Partido Liberal Democrata - Lisbon (Portugal) Member Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Jeunes MR - Brussels (Belgium) Member Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Other Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Fédération des Étudiants Libéraux - Brussels (Belgium) Member Humanismo Secular Portugal - Lisbon (Portugal) Founding Member Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Associação Ateísta Portuguesa - Coimbra (Portugal) Member Name and location of institution Europa Viva - Lisbon (Portugal) 92

93 Occupation or position held Founding Member Name and location of institution Occupation or position held Lisbon chapter of CafeBabel.com - Lisbon (Portugal) Founding Member 93

94 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS IL SITO DEl GIOVANI DELL'ITALIA DEl VALORI Florence, 9th April 2012 Dear Liberal Friends, it is my honour and privilege to communicate that Giovani dell'ltalia dei Valori is going to officially endorse the cand idacy of Igor Caldeira as member of the Bureau of LYMEC. Historically our single national associations have played a fundamental role in making young people approach European dimension of politics. But since the fall of Berlin's wall and having a re-opened world, something changed. In very few years we have seen the birth of European Union as the promise of a better future and the frame of an open society. European citizens. especially new generations, felt that new and wider perspectives of life were available and that the continent would have been eventually united under common federal institutions. LYMEC has been a pioneer encouraging this kind of common feelings by creating the Individual Members' Section. And even though the national organisations have kept to represent the lion's share, the IMS begun to grow bigger and stronger. I cannot forget that I myself started my political activity as an Individual Member and only afterwards I joined Giovani dell'ltalia dei Valori. Today, the candidacy of Igor as individual is a fruit of that liberal project of building a Union in which individuals are the core center of a continental political community. The support from an organisation to a non-national candidate is the most visible result of the refuse of the narrow methodological nationalism that would prevent to have a true Eu ropean wide horizon in thinking and acting. I have personally known Igor since 2009 and always appreciated his genuine comm itment as an activist within the Individual Members Section, culminating in being delegate at Congresses for two years. He has always distinguished himself in those years for his intellectual honesty and for beign ready to defend and to reason his own political position with coherence and respect for contradictors. These rare qualities make confident that, if elected, he can fulfill his duties of Bureau member for the sake of LYMEC as a whole. Moreover, he can help to enforce the presence of Liberalism among the youth of a geographical area such as the Mediterranean one, in which organized expressions of ou r political family have been traditionally weak and underrepresented. Sincerely yours, Ermanno Martignetti Tn1 f.rnalional Ortic.f. r Giovaui dt ll'halia dei Valori 94

95 CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU MEMBERS Sissel Kvist RU, Denmark 95

96 Curriculum Vitae Name: Sissel Kvist Adress: Dalslandsgade 8, C713 Phone: Mail: Born: 15. november 1987 Education: 2011: Exchange student at London Metropolitan University, fall semester 2009-: Student; Bachelor of Science in International Business & Politics, Copenhagen Business School 2007: Leadership Seminar, Radikal Ungdom, evisions Group A/S Political Involvement: 2009-: Member of the International Committee, Radikale Venstre : European Officer, Radikal Ungdom : Member of the Executive Board, Radikal Ungdom : Member of the European Committee, Radikal Ungdom : Board member, Radikale Venstre in the city of Vejle : President of Radikal Ungdom in the city of Vejle : Treasure of Radikal Undom in the city of Vejle Language Skills: Danish: native language English: fluent German: basic Greenlandic: beginner s level 96

97 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS Dear Liberal Friends, It is a great pleasure to announce my candidacy for the LYMEC Bureau. Ever since I attended my first LYMEC event in the fall of 2008 I knew that LYM EC was a unique organisation that I wanted to dedicate my t ime to. Since then, I have come to learn the organization in depth through attending congresses, seminars, as a part of the campaign team and as an organizer of the spring seminar and congress in Copenhagen. I have my political roots in Radikal Ungdom, the Danish Social Liberal Youth. I joined the party in 2005 and soon I got engaged in the European politics. I have been a member of the European Committee of Radikal Ungdom since 2007 and served as Eu ropean Officer from 2009 to In the function of European Officer I have been arranging study-trips, seminars, developed campaigns and shaping the EU policy of Radikal Ungdom. I now feel that I have the experience, time, dedication and visions that it ta kes to be part of the Bureau. As a member of the LYM EC bureau I have three visions for LYMEC as an organization: 1. Creating a stronger platform for best-practice sharing among member organizations: l YMEC MO's are developing new policies, creating campaigns, arranging seminar and study-trips all the t ime. I believe that MO's can learn a lot from each other - not only politically but also on an organizational level. As a bureau member I want to encourage MO's to share their experience and create more rooms for this during events. 2. A pan-european campaign for the European Parliament Elections 2014: as a bureau member I want to ensure, that LYMEC are ready for the 2014 EP-elections. LYM EC had amazing campaign material in 2009, but it proved to be difficult to implement on a national level, mainly due to the language barrier. I believe LYMEC should focus on online-campaigning and digital media in Online-campaigning is cheap, flexible and if it is done right, it can reach many more than traditional flyers and leaflets. 3. Focusing on training and education of members: Currently LYMEC is doing a really great job arranging seminars with a political content, whereas there has been less focus on seminars developing organizational skills. The recent communication seminar in Tallinn was a positive exception, and the great interest shown by MO's indicates LYMEC members want more of this. I believe more attention and resources should be focused on training and education of members in areas such as online-communication and leadership. I believe the three focus points will create a stronger and better LYMEC for the benefit of all members, ensu ring that we have the right tools to get our policy heard and adopted by mother-parties, the ALDEgroup and ELDR. In regards of policy-making and political priorities three issues are dear to my heart: 97

98 LYMEC ELECTORAL CONGRESS 1. Fighting Youth Unemployment: More than 5 million young Europeans are currently unemployed, and the forecasts are not bright. I believe it's crucial that we as young liberals take part in the debate and develop a liberal respond to the issue. 2. Digitalization: Digitalization possesses a massive potential for growth and development- but also challenges and issues in regards to privacy and property rights. Recently we have seen half-hearted policies such as the cookie law and, even worse, the ACTA. This is simply not good enough. LYMEC should be in the forefront finding a balance between benefitting from digitalization and protecting the fundamental rights of the individual. 3. The Financial Framework: The financial framework is the core of the EU and shapes the activities and priorities of the EU. As the young li berals of Europe we should have our own priorities offering our perspective in regards of the economic priorities for tomorrows EU. As a LYMEC bureau member I w ill dedicate my time, enthusiasm and experience in the work for a stronger, more liberal Europe and a more visible and active L YM EC. If you have any questions to any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to seeing all of you in Copenhagen! Best regards, Sissel Kvist 98

99 CANDIDATES FOR THE BUREAU MEMBERS KAZIMIERAS CELIEŠIUS LLJ, Lithuania 99