Wednesday, November 19, 2014

@ALDEParty Congress 2014 - an insight into policy making at the European level

As tomorrow sees the beginning of this year's ALDE Party Congress, I thought that I would offer readers a chance to see what it is we will be discussing in Brussels. So, today, I'll be publishing the resolutions as submitted so that you can get a feel for the issues that arouse interest.

You'll see that they cover a wide range of territory, but sometimes do give an impression of looking towards a domestic audience too. Amendments have been submitted by member parties, but given that they can be contradictory, I'll leave them out for the time being.

What happens is that working groups of delegates meet to discuss the resolutions - usually split into the theme resolution and all others, but this time split into foreign policy and everything else - and thrash out the amendments to reach a set of recommendations which then go to the main floor of the Congress for agreement. This is where the key arguments take place and deals are cut between delegations, in an attempt to reach an outcome which is as acceptable as possible to the broad spectrum of opinion. An ability to comprehend why a particular party might have serious concerns and to find a form of language which is inclusive are key skills.

Only if there are key philosophical differences are debates taken to the floor of Congress, although it is not unheard of for the working group to be less than entirely representative, especially if one of the major parties with a sizeable vote is on the losing side in the working group.

So, as I noted, over the coming hours, I'll be publishing the resolutions. If there's anything you think should be addressed, please let me know, preferably with an explanation...

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