European Liberal Forum / Forum Libéral Européen

Newly relaunched website

2009-04-16T11:58:00.002+02:00

Dear liberal surfer,

the European Liberal Forum has a newly relaunched website:

www.liberalforum.eu

We will keep checking our blog, but for any event or publication you are interested in, please check our website.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

the ELF Secretariat

1st ELF summer academy "Europe ... in practice" successfully concluded

2008-09-01T10:05:00.003+02:00

From 25 to 28 of August 2008, the European Liberal Forum (ELF) organized with the support of its member organization the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) a summer academy entitled “Europe… in practice” in Brussels.

The event was specifically aimed at young people who were not so familiar with the EU yet. Over 30 participants from all across the European Union took part and gained extensive knowledge about the Union's decision making process. Taking the recently adopted "Television without frontiers" directive as an example, the summer academy examined the process from the viewpoints of different key players.

The shadow rapporteur of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group, Ignasi Guardans, MEP explained the European Parliament's point of view. Dr. Jean-Eric de Cockborne from the Directorate General 'Information Society and Media' elaborated on the role of the European Commission. Other speakers focused on the role of lobby groups from the business sector as well as from the civil society sector.

Furthermore, the participants were introduced to the activities of ELF and LYMEC by ELF Executive Director Susanne Hartig and LYMEC Vice President Alexander Plahr. The programme also included a visit to the European Parliament during which EP procedures were outlined.

The 1st ELF summer academy was funded by the European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture.

A liberal contribution to a common European civic identity

2008-08-19T16:58:00.001+02:00

August 18 2008
Draft Final report on

A liberal contribution to a common European civic identity

By Giulio Ercolessi and Ingemund Hägg

The project and the report

The project “A liberal contribution to a common European civic identity” is described as follows. “To explore the common aspects of our European identity, particularly our civic identity, which we believe is first and foremost based on human rights and democracy as a shared background. We expect that this discussion will have a strong connection to the peaceful development of Europe and its member states. The idea is to (i) define a principle position with regard to key questions and (ii) link the principles to specific policy fields, such as education and integration.”

The report is structured in the following way. The introductory section deals with the setting for the European identity issues. We then shortly discuss some basic concepts. We identify necessary conditions for a common European civic identity. Next we discuss eight frequent misunderstandings about secularism and secular state and institutions. Finally we propose a number of policy implications. The seminar paper contributions will be available on the ELF web site.

We who have written this report could not have done it without contributions from all the knowledgeable speakers, the papers and the active participants in the seminars. We want to express our thanks to them all. The analysis and the conclusions and policy implications are the sole responsibility of ourselves.

Introduction

Is it possible for Europe, and for Europe’s principles, values and interests, to exercise any influence in today’s global world policies? Is it possible for Europe to become a political global actor without sharing a common European identity? What kind of identity might Europeans have in common, upon which they could build a political subjectivity? How does the religious and cultural pluralism that is typical of contemporary Europe play in this “Europe-building” process? Is the liberal tradition of separation between churches and state, faith and public institutions, still an asset, a necessary one in our pluralistic societies, or an obsolete tool?

Member organizations of the European Liberal Forum have been discussing these issues for two years in a series of meetings and seminars. Our liberal family is historically more committed than others to European integration and to the promotion and enhancement of individual human rights. But, as we realized throughout these events, different historical national traditions suggest slightly different approaches and sensitivity.

We perhaps knew better what we were as Europeans when we were faced by the “Great Other”, the Soviet block (or, previously, when liberal democracy was assaulted by fascism). Nowadays we have to face the new and more confusing challenges of the global world: the new pluralism brought inside our societies by education, freedom in the choice of individual life-styles, and by immigration; and we should be committed to preserve our open societies within this increasingly pluralistic environment

At the meeting held in connection with the ELDR congress in October 2006 in Bucharest, we drafted our view in a paper that was submitted to a lively discussion and largely although not unanimously supported by those attending.

We focused on two ideas in particular.

First, if the historical individual European nation-states can no longer play the same role they have exercised in a world where Europe was undoubtedly the leading power, what could be the new subject able to express a European voice? This in not just a matter of political institutions or constitutional rules: it is a matter of political persuasion, decision and will. The present crisis of the European integration project is also due to the lack of awareness among European citizens and political classes about what constitutes a common European identity upon which a European political subject could be convincingly built. We think that this common identity can be, to a large extent, basically provided by the great heritage of European liberalism. Europe could never be based upon ethnic unity (as “invented traditions” have successfully pretended in the past for individual countries – but it was in a different, less sophisticated, less demanding and even more violent world), nor upon a homogeneous linguistic heritage, or uniform cultural behaviours that no longer exist even inside our individual countries, increasingly pluralistic as they are growing today. But we share, in our laws, in our constitutions, hopefully even settled down in our customs and cultural anthropology (despite recurring challenges and the surviving regional differences), a common civic character, that is sometimes better perceived looking at liberal and democratic Europe from outside. This civic identity has much to do with the respect for the individual, his or her dignity, freedom of choice and right to pursuit his or her goals in his or her own way

Although we would like these principles and values to be universally shared, although we attach them a universal vocation, they are deeply rooted in the historical development of the European liberal tradition, and our countries’ civic culture is probably still the most demanding in this domain.

More and more, such a common civic identity is proving to be not only the core of our values and principles, but also the only possible basis for more cohesive and fruitful developments inside each of our countries.

The second main point concerns what consequences pluralism, and especially religious and cultural diversities, have in the shaping of civic identities.

Despite the vows of populist politicians, increased diversity is the necessary consequence of life in free and open societies. That also applies to individual beliefs.

We no longer live in religiously homogeneous societies, provided we ever did. Secularization has made religious belief a personal choice, not an ascribed identity given with birth once and for ever. And immigration from countries with different religious traditions just enhance that inherent religious pluralism. Different faiths and unbelief must be regarded as equally respectable options also by the political establishment.

In our opinion, the increased, and increasing, cultural, philosophical and religious diversity of European societies, far from making separation obsolete, has strengthened the reasons and the soundness of the traditional liberal idea that the strictest possible religious neutrality of public institutions is a guarantee for religious freedom – that is, the freedom to practice or not to practice, to join or to reject any form of religious or non-religious belief. Political religious neutrality is the only possible tool to provide equal respect and equal social dignity for every single citizen, believers and non-believers alike.

And it is also the most effective tool to protect the rights of individuals, whose religious freedom could be put at jeopardy by their family or community, or who could be discriminated against for religious reasons because their ascribed identity or personal nature or life-style do not comply with the requirements, the expectations or the demands of religious leaders, neighbours or relatives.

As such, religious neutrality also represents the best possible strategy to cope with one of the most important tasks of our time: integrating in the values and principles of liberal democracy, of individual human rights, of the rule of law, at the same time our increasingly diverse autochthonous fellow citizens and our new fellow European citizens who come from different cultural traditions or are the offspring of the immigration, who must be recognized as entitled as we are to have their freedom of belief fully guaranteed, irrespective of their ancestral origins.

Inter-religious dialogue is obviously welcome, but civil society, not public institutions, should be its natural arena. Any participation in such dialogues by public institutions would inevitably result in a form of discrimination, as it would imply recognising some religious movements and not others. Most of all, we think it should never be a substitute for integration policies.

Identity, state / civil society, secularism and related concepts

A number of problematic concepts are involved in the project, not easy to be defined. In this section briefly discuss some of the more basic concepts. Deeper discussions can be found in other parts of this report and in the attached papers.

First, identity is a problematic concept. We can draw a distinction between individual identities and collective identities, and between ascribed and chosen components of such identities.

Each individual’s identity has different components. Some of them are ascribed to the individual concerned: that is, they are not the result of a personal choice, such as birthplace, family of origin, genetic code, sex, age, physical characteristics, possible disabilities. Other parts of the individual identity must be recognized as matter of entirely personal choice, such as cultural and political orientation, religious or non-religious belief, life-style. We recognize that choices are actually made in the individual´s social, cultural and economic environment, but each individual should be recognized the right to make her or his choice. In this project the focus is on the individual and the identities – often several – that the individual her- or himself recognizes. We can also draw another distinction: identity as something discussed as a concept on theoretical levels, or as something measured by asking people about their attitudes and values.

Second, we regard a society as including state institutions: government, parliament, regional and local parliaments or councils, administrative and other public agencies on national, regional and local level. And also as including a civil society. Here voluntary associations and organisations – cultural, religious, charitable, human rights, social service, etc. – live and act.

Third, secularism can refer to the entire society, to the state or to the civil society. The French talk about laïcité when defining the state as neutral to religious and non-religious belief systems, a definition which is fairly clear – in principle. When other countries call their institutions secular, that notion is often more vague even if the idea is similar to “l´état laïque” and even if arguments and historical and cultural frameworks are different.

Secular institutions is a necessary condition for a common European civic identity

As far as civic identities are concerned, their existence is, at every possible level, a matter of comparison. We think that a common European civic identity should be recognizable if European liberal democracies were compared to parts of the world that have more authoritarian and less individualistic customs, traditions and institutions. At least from this point of view, some kind of common European identity already exists to some extent. Maybe such an identity can be further promoted. We found that a necessary condition for such an identity is a secular state within a society where the civil part of the society (civil society) can have secular or non-secular (religious) ingredients.

Eight frequent misunderstandings about secularism and secular institutions

We identified a number of misunderstandings about the meaning of secularism and of a secular state. In particular we found the following.

1. It is often claimed that Europe has become secular. This obviously depends on what we mean with “secular”. Established churches have certainly lost much of their traditional strength. State institutions in some countries have become more secular – and in others they have become more clerical due to successful lobbying even if the society was moving in the opposite direction – but whether civil society has really become everywhere more secular is doubtful. Maybe religion has for some decades not been so visible as today but whether religion has ever been in practice marginalised is questionable.

2. Populist politicians and superficial media reporting often seem to suggest that identities of individuals are and should be one-dimensional and based on ethnicity or religion – “you are a Christian, you are a Muslim”. This implies a view of identity as something attributed to individuals from above, for example from families, communities or religious organizations and in that way collective: it implies a necessary, or at least expected, coincidence, between the individual and the collective, cultural and/or religious, identity. For liberals this is not acceptable. Identities are, for the most important and significant part, individual, chosen by individuals themselves, and not one-dimensional. In the liberal world an individual can say that she/he is a European, a professional, a Muslim, a golfer and a liberal.

3. It is also claimed that identities are learnt in and given by the communities the individual happens to grow up in. For liberals identity is something you can choose to leave or go into.
There is room, among others components of individual identities, for a common European civic identity: it is made of the principles and values that provide a common framework of freedom in the public European sphere, hopefully experienced by most citizens as a precious good to be enhanced and preserved, that becomes at the same time a part of their own heritage and identity and the guarantee for the respect of all the other several parts of everybody’s own multi-folded personal identity.

4. It is claimed that secular states are void of values and norms. This is wrong – states have to stand for human rights and values that are neutral to different religious interpretations and values and norms.

5. It is claimed that states (state institutions) should recognize religious movements, enter into dialogue with them and foster them. This would be counterproductive to any form of social cohesion and common identity as it favours certain movements in the civil society to the detriment of others and creates divisions in the society.

6. It is claimed that secular institutions imply that religion has to be limited to the private, individual sphere. This is not true as a secular state is compatible with a civil society where religious and other voluntary organisations can act freely.

7. It is claimed that inter-religious dialogue is needed in Europe and that the state should take part in such dialogue. For liberals inter-religious dialogue is fine but should take place in the civil society without state participation which would mean recognizing some movements and not others.

8. It is claimed that privatization of religion means that religion is put outside public space, outside the space where societal and political matters are discussed. This is not true as the civil society is the proper arena for developing policies where voluntary organizations also meet political parties. Religious arguments should not enter state institutions like government, parliament, ministries, administration.

Policy implications for liberals and liberal parties

Taking steps in the direction of separation of state and churches (religion) is necessary also in order to promote a European common civic identity.
This has in our opinion some important policy implications.
- Non discrimination on religious ground: this also implies that public institutions should never make assumptions on any individual’s religious belief.
- Neutrality to all belief and non-belief systems in public services.
- No financial privileges in reason of the religious character of private bodies, institutions, groups and associations. Religious and non-religious cultural, philosophical, charitable, non-profit bodies should be treated equally.
- Non-confessional education systems where education to become a citizen is of critical importance in our increasingly pluralistic societies.
- Respect for every kind of individual choice in the citizens’ own private lives and life-styles: rejection of any claim to provide or deny public benefits for those that do or do not comply with behaviours consistent with religious obligations.
- Freedom of expression also in the domain of religion.
- Rejection of any claim to restrict the freedom of scientific research on the basis of religious or religiously grounded reasons.

Invitations: conference in Helsinki and Barcelona

2008-05-19T16:37:00.005+02:00

The European Liberal Forum is pleased to announce two conferences that will be held in June:

The European Liberal Forum, asbl, is pleased to invite the member organisations for the Future of multilateralism conference. This event will take place on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 June 2008 in Helsinki, Finland. Member organisation E2 will be our kind host.

The European Liberal Forum, asbl, is pleased to invite the member organisations for the third conference in the series on the European Civic Identity: Churches and States in the civic identity process. This event will take place on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 June 2008 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Member organisation Fondacio Ramon Trias Fargas will be our kind host.

More information? info(a)liberalforum.eu

Liberal think tanks meet in Belfast

2008-05-19T16:24:00.004+02:00

On 15 May liberal think tanks from around Europe and the world met at the fringe of the Liberal International Congress in Belfast (Northern Ireland) to discuss liberal perspectives on migration. It is a burning issue in the modern world that has impact both on countries of origin and on host countries. For liberals perspectives of the individual with his/her rights and obligations were the focus points. Alasdar Murray (CentreForum, UK) started the debate.

Thierry Coosemans (ELF Board member) presented the recent developments and activities of the European Liberal Forum.

temporary website

2008-01-31T18:15:00.000+01:00

The website is under construction - Le site web est en construction

You are reading our temporary website

European Liberal Forum is formally born

2008-01-31T18:03:00.000+01:00

The European liberal family saw the formal birth on 25 January 2008 of the non-profit association the European Liberal Forum. Its purpose is to bring together national political foundations and think-tanks in the European Union who, within the framework of liberal, democratic and reformist ideals, wish to contribute to the European Union. It will do so by observing, analysing and contributing to the debate on European public policy issues and the process of European integration, through education, training, research and the promotion of active citizenship within the European Union, particularly with regard to young Europeans. While having a separate structure, the European Liberal Forum is closely linked to the ELDR Party and the ALDE Group in the European Parliament.

The General Assembly, meeting in Brussels on Friday 25 January, by approving the statutes, marked a historic moment, formally setting up a European liberal political foundation. The General Assembly agreed on the work programme covering the Forum’s activities for the years 2007 and 2008, and elected Thierry Coosemans from the Centre Jean Gol as the Board member representing the member organisations.

Later that same day, the European Liberal Forum organised a conference on challenges for democratic participation in Europe, which is part of a series of conferences dedicated to discuss the issue of the "European Civic Identity. The Belgian liberal study centre "Centre Jean Gol" was the host of prominent academic speakers from Belgium, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

In June, the Fondació Trias Fargas will host the third event in the series “European Civic Identity” that shall take place in Barcelona.

Challenges for democratic participation in Europe

2008-01-14T18:22:00.000+01:00

Invitation to a conference on "European Civic Identity": challenges for democratic participation in Europe

Where: Avenue Toison d'Or 84-86, B-1060 Brussels, Belgium
When: Friday January 25, 14h00-18h00
Please rsvp via info@liberalforum.eu

The liberal family can pride itself for having made a historical contribution to the extension of voting rights to all citizens which eventually led to the adoption of universal suffrage. And the Liberals were also the most energetic promoters of direct universal voting for the European Parliament as an essential step toward European construction.

Yet we must admit today that our system of democratic representation is facing new challenges, and, above all, the disturbing drop in electoral participation. This trend was particularly noticeable during the last European elections.

This brings up the issue of active citizenship, which includes rights and duties. How to promote a more active participation in political parties? Can there be a European civic identity of citizens can not be member of a European party on an individual basis? This also brings up the issue of EU residents residing in other states, or civic participation of non-EU citizens in Europe and their active & passive voting rights.

In some member States, the organization of popular consultations is considered an additional way to meet the expectations of citizens who want to be given the opportunity to express their opinion on major issues. What may be the role of such popular consultations?

The question of an extension of voting rights and/or eligibility has been raised many times over the past years, although it is essential in this case to make a distinction between the levels of power involved (local, general or European elections) or whether the issue concerns only EU nationals or those of Third countries as well.

The debate will be moderated by Alasdair Murray (Director of CentreForum). Speakers will be (in alphabetical order):
Professor Pascal Delwit (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), Professor Peter Ekholm (Finland), Professor Kjell Goldmann (University of Stockholm,Sweden)
Luuk van Middelaar, political philosopher (The Netherlands)

We look forward to welcome you!

‘Religion, beliefs, secularism – the liberal view’

2008-01-09T16:29:00.000+01:00

The first debate by the newly founded European Liberal Forum (ELF) on ‘Religion, beliefs, secularism – the liberal view’, which took place during the 2007 ELDR Congress in Berlin, was widely hailed as a big success. There was plenty of informed and passionate discussion during the event, which was a follow-up to a debate on European civic identity in 2006.

Based on a general consensus that secularism is and should be an essential component of any liberal-minded societal order, each of the three panelists provided extremely valuable insights for the debate. According to Ingemund Hägg of the Bertil Ohlin Institute from Sweden, human identity should be seen as a multidimensional concept. “We diminish human value if we assume that there is a one-dimensional identity, for instance when we say: he is a Muslim, or she is a Christian. A human being always has more dimensions to his or her identity.”

Thierry Coosemans, from the Belgian think tank the Centre Jean Gol said that the role of religious faith in public life should be redefined and that secularism based on integrating all ethnic groups in society should be the aim. He pointed to the situation in Belgium, in which “ecclestical authority is acknowledged but church laws have no civil authority.. "

Joan Anton Sánchez de Juan from the Ramon Trias Fargas foundation in Catalonia stressed that we should acknowledge clearly that immigration is a fact of life in Europe. “We face various challenges in modern societies such as: building of mosques, the choice of school menus, and the teaching of religions and cultures at schools.” I firmly believe that this debate should be continued, not just as an intellectual exercise but also to find more comprehensive liberal approaches to real political challenges, such as the relationship between a secular state and religion in the field of education or in the face of religious intolerance. Neutrality of the state should not mean an ignorant or an indifferent state.

The issue of ‘a European civic identity’ has been taken up in the work programme for 2007 and the first half of 2008 for the recently founded European Liberal Forum and will be discussed in more detail during two conferences that are scheduled to take place in the winter and spring of 2008.

The writer of this article, German MEP Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (Freie Demokratische Partei), chaired this European Liberal Forum debate.

Under construction

2008-01-09T16:10:00.000+01:00

The website is under construction - Le site web est en construction

EN

Article 1 – Name

A non-profit association is hereby incorporated under the laws of Belgium. Its name is “European Liberal Forum” in English and “Forum Libéral Européen” in French, abbreviated as "liberalforum.eu” in English and “forumlibéral.eu” in French, hereinafter referred to as the "Association". Both the full and the abbreviated names may be used indistinguishably.

Article 3 – Purpose and objectives

The Association has as a non-profit purpose to bring together national political foundations and think-tanks in the European Union who, within the framework of liberal, democratic and reformist ideals, wish to contribute to the European Union.

To achieve this purpose, the Association will:

- serve as a framework for national political foundations, think tanks, networks and academics and leading liberal personalities to work together at European level.

- develop close working relationships with and among its members, their national parliamentary groups, the parliamentary Group of the ELDR Party in the European Parliament, the liberal, democrat and reform groups and alliances in other international fora and Liberal Internationaland the youth organization of the ELDR Party.

- observe, analyze and contribute to the debate on European public policy issues and the process of European integration, through education, training research and the promotion of active citizenship within the European Union, particularly with regards to young Europeans.

- strengthen the liberal, democrat and reform movement in the European Union and throughout Europe;

- seek a common position, as a transfer of experience gained from the contracting members, on all important matters affecting the European Union;

- inform the public and involve it in the construction of a united European democracy;

- support and cosponsor European seminars and conferences and studies on such issues between the aforementioned stakeholders

Article 1 – Nom

Une association sans but lucrative de droit belge est constituée sous le nom de « Forum Libéral Européen » en français et« European Liberal Forum » en anglais, en abrégé « forumlibéral.eu » en français et « liberalforum.eu » en anglais, ci-après dénommée l’« Association ». Tant la forme complète qu’abrégée du nom peuvent être utilisées de manière indifférente.

Article 3 - Objet et objectifs

L’Association a pour objet non lucratif d’apporter son soutien au rassemblement des fondations politiques nationales et groupes de réflexion dans l’Union européenne qui, se réclamant des valeurs libérales, démocratiques et réformatrices, veulent contribuer à l'Union Européenne.

L'Association réalisera son objet par :

- la création d’un cadre pour les fondations politiques nationales, groupes de réflexion, réseaux et personnalités libérales et académiques de premier plan leur permettant de collaborer au niveau européen ;

- le développement de relations de travail étroites entre et avec ses membres, leurs groupes et alliances parlementaires nationaux, le Groupe parlementaire du Parti ELDR au Parlement européen, les Groupes libéraux, démocratiques et réformateurs d'autres enceintes internationales et l’Internationale Libérale ainsi que la jeunesse du parti ELDR ;

- l’observation, l’analyse et la participation au débat sur des questions de politique publique européenne et le processus d’intégration européen, par le biais de l’enseignement, la recherche de formations et la promotion de la citoyenneté active au sein de l’Union européenne, en particulier vis-à-vis des jeunes Européens ;

- le renforcement du mouvement libéral, démocratique et réformateur dans l'Union européenne et dans toute l'Europe ;

- la recherche d'une position commune, comme un transfert de l’expérience acquise de la part des membres contractants, sur toutes les questions importantes concernant l'Union européenne ;

- l'information du public et sa participation à la construction d'une démocratie européenne unie ;

- le soutien et le co-parrainage de séminaires, de conférences et d’études européennes sur de telles questions entre les parties prenantes précitées.