Amsterdam, 17/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - At their congress in Amsterdam on Friday 14 November, 500 delegates adopted the manifesto of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party for the 2004 European elections. In it, European Liberals reaffirm their values, particularly their desire for a 'free, fair and open society' and call for a constitutional process leading to a more transparent and more democratic Europe, with a greater role for the European Parliament. They want to modernise the European economy (with decisive measures to liberalise gas, electricity, transport and postal services) and recommend an impact study be carried out ahead of any legislative proposal. After adoption, legislation should be confirmed once five years have elapsed (the sunset clause). The Liberals call for the Stability Pact to be respected, and for reduced rate VAT to be kept (or extended) to building, hotel and catering and restaurants since these industries are labour intensive. When it comes to research, the Liberals support the launch of a European research area, but want researchers to be more involved in this. The initial draft manifesto called for most powers with regard to research to fall to the Member States, but the congress finally decided to remove that part. The Liberals stress at some length the importance of food safety, product labelling and consumer choice. They recall their commitment to free trade which they say should be used as a 'weapon in combatting poverty in the world'. In this connection, they call for the opening of all European markets to developing countries and for all farm production and export subsidies to be scrapped.
At a press conference, the President of the ELDR group at the European Parliament, Graham Watson, said it hoped the upcoming elections would see the Liberals move from the current 50 MEPs to 75 or more. He spoke of expected gains in central European countries, including Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany (where according to recent polls, the FDP would have a vote of nearly 7%) and Italy. When asked by a reporter whether he could be certain the Italian group would join the ELDR, Watson said that the question was still under discussion in Italy, but the Italian members of the EDLR who were likely to stand as part of the united list proposed by Romano Prodi had already ruled out joining the EPP or the PES (see article below) and were looking at two options. Either forming a new pro-European group or joining the Liberal group, explained Watson, adding that he was confident they would decide to remain with the Liberals. Three of the current Italian members of the ELDR are members of "I Democratici", while the others are Sociallisti democratici italieni (Italia dei Valori, Partito republicano italiano).