Brussels, 26/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The member of the European Parliament, Annemie Neyts, has been elected President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), at the Congress of Bratislava on 24 September. The MEP, who is a member of the Flemish Liberal Party (VLD-Vivant), takes over from German liberal Werner Hoyer. Amongst other positions, she has held the post of president of Liberal International, and is a former Belgian minister for European affairs, trade and agriculture. Four vice-president were also elected: the Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, the German FDP MEP Markus Löning, the vice-president of the Slovakian ANO Party Katarina Gloncakova and Wilfried Derkesen, a member of the Dutch Democracy 66.
During the Congress, the European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn called upon Europe to make better use of its potential to become more competitive, warning: "our future does not lie in making cheaper T-shirts than in China. We must produce goods and services with high added value (...). If we are to be in the global race (...), we must also devote sufficient resources to education, including higher education".