Thank you to our members for joining us in Brussels!

We were incredibly pleased to welcome a record number of members and candidates for the Autumn General Assembly 2022, held in Brussels. We hosted more events and networking activities than ever, spanning across the three day conference, fostering innovative work and conversations to further our future collaborations.

During Day 1, members and external participants joined us for a world café style event to address the ‘Great Inflation’.

Keynote speaker Professor Juan Castaneda, Director of the Vinson Centre opened the event with an incredibly insightful analysis of the inflationary trends before and since recent crises. He presented how we can use this data, to understand the root causes of the spike. The event continued with 4 roundtable discussions, each going more in depth on inflation topics such as ECB policy, the energy crisis, stagflation and the view from member states.

We closed the day with our ‘Celebrating Freedom’ reception, a wonderful and unique chance for us to come together to celebrate the work we have done and to create promising future partnerships and collaborations.

ELF Celebrating Freedom Reception - Photobooth

On Day 2 our main focus to provide a space for members to help solve problems and implement their vision through Unit based interactive workshops (Communication, Projects & Finance), as well as listen directly to constructive feedback and suggestions.

Following this, we hosted two Working Group sessions on Staged Integration for EU Enlargement and Trade.

The first meeting of the WG on Trade has kicked-started the debate on the future EU-US relations, considering the EU’s overall course on strategic autonomy. Expert speakers Ricardo Pelaez and Thibaut L’Ortye discussed their recent experience with the Transatlantic Trade Council (TTC) and the ways in which it can be used to govern the transatlantic relations across a variety of sectors.

Simultaneously, the fifth session of the WG on Staged Integration took place with Thomas Hagleitner who presented the European Commission’s policy vision with regards to the Enlargement project, stimulating important discussions on the possible caveats of the European Political Community initiative and the practicalities of the approach.

The Board Debate then took place, to allow the various candidates to pitch their intentions to the Member Organisations ahead of the General Assembly.

To allow our community to mingle and unwind, we joined for an evening of food, drinks and laughs at the Liberal Pub Quiz! Congrats to our winners!

We closed the three-day event with our General Assembly, with the ELF Board of Directors, during which our Member Organisations elected; President Hilde Vautmans, 1st Vice President Jan-Christoph Oetjen, 2nd Vice President Marco Mariani, Treasurer Mats Löfström and board members Šárka Shoup, Milosz HodunCatharina Rinzema, Katalin Cseh and Antoaneta Asenova.

We are also very pleased to extend our liberal family by welcoming four new affiliate member organisations; 21 Kutatokozpont, Agora Liberal, Fundalib and the Progressive Institute.

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