Ahead of the European Council Meeting of 24-25 June, liberal leaders from across Europe came together to discuss key topics such as the COVID-19 crisis, economic recovery, migration and Russia at the Egmont palace in Brussels.

ALDE Party acting co-Presidents Senator Timmy Dooley and Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP joined the pre-summit meeting. After the meeting, co-President Dooley issued a short video statement:

“We had a really good discussion about what’s going to happen in the Council and the position that the ALDE team will take; a lot of discussion about how we continue with the fight against the virus, the rollout of the vaccine, and the importance of being ready and capable and flexible to deal with any new variants that emerge.

In the coming weeks and months, and really importantly now, the focus is on getting the population of Europe vaccinated fully so that we can begin again to open up and live our lives in the way that we have done up to now. We do need to get people travelling and moving for culture, for business, for holidays, for vacation, generally.

It was also a very detailed discussion on the response that the European Council will take in relation to the performance of Hungary and LGBTIQ+ rights in recent weeks. That’s a really important issue; it’s one that’s really rancouring with our membership across the Union. They feel really hurt by the actions that the Hungarian government is taking and we as a block within ALDE will absolutely fight to protect the human dignity and freedoms of our members and members right across the Union, but particularly in Hungary.

There is no place for this kind of totalitarian approach, particularly in relation to the most basic and fundamental of rights.”

The next European Council meeting will take place on 21-22 October 2021.

Pre-Summit participants:

• Prime Ministers Xavier Bettel, Andrej Babiš, Alexander De Croo, Kaja Kallas, Micheál Martin, Mark Rutte
• President of Renew Europe Group Dacian Cioloș
• Executive Vice President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager
• Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová
• European Commissioners Thierry Breton, Janez Lenarčič, Didier Reynders, Kadri Simson
• ALDE Party Co-Presidents Ilhan Kyuchyuk and Timmy Dooley
• President of the European Democratic Party François Bayrou
• Renaissance, Stéphane Séjourné

#ALDEParty acting co-President @timmydooley shared a video message during today’s @RenewEurope Pre-Summit ahead of #EUCO, highlighting continued liberal action in the fight against #COVID19 and our commitment to LGBTIQ+ rights 👇 pic.twitter.com/t2jkL5mKt7

— ALDE Party (@ALDEParty) June 24, 2021

To view photos from the event, click here

Photo credit: Renew Europe