During the first half of 2018, a series of expert forums will be organised around Europe on topical matters and challenges facing the European Union, and will be conducted as the ALDE Party considers its manifesto for the 2019 elections to the European Parliament.

Experts in the respective fields from our member parties are warmly invited to participate in these meetings for sharing their views and actively contributing to the manifesto drafting process.

The seventh Manifesto Forum, organised by the ALDE Party and the Human Rights Committee of Liberal International, took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday 27 April ahead of the ALDE Party Council. This forum particularly focused on pressing human rights issues in Europe and the liberal response to these related challenges.

The debate was based on a paper produced by the LI Human Rights Committee on Pressing Human Rights issues in Europe, tackling five core topics – business and human rights, women’s rights, minority and refugee rights, LGBTI rights, and freedom of speech.

Chair of our #HumanRights committee @LoeningMarkus kicks off a busy @ALDEParty expert forum in #Bulgaria

The forum will feed into the #ALDE manifesto for the 2019 @Europarl_EN elections #ALDEcouncil pic.twitter.com/695iE6CVQM

— Liberal International (@liberalinternat) April 27, 2018

#ALDEmanifesto Drafting Committee Member Simona Kustec Lipicer: “We all here agree that #HumanRights and #democracy need to be emphasised in our manifesto” #ALDEcouncil pic.twitter.com/xf4VyHXj6r

— ALDE Party (@ALDEParty) April 27, 2018

After the discussion, we had a Facebook Live talk with Stephanie Krisper, a Member of the Parliament for NEOS and a member of the LI Human Rights Committee.

You can take a look at some of the best moments of the manifesto forum in Sofia on our Flickr album. Scroll through the pictures below:

For an overview of all the expert forums coming up in spring , take a look here.