Liberal Democrats launching consultation on party's Europe policy

1.03.33pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 10th Sep 2007

Colin Ross at the European Parliament

Europe will feature prominently in the Liberal Democrat conference next week. Among the many highlights of a conference that will debate climate change, terrorism, the Millennium Development Goals, human rights, civil liberties and the Israel/Palestine issue, the Europe working group will be launching a consultation paper to review the party's EU policy ahead of the Autumn 2008 conference.

Questions set to be addressed include: Which policies could be implemented more effectively at the EU than at the national level?; Which competences could be returned from Brussels to the member states? and how can the EU become more democratic and accountable?

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will give a keynote speech on the afternoon of 17 September. Barroso is expected to talk about the Reform Treaty and how it will help the EU's institutions work more effectively.