STAY OPEN FOR OTHER COUNTRIES, OTHER PEOPLE, BRIDGING CULTURES.

The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Dutch: Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie:VVD) is the liberal political party in Netherlands.The VVD is a member of the worldwide network of liberals, Liberal International (LI), the European Liberal and Democratic and Reform Party, (ELDR), the European Liberal Forum (ELF), the Alliance of Liberals dan Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP), and the Liberal South East European Network (LIBSEEN).

This time this liberal family’s trainers with FNF organized an interesting seminar on Lessons of Liberalism. Some of the LYNC members were also participating in this event. One of the VVD representatives was Friso Rip, VVD international officer. Below is the interview with him, by Lilit Melkonyan - member of LYNC international relations group.

Is this your first time in the South Caucasus?

No, I’ve been in South Caucasus before, I was in Georgia, and it was again another project with Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

What do you know about LYNC?Have your read about our organization?

I’ve heard about LYNC before coming to Georgia, I know that it was finally created in Bakuriani and its regional organization which also shares the ideas of liberalism. It’s like our project of regional network in North Africa, so partly I imagine how you have started.

So are you informed about the liberalism problems in this region?

Somehow. I see that Georgia is in better position than Armenia or esp. Azerbaijan from liberal perspectives. Like every international officer I’m aware of general problems of the region, about the youth’s difficulties of expressing their liberal ideas, approaches. I can understand the importance of LYNC and the difficulties you face taking into consideration the regional conflicts.

Knowing this, what suggestions would you have regarding the activities of LYNC (or the other liberal youth organization in the region)?

LYNC should involve more members. More people you have, more political conveys your message, more power you have. As much active members LYNC has, as powerful it is. When you are network, it is very important to connect more people, to educate more young people, to have more people ready for liberal changes.

Talk a bit about your system values /let it be human, world values.

The most important for me, especially in liberalism is responsibility. Individual responsibility is the core message of liberalism for me. I think it just lets other people become what they want. I am responsible for my decisions, my way and I can’t make another person become what I want.

How do you develop your thinking? What was your path of development?

Staying open for other countries, other people, bridging cultures.

What teamwork tools do you have/use in your organization, which ones you would like to share with LYNC?

If you have good manifesto, than most work is done.It’s important to concretize what you want, to be agreed on it. Keep talking to each other, stay open, involve yourself with others.

Do you see any opportunity of cooperation between VVD and LYNC?

In general every cooperation depends on how inclusive you want to be. If you have the same goals, vision, or how alike they are. Are you sharing the same goal? If you are professional network, than it’s a good platform to share your knowledge, experience. I think all the liberal organizations should and are cooperating. We have something to learn from LYNC and could share our experience of networking with LYNC, for example LYNC also can cooperate with liberal network of North Africa, on which we are working now. In general I like the idea of LYNC, I think in future we will have more joint events and projects.