As planned, on 15 April the IDC-CDI held this year’s first Executive Committee Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. In addition to the Committee’s members, participating as guests were all those who attended the Regional IDC.Africa event the day before, as well as Regional Asia parties. On hand were President Andrés Pastrana, the Secretary General of the IDC and of the EPP; Antonio López-Istúriz, the Prime Minister of Hungary; Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe; Patrice Trovoada, former President of Lebanon; Amine Gemayel, former Prime Minister of Slovenia; Janez Jansa; Minister Milton Henríquez of Panama; a large number of political leaders from all over the world; and our host, Pedro Passos Coelho, the former Prime Minister of Portugal and President of the PSD. At the beginning of the meeting the various vice-presidents presented a detailed report on the difficult political situation facing the world at this time, and a series of resolutions were approved that place the IDC-CDI on the political front lines (see this webpage). Various proposals were analyzed on different issues, which will be considered in depth at the next meeting of the Executive Committee in order to implement them in the near future. Requests for membership from five new parties were analyzed and unanimously approved. The parties admitted were the Malawi Congress Party (Malawi), the Botswana Patriotic Front (Botswana), the Wiper Democratic Movement, (Kenya), the Cambodian People’s Party (Cambodia) and the Kuomintang (Taiwan). The incorporation of these new parties strengthens our presence in Africa, with more than 22 parties in 18 countries, and in Asia, where the work done in recent months is beginning to yield positive results. With the addition of the new member parties, the IDC-CDI has established itself as the largest organization of political parties internationally.