European Green Party

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European Green Party
President	and Thomas Waitz
Secretary-General	Mar Garcia
Founded	21 February 2004; 17 years ago (2004-02-21)
Preceded by	European Federation of Green Parties
Headquarters	Rue du Taciturne 34, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Think tank	Green European Foundation
Ideology	Green politics[1] Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre-left to left-wing
International affiliation	Global Greens
European Parliament group	Greens–European Free Alliance
Colours	Green
European Parliament	52 / 705
European Lower Houses	221 / 9,874
European Upper Houses	48 / 2,714
Website
europeangreens.eu
Politics of European Union Political parties Elections

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The European Green Party (EGP), sometimes referred to as European Greens, is the European political party that operates as a federation of political parties across Europe supporting green politics. The EGP cooperates with the European Free Alliance (EFA), European Pirate Party and Volt Europa to form the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) parliamentary group in the European parliament.

History[]

The European Green Party was founded on 22 February 2004 at the Fourth Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties (EFGP) in Rome attended by over 1,000 delegates. Thirty-four Green parties from all over Europe have joined this new pan-European party. The Greens were the first to form a political party at European level. The other European political federations followed suit in the period 2004–06. For the Greens this was the culmination of a process which had started with the formation of a loose co-ordination 1979–93 and the EFGP 1993–2004.^[2]

1979 to 1993[]

Petra Kelly and Bram van der Lek

In 1979, Daniel Brélaz became the world first green member of a national parliament (Switzerland).

In 1979 the Coordination of European Green and Radical Parties (CEGRP) was set up to co-ordinate the participation of Green and Radical parties in the 1979 European Parliament election: There were considerable differences between the Green and Radical groups and the parties were unable to form a common pan-European electoral platform.^[3] Although some parties polled well, no Green entered the European Parliament.

In the 1984 election the Greens participated again. They held a congress in the spring of 1984 in Liège and set up a restructured European Green Coordination (EGC), with a secretariat provided by the Dutch Political Party of Radicals. They also issued a Joint Declaration of the European Green Parties. Furthermore, overall the member parties had grown stronger. Eleven MEPs of member parties were elected to the European Parliament.^[a] They formed the Green Alternative European Link (GRAEL) in the European Parliament. The group was too small to be recognised by the Parliament for funds and committees and therefore it joined the Rainbow Group, which also encompassed regionalists, the Danish People's Movement against the European Community and some radicals and socialists.

The European Greens formed a loose confederal triangular structure with the autonomous GRAEL in parliament, the weak EGC as a supra-national co-ordinating body and the member parties. The position of the European Greens was also weakened by the principle of rotation which some member parties (Germany and the Netherlands) used, with their MEPs being replaced by another after serving half their term. This rotation technique originated with the German Greens to prevent their members being co-opted by the informal negotiation system within the Bundestag,^[4] but it served them badly within the European Parliament.

For the Dutch parties, the choice for rotation was a compromise between three parties which had only two seats in parliament: one seat was kept by the top candidate while the second seat rotated between the second and the third candidate. This way each party would have a representative in the EP. Finally, there still was considerable diversity in the opinions of the Greens, especially between pro-European and Eurosceptic tendencies. These factors weakened the position of the Greens in Parliament.

In the 1989 election the Green parties won 26 seats.^[b] Because of political conflicts with the continuing Rainbow Group, the European Greens formed a separate parliamentary group, The Green Group in the European Parliament. During this period, the Greens became more entrenched in parliament.

1993 to 2004[]

Dominique Voynet, Joschka Fischer and Pekka Haavisto. France, Germany and Finland had the first green ministers in a European government

In June 1993 the European Federation of Green Parties was formed by the members of the EGC in Kirkkonummi, Finland. The organisation became more structured, it now had a triennial Congress, a Council and a Federation Committee (executive). It strengthened its ties with the Green Group in the European parliament.

In the 1994 European elections Green parties won a total of 20 seats.^[c] They were joined by a member of the Danish Socialist People's Party and one member of both the Italian South Tyrolean People's Party and The Network. Again the Greens formed a separate group from Rainbow Group, now renamed the European Radical Alliance.

In the 1999 European elections the European Greens performed particularly well winning 38 seats.^[d] They formed a combined group with the European Free Alliance, which represented regionalist parties and independence movements, which previously participated in the European Radical Alliance. The relationship between the Greens and these parties was different from before, as the Greens were stronger both numerically and politically.

Since 2004[]

Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg; Petra De Sutter, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria

The European Green Party was founded at the Fourth Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties on 20–22 February 2004 in Rome, a party convention with over 1,000 delegates. Thirty-two Green parties from all over Europe joined this new pan-European party. The foundation of the new party was finalised with the signing of the treaty constituting the party in the Capitol of Rome. As such the Greens were the first to form a political party at European level, the other European federations followed suit between 2004 and 2006.

In the 2004 European Parliament election the member parties won 35 Seats. In the 2009 European Parliament election, even though the European Parliament was reduced in size, the EGP member parties won 46 seats, the best result of the Green Parties in 30 years.

Femke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam; Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona and Grégory Doucet, mayor of Lyon

In the 2014 European Parliament election the green candidates were José Bové and Ska Keller. The campaign was at a European level, Ska Keller participating in broadcast debates with the other candidates for the European Commission presidency. After the economic crisis, the green parties have consolidated its presence in the local and regional level. Green mayors as Éric Piolle in Grenoble or Fritz Kuhn in Stuttgart are good examples. Femke Halsema became the second green mayor of a European capital city, Amsterdam, after Francesco Rutelli (Rome). At the regional level, Winfried Kretschmann became President of Baden-Württemberg.

Inés Sabanés and are respectively members of the local governments of Madrid and Paris, being both responsible of the environment portfolio.

Alexander Van der Bellen became the first green head of state in the world, representing Austria.

The candidates for the 2019 European Parliament election, are Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout.

In the year 2020 the European Greens achieves big gains in local elections throughout Europe, being elected green mayors in Lyon, Strasbourg, Besançon, Marseille or Bourdeaux among others in France and in capital city Dublin in Ireland as well as Aachen, Cologne, and Bonn in Germany.

Also green parties presence in national governments are the highest in history, being junior coalition parties in the governments of Sweden, Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Spain, North Macedonia, Germany, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Ideology and issues[]

In 2017, the climate law is signed by Isabella Lövin, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden

The European Greens have committed themselves to the basic tenets of Green politics, such as environmental responsibility, individual freedom, inclusive democracy, diversity, social justice, gender equality, global sustainable development and non-violence.^[5]

However, its relationship to the European Union and its institutions has changed dramatically and is still the subject of a lively debate. In the 1970s and 1980s the European Greens were generally sceptical of European political and economic integration, which was seen as contrary to environmental and social interests. In its 1984 program, the European Greens advocated the formation of an alternative Europe, which would be neutral and decentralised. In 1989, some member parties adopted a more parliamentary course and became more supportive of European integration. The program advocates the democratisation of Europe's institutions. In their 1994 program, the Greens abandoned their principled opposition of European integration and began to propose pragmatic alternatives for the European Union's policies and institutions. The 1999 and 2004 programs also reflect this.^{[citation needed]}

In the area of Internet politics, the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) parliamentary group became famous for the strong support of a proposed Free Information Infrastructure, especially in their work on the directive against software patents in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Nowadays the majority of the party is European federalist. Its former leader, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, is a member of the federalist The Spinelli Group, and has written with Guy Verhofstadt a book with a federalist manifesto purpose. The European Green Party affiliated to the European Movement International in February 2014.^[6]

Other prominent green members of The Spinelli Group are Monica Frassoni, Isabelle Durant and Joschka Fischer, a former Vice-Chancellor of Germany and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany).

Representation[]

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2020)

In this table one can see the results of the Greens for the six direct elections to the European Parliament, in terms of seats and votes. It also shows how many European Commissioners the European Greens have, who led the parliamentary group. It also lists how the Green parliamentary group and supra-national organisations was named and what European parliamentary group they joined.^[7]

Organisational structure[]

Ulrike Lunacek, ex vice-president of the European Parliament and Michaele Schreyer, the only Green European Commission member so far

The European Green Party is an international association without lucrative purpose constituted out of political parties from European countries (although not necessarily from European Union member states). Parties can also become associate member. Members of the Green Group not belonging to a member party can be admitted as a special member with speaking rights but no vote.

Alice Bah Kuhnke, Deputy chairwoman of the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group in the European Parliament.

The governing bodies of the EGP are the council and the committee.^[9]

• The Council consists of delegates of member parties. These are allotted on the basis of their most recent European or national election results. Each party has at least two delegates. The council is responsible for political affairs between congresses and it decides over organizational matters, such as the election of committee, the application of members and observers and the statutes of the EGP.^[10]
• The Committee consists of nine members, including two spokespersons (one man and one woman), a secretary-general and a treasurer. They are responsible for daily political affairs, execution of the council's decisions and the activities of the EGP office and staff.
• The Congress is an enlarged meeting of the Council which is convened by the Council at least once every 5 years.

The European Greens are organised in several regional networks. These are organised around seas, creating somewhat of a bioregional structure: such as the Green Islands Network ("a network for Green Parties in Britain, Ireland and associated islands"), the Baltic Sea Greens, the Green Mediterranean Network, Green Adriatic Network and the North Sea Greens.

  States with member parties

  States with associate parties

  States with candidate parties

As of May 2018, the EGP comprises 37 (full) member parties, 4 associate member parties and 3 candidate member parties. These are listed in Annex B (pp. 22–23) of the respective Rule Book.^[11]

Membership[]

Full members[]

Country		Name	MEPs	National MPs	Government status
Albania		Green Party of Albania	Not in EU	0 / 140	Extra-parliamentary
Andorra		Greens of Andorra	Not in EU	0 / 28	Extra-parliamentary
Austria		The Greens – The Green Alternative	3 / 18	26 / 183	In government
Belgium	Flemish	Groen	1 / 12 [h]	8 / 102 [i]	In government
	French  German	Ecolo	2 / 9 [j]	13 / 63 [k]	In government
Bulgaria		Green Movement	0 / 17	2 / 240	In government
Cyprus		Movement of Ecologists — Citizens' Cooperation	0 / 6	3 / 56	In opposition
Czech Republic		Green Party	0 / 22	0 / 200	Extra-parliamentary
Denmark		Socialist People's Party	2 / 13	15 / 179	Confidence and supply
Estonia		Estonian Greens	0 / 7	0 / 101	Extra-parliamentary
Finland		Green League	3 / 13	20 / 200	In government
France		Europe Ecology – The Greens	9 / 74	0 / 577	In opposition
Georgia		Green Party of Georgia	Not in EU	0 / 150	Extra-parliamentary
Germany		Alliance 90/The Greens	21 / 96	118 / 735	In government
Greece		Ecologist Greens	0 / 21	0 / 300	Extra-parliamentary
Hungary		LMP – Hungary's Green Party	1 / 21	8 / 199	In opposition
Ireland		Green Party[l]	2 / 13	12 / 160	In government
Italy		Green Europe	1 / 73	0 / 630	Extra-parliamentary
	South Tyrol	Greens	0 / 73	0 / 630	Extra-parliamentary
Luxembourg		The Greens	1 / 6	6 / 60	In government
Malta		AD+PD	0 / 6	0 / 67	Extra-parliamentary
Moldova		Ecologist Green Party	Not in EU	0 / 101	Extra-parliamentary
Netherlands		GroenLinks	3 / 26	8 / 150	In opposition
North Macedonia		Democratic Renewal of Macedonia	Not in EU	1 / 120	In government
Norway		Green Party	Not in EU	3 / 169	In opposition
Poland		The Greens	0 / 51	3 / 460	In opposition
Portugal		Ecologist Party "The Greens"	0 / 21	2 / 230	In opposition
Romania		Green Party	0 / 32	0 / 329	Extra-parliamentary
Slovenia		Youth Party – European Greens	0 / 8	0 / 90	Extra-parliamentary
Spain		Equo	0 / 54	1 / 350	Confidence and supply
	Catalonia	Esquerra Verda[m]	1 / 54 [n]	2 / 350	In government
		Catalunya en Comú		7 / 350	In government
Sweden		Green Party	3 / 20	16 / 349 [12]	In government
Switzerland		Green Party of Switzerland	Not in EU	28 / 200	In opposition
Ukraine		Party of Greens of Ukraine	Not in EU	0 / 450	Extra-parliamentary
United Kingdom	England  Wales	Green Party of England and Wales	Not in EU	1 / 573 [o]	In opposition
	Scotland	Scottish Greens		0 / 59 [p]	Extra-parliamentary
	Northern Ireland	Green Party in Northern Ireland [q]		0 / 18 [r]	Extra-parliamentary

• 

  Werner Kogler, Vice-Chancellor of Austria

• 

  Dritan Abazović, Deputy Prime Minister of Montenegro

• 

  Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications & Transport of Ireland

• 

  Robert Habeck, Vice-Chancellor of Germany

Candidate members[]

Country	Name	MEPs	National MPs
Croatia	Sustainable Development of Croatia	–	–
Montenegro	United Reform Action	Not in EU	3 / 81
Turkey	Green Left Party	Not in EU	–
Romania	NOW Party	–	–
sources[13][14]

Associate members[]

Country	Name	MEPs	National MPs
Belarus	Belarusian Party "The Greens"	Not in EU	0 / 110
Croatia	We can! – Political Platform	–	5 / 151
Russia	Green Alternative[15]	Not in EU	0 / 170
sources[13]

Applicants[]

Country or region	Name (in English)	MEPs	National MPs
Serbia	Greens of Serbia	Not in EU	2 / 250

Former members[]

Former full members[]

Green Pro-European demonstration in Rome, 2017

Federation of Young European Greens demonstration in Copenhagen during the Climate Summit 2009

De Grønne from Denmark were expelled from the EGP in 2008. The reason was that De Grønne intended to co-operate with the People's Movement against the EU in the upcoming 2009 European elections, a national party which sits with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left parliamentary group instead of the Greens–European Free Alliance. The party was disbanded in 2014.

On 13 May 2012, the Council of the EGP withdrew the membership of Confederation of the Greens (Los Verdes) from Spain,^[16] after several months of negotiations, and mainly because 13 out of 16 parties (formerly within the Confederation of the Greens) decided to join EQUO.

The Green Left from Hungary withdrew its membership on 7 September 2015 because of financial reasons. They disbanded in 2018.

On 10 November 2019, the Latvian Green Party was expelled from the EGP, due to its nationalist, anti-LGBT and anti-immigration views.^[17]

The Greens from the Netherlands withdrew the EGP in 2017.^[18]

Country	Year left	Name	MEPs (current)	National MPs (current)
Denmark	2012	De Grønne	n/a - defunct
Hungary	2015	Green Left	n/a - defunct
Latvia	2019	Latvian Green Party	-	6 / 100
Netherlands	2017	The Greens	-	-
Russia	2016[s]	Green Alternative	Not in EU	-
Spain	2012	Confederation of the Greens	-	-

Former associate members[]

Country	Name	MEPs (current)	National MPs (current)
Azerbaijan	Green Party of Azerbaijan	Not in EU	n/a - defunct
Russia	Union of Greens of Russia	Not in EU	n/a - defunct

Networks[]

The EGP hosts a collection of networks that have specific special interest focus, including:

• Federation of Young European Greens, a federation of European Green youth organisations
• European Network of Green Seniors
• EGP Gender Network
• European Queer Greens

Elected representatives of member parties[]

European institutions[]

Organisation	Institution	Number of seats
European Union	European Commission	0 / 28
	European Council (Heads of Government)	0 / 28
	Council of the European Union (Participation in Government)	6 / 27
	European Parliament	52 / 751
Council of Europe	Parliamentary Assembly	3 / 318

Election results[]

Country		Name	Last EU election	Last national election	Government status
Albania		Green Party of Albania	Not in EU	did not compete	Extra-parliamentary
Andorra		Greens of Andorra	Not in EU	did not compete	Extra-parliamentary
Austria		The Greens – The Green Alternative	14.1%	13.9%	In government
Belgium	Flemish	Groen	7.8%	6.1%	In government
	French  German	Ecolo	7.2%	6.1%	In government
Bulgaria		The Greens	6.1%[19]	6.3%[20]	In opposition
Cyprus		Movement of Ecologists — Citizens' Cooperation	3.3%[21]	4.4%	In opposition
Czech Republic		Green Party	did not compete	1.0%	Extra-parliamentary
Denmark		Socialist People's Party	13.2%	7.7%	Confidence and supply
Estonia		Estonian Greens	1.8%	1.8%	Extra-parliamentary
Finland		Green League	16.0%	11.5%	In government
France		Europe Ecology – The Greens	13.5%	4.3%	In opposition
Georgia		Green Party of Georgia	Not in EU	0.1%	Extra-parliamentary
Germany		Alliance 90/The Greens	20.5%	14.8%	In government
Greece		Ecologist Greens	0.9%	did not compete	Extra-parliamentary
Hungary		LMP – Hungary's Green Party	2.2%	7.1%	In opposition
Ireland		Green Party[t]	11.4%	7.1%	In government
Italy		Green Europe	2.3%	did not compete	Extra-parliamentary
	South Tyrol				Extra-parliamentary
Luxembourg		The Greens	18.9%	15.1%	In government
Malta		AD+PD	did not compete	did not compete	Extra-parliamentary
Moldova		Ecologist Green Party	Not in EU	0.1%	Extra-parliamentary
Netherlands		GroenLinks	10.9%	5.2%
North Macedonia		Democratic Renewal of Macedonia	Not in EU	35.9%[22]	In government
Norway		Green Party	Not in EU	3.9%	In opposition
Poland		The Greens	38.5%[23]	27.4%[24]	In opposition
Portugal		Ecologist Party "The Greens"	6.9%[25]	6.3%[26]	In opposition
Romania		Green Party	did not compete	0.4%	Extra-parliamentary
Slovenia		Youth Party – European Greens	did not compete	did not compete	Extra-parliamentary
Spain		Equo	did not compete	2.4%	Confidence and supply
	Catalonia	Esquerra Verda[u]	Run with UP[27]	did not compete	In government
		Catalunya en Comú	Run with UP[27]	Run with UP	In government
Sweden		Green Party	11.5%	4.4%	In government
Switzerland		Green Party of Switzerland	Not in EU	13.2%	In opposition
Ukraine		Party of Greens of Ukraine	Not in EU	0.7%	Extra-parliamentary
United Kingdom	England  Wales	Green Party of England and Wales	Not in EU	2.7%	In opposition
	Scotland	Scottish Greens		8.1%[28]	Extra-parliamentary
	Northern Ireland	Green Party in Northern Ireland [v]		2.3%[29]	Extra-parliamentary

See also[]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to European Green Party.

• European Greens website