European Greens is the name of the European Green Party, a political party at European level. It was founded at the Fourth Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties on February 20-22, 2004 in Rome in 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 finished with a signing of the treaty constituting the party in the Capitol of Rome. [1]
The European Greens are the first real European political party organization, in so far as every member of the member parties is also a member of the European party. Until February 21, 2004, only federations of party organizations existed, such as the European Federation of Green Parties and similar federations of conservative, social-democratic or liberal parties.
The program of the European Greens emphasizes typical green topics such as nuclear energy, consumer safety and women's liberation. In the area of Internet politics, the EFA/The Greens parliament faction became famous for the strong support of proponents for a free information infrastructure, especially in their work on the directive against software patents in 2003.
The first goal of the newly founded European Greens was the election campaign for the European Parliament in June, 2004 (see European Parliament Election 2004), which was the first election campaign in Europe that featured similar motifs and slogans in all EU countries.
Critics have suggested that the European Greens do not yet amount to a single party: in particular the different national components have a widely different approach to the European Union ranging from strong eurofederalist forces to eurosceptics. In the past it has been associated with regionalist and nationalist parties in the European Free Alliance but has not included parties in the Nordic Green Left.
Members and Observers
Member parties
Observers
External links
Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46
