Twenty Years of European Greens
1984 - 2004
edited by Arnold Cassola & Per Gahrton
Bruno Boissière Les Verts (France)
Coordination Secretariat Member
1984 - 1992
Vice-President of the Green Group
in the European Parliament
1992 - 1994
In the late 70s I joined the green political movement to fight for a better future. Inspired by Denis de Rougemont, the best contribution to this cause has been for me to struggle for a better Europe, which at the same time should be ecological, regional and federal.
The Nation States of Europe had invented in the XIXth century and developed in the XXth century the industrial model based on the dogma of the “productivist” growth. It was clear to me that this model had come to a crisis all over the world. Therefore Europe has now the responsibility to invent a post-industrial example of civilisation based on a new ecological development. New concepts like “Sustainable Growth” or (better) “Sustainable Development” show that the Greens have already been successful in raising awareness about the need of reconciling Economy with Ecology. More action is necessary but Nation States cannot be the appropriate actors of such a reconciliation. They are too big and too small. Too big to deal with local problems and too small to deal with global problems.
Nation States are too big to act locally. That is one of the reasons why Regions are more and more important. Moreover, in the era of the Global Village, the political power should be redistributed in the only democratic manner possible, that is from the bottom up. I still believe that the people are sovereign and that both the economy and political systems should be decentralised, close to the citizens. Regions can be efficient areas where citizens really participate in decisions. More than the Nation States they represent the diversity within Europe which should be protected. The principle of Subsidiarity has become an approximation or even a misnomer when it is not combined with those of Unity (not uniformity) and Solidarity. The current constitutional debate in the European Convention and in some countries shows the resistance to the idea of a Europe of regions and of a Europe of peoples. Nation States are still reluctant to transfer some of their sovereignty to the regions or to Europe.
Nation States are also too small to face the global challenges. Both national solutions and the intergovernmental method of cooperation between States have proved to be unable to play an efficient role in world issues. Eurosceptics have no vision of the future Europe; they only have a vision of the Europe of the past. Europeans reject steps backward towards a Europe of Nation States and status quo in the process of building a political Europe. The Nice Treaty is in itself the best plea for giving up the diplomatic method of drafting intergovernmental treaties. The argument would even be stronger in the enlarged European Union. The Convention method opens a new era, the one of a democratic constituent process. But a change of method does not necessarily guarantee a change of nature of the European Union. Only a federal Constitution endowing a European union with democratic legitimacy and a decentralised distribution of powers can transform the current EU into a genuine federal Europe. This re-founding of Europe requires a political will and the people’s support.
There is still a long way to go. The Greens should give priority to saving the planet, not to saving seats in political assemblies. The Greens should be the vanguard of the political class towards an ecological, regional and federal Europe.
