Twenty Years of European Greens
1984 - 2004
edited by Arnold Cassola & Per Gahrton
Marian Coyne Scottish Green Party
- EFGP Spokesperson 2000 - 2003
My first contact with the European Greens was in Budapest in 1995. I was very nervous as I walked to the door of the Green East-West dialogue meeting, afraid of my ignorance of Greens beyond the shores of Britain. Terrified in case anyone spoke to me, I took a seat among the delegates. Within a few moments I forgot my fears in the fascination of listening to reports from former soviet Republics now struggling to integrate Green ideas into their new democracies. I was hooked!
That fascination with the ‘Green story’ from all over Europe has never left me. When we gather in Council and exchange news and views with each other, we really seem to me to be a whole, which is greater than the sum of our parts. From governing Parties to small activist groups, in comfortable democracies and in conditions of near-dictatorship, from wealthy super-powers to struggling emerging states, the Greens gather as equals, and offer each other encouragement and support.
That encouragement and support was vital for the Scottish Greens as we struggled against an impossible electoral system, a total lack of state funding, and a discouraged activist base. Sometimes we began to despair; it looked like madness to continue. And yet each time we had contact with the Federation, we came home determined to keep going, to communicate our message, to press for democratic reform. As you know, we succeeded in electing the UK’s first Green Parliamentarian in ‘99, and this push helped in the election one month later of 2 MEPs from our neighbouring Green Party in England. So I am proud that we could give something back to European Greens!.
From next year, we will all be part of the European Green Party. This new and necessary evolution for European Greens gives us the opportunity to forge greater coordination of our efforts. My hope for the European Green Party is that alongside that progress, we never lose the inclusiveness, the sense of welcome, the respect for diversity, and the valuing of women which has so strongly impressed me in the European Federation of Green Parties.
