Twenty Years of European Greens
1984 - 2004
edited by Arnold Cassola & Per Gahrton
Franz Floss
Die Grünen (Austria)
- EGC delegate in Majvik, Finland 1993
- EFGP Committee Member 1994 - 1997
- EFGP Spokesperson 1997 - 2000
Thinking back on the foundation of the Federation in Majvik, the first thing that crosses my mind is the joyful feeling of the celebration after the work was done. In a perfect fitting white night at the seaside, the delegates chatted in smaller or bigger groups, some went to the sauna and afterwards to the sea, some of them enjoyed their privacy and everybody was up till the early hours of the morning. I remember, as if it were yesterday, a boat with two people in the early hours of the day rowing out into the morning mist on the sea, to an unknown future but to new borders.
At that time I was very new in international policy and I could not imagine that not more than one year later I would be a member of the committee, and afterwards a spokesperson. But looking back, working in and for the Federation was the most interesting thing I have ever have done in green politics and certainly the time where I learnt most. Seeing how other green parties in different cultural backgrounds, being either smaller or bigger ones, debated, decided, campaigned or even only the way they organised their congresses, gave me a much better understanding of European policy, but also of my national policy at home.
We have obtained quite a lot till now in the Federation. Even in such difficult questions as military affairs we have reached substantial compromises at the European level. But we also face great and crucial decisions at given moments: the experiences of Greens in government, the enlargement of the European Union, the EU constitutional debate and the rise of populist, extreme right wing forces in many European countries. But I am sure this is a challenge that we will master and which will make us stronger. Europe needs strong Greens, now and in the future.
