Twenty Years
of European Greens
1984 - 2004
edited by Arnold Cassola &
Per Gahrton
Outi Hannula
VIhreä Liitto (Finland)
- EFGP Treasurer 2001 - to date
I had never heard about an organisation called the “European Federation of Green Parties” until I went for a job interview in October 1997. After a multi-lingual cross examination by the party board, we applicants were given a task to write an invitation letter in English to the EFGP Council meeting, which was to be held in Helsinki in March the following year. I did my best - and to my surprise - I got the job as the new International Relations Officer of the Green League of Finland.
My first task was to organise this Council meeting in Helsinki. It was an efficient beginner’s course to the European Greens! The secretariat, Secretary General Ralph Monö and Ann Verheyen, were always helpful. I don’t recall much of the meeting itself but I remember very well the trip to a nature conservation area just outside Helsinki on Sunday afternoon. Many delegates from all over Europe were thrilled by the new experience of walking on a lake! In late-March, the lakes were still covered with ice and snow.
Later on I was the delegate of the Finnish Greens to the EFGP Council (1998-2001). The Congress in Paris was a great experience: the atmosphere and the enthusiastic expectations for the European elections of June 1999 were unforgettable.
In most organisations, also in the European Greens, there are few people that show genuine interest in budgets and statutes. The Treasurer at the time, Jef Leestmans, soon noticed that I was one of those delegates and asked me to join the treasurers’ meetings. Now, some years later, I find myself elected in his position, despite his warnings!
The financial situation of the EFGP is good and stable at the moment. The effects of the new direct funding of European political parties from the EU, which is scheduled to begin in 2004, remain to be seen. It can improve the situation of the European Greens, but the result can also be the opposite. The new financing and the fact that the EFGP has to move out of the premises of the European Parliament will definitely change the relationship between the Green Group and the Federation. Hopefully the working relations and cooperation will remain strong: we need each other to reach our common goal of a Green Europe.
European Greens will soon have to leave the present official seat in Vienna and move to Brussels. Vienna symbolises pan-European cooperation, especially when compared with “EU-City” Brussels. Despite this change, the European Greens are committed to true pan-European cooperation amongst Greens. While strengthening the Green cooperation in EU affairs, the pan-European character of the European Greens is not to be lost!
