Twenty Years of European Greens
1984 - 2004
edited by Arnold Cassola & Per Gahrton
Miroslav Rokos
Czech Green Party
- EFGP delegate in Berlin 1997
For the first time I participated in a Council Meeting in May 1997. I remember very well that Friday when I got off a train in Berlin and went to the meeting place having very mixed feelings. That journey was a result of nearly a year of negotiations on the Czech Green Party application for EFGP membership. At that time I hardly could imagine how it would change my life and what it could mean for our party.
Entering the place where the Council Meeting was held, I was a bit afraid of many strange people present at the event. The only two persons who I knew were Heidi Meinzolt-Depner and Niki Kortvelyessy, both Committee members. With Heidi I was dealing on our application and Niki I met in 1992 in England where I was with my colleagues to have a look at an election campaign run by British Greens.
Eventually I found two more people I knew – my Slovak friends: Eva Rydza and Dusan Bevilaqua. It was very helpful for me because whenever I didn’t know what to do I was doing what they were doing. At that time the Slovak Green Party was much more successful than the Czech Greens and it was already a member of the Federation.
We lost time because of some internal problems concerning our previous member Roman Haken. He used to be the man responsible for international affairs and he took part in the first EFGP congress in Vienna. Afterwards he resigned and for some time there was nobody who would substitute him. Later on I started working in that field.
I remember that the Council Meeting in Berlin was one of the most important ones.
Not because it decided about our membership but above all, a new Committee was elected there. Now I can confess that I was not able to follow all the issues that were discussed in that Council Meeting. The main reason was that I heard most of the present people for the first time and I was not accustomed to their pronunciation. Listening to their speeches, in some cases I was not sure if it was really English. Fortunately I was not yet obliged to vote.
At the beginning I have written that I remember well that Friday. To tell the truth, I meant only the first moments when I came to the meeting place. At that moment I was rather confused. I still remember clearly the moment when the Council approved our membership – it was very impressive for me – and the Saturday evening party in a ship on Spree. And also a sentence which Heidi Meinzolt-Depner told me when the Council Meeting had finished: „See you somewhere in Europe“. Really, since that day I have been in many places in Europe with my green colleagues and I am grateful for that. I can do something useful and at the same time I can meet with friends and get to know new countries and places.
