European Green Party

Petra Kelly and Bram van der Lek

In 1979, Daniel Brélaz became the world first green member of a national parliament (Switzerland).

In 1979 the Coordination of European Green and Radical Parties (CEGRP) was set up to co-ordinate the participation of Green and Radical parties in the 1979 European Parliament election: There were considerable differences between the Green and Radical groups and the parties were unable to form a common pan-European electoral platform.[3] Although some parties polled well, no Green entered the European Parliament.

In the 1984 election the Greens participated again. They held a congress in the spring of 1984 in Liège and set up a restructured European Green Coordination (EGC), with a secretariat provided by the Dutch Political Party of Radicals. They also issued a Joint Declaration of the European Green Parties. Furthermore, overall the member parties had grown stronger. Eleven MEPs of member parties were elected to the European Parliament.[lower-alpha 1] They formed the Green Alternative European Link (GRAEL) in the European Parliament. The group was too small to be recognised by the Parliament for funds and committees and therefore it joined the Rainbow Group, which also encompassed regionalists, the Danish People's Movement against the European Community and some radicals and socialists.

The European Greens formed a loose confederal triangular structure with the autonomous GRAEL in parliament, the weak EGC as a supra-national co-ordinating body and the member parties. The position of the European Greens was also weakened by the principle of rotation which some member parties (Germany and the Netherlands) used, with their MEPs being replaced by another after serving half their term. This rotation technique originated with the German Greens to prevent their members being co-opted by the informal negotiation system within the Bundestag,[4] but it served them badly within the European Parliament.

For the Dutch parties, the choice for rotation was a compromise between three parties which had only two seats in parliament: one seat was kept by the top candidate while the second seat rotated between the second and the third candidate. This way each party would have a representative in the EP. Finally, there still was considerable diversity in the opinions of the Greens, especially between pro-European and Eurosceptic tendencies. These factors weakened the position of the Greens in Parliament.

In the 1989 election the Green parties won 26 seats.[lower-alpha 2] Because of political conflicts with the continuing Rainbow Group, the European Greens formed a separate parliamentary group, The Green Group in the European Parliament. During this period, the Greens became more entrenched in parliament.

Dominique Voynet, Joschka Fischer and Pekka Haavisto. France, Germany and Finland had the first green ministers in a European government

In June 1993 the European Federation of Green Parties was formed by the members of the EGC in Kirkkonummi, Finland. The organisation became more structured, it now had a triennial Congress, a Council and a Federation Committee (executive). It strengthened its ties with the Green Group in the European parliament.

In the 1994 European elections Green parties won a total of 20 seats.[lower-alpha 3] They were joined by a member of the Danish Socialist People's Party and one member of both the Italian South Tyrolean People's Party and The Network. Again the Greens formed a separate group from Rainbow Group, now renamed the European Radical Alliance.

In the 1999 European elections the European Greens performed particularly well winning 38 seats.[lower-alpha 4] They formed a combined group with the European Free Alliance, which represented regionalist parties and independence movements, which previously participated in the European Radical Alliance. The relationship between the Greens and these parties was different from before, as the Greens were stronger both numerically and politically.

Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg; Femke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam and Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria

The European Green Party was founded at the Fourth Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties on 20–22 February 2004 in Rome, a party convention with over 1,000 delegates. Thirty-two Green parties from all over Europe joined this new pan-European party. The foundation of the new party was finalised with the signing of the treaty constituting the party in the Capitol of Rome. As such the Greens were the first to form a political party at European level, the other European federations followed suit between 2004 and 2006.

In the 2004 European Parliament election the member parties won 35 Seats. In the 2009 European Parliament election, even though the European Parliament was reduced in size, the EGP member parties won 46 seats, the best result of the Green Parties in 30 years.

In the 2014 European Parliament election the green candidates were José Bové and Ska Keller. The campaign was at a European level, Ska Keller participating in broadcast debates with the other candidates for the European Commission presidency. After the economic crisis, the green parties have consolidated its presence in the local and regional level. Green mayors as Éric Piolle in Grenoble or Fritz Kuhn in Stuttgart are good examples. Femke Halsema became the second green mayor of a European capital city, Amsterdam, after Francesco Rutelli (Rome). At the regional level, Winfried Kretschmann became President of Baden-Württemberg.

Inés Sabanés and Célia Blauel are respectively members of the local governments of Madrid and Paris, being both responsible of the environment portfolio.

Alexander Van der Bellen became the first green head of state in the world, representing Austria.

The candidates for the 2019 European Parliament election, are Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout.

In the year 2020 the European Greens achieves big gains in local elections throughout Europe, being elected green mayors in Lyon, Strasbourg, Besançon, Marseille or Bourdeaux among others in France and in capital city Dublin in Ireland as well as Aachen, Cologne or Bonn in Germany.

Also green parties presence in national governments are the highest in history, being junior coalition parties in the governments of Sweden, Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, North Macedonia and Montenegro.

Country	Region/Sub-division	Name	MEPs	National MPs		Regional/Sub-national MPs /Councillors	Local MPs / Councillors
				Upper house	Lower House
Albania	National	Green Party of Albania	Not in EU	0 / 140		0 / 61 [lower-alpha 8]	12 / 1,785
Andorra	National	Greens of Andorra	Not in EU	0 / 28		N/A
Austria	National	The Greens – The Green Alternative	3 / 18	26 / 183 [lower-alpha 9]	4 / 61 [lower-alpha 10]	0 / 9 [lower-alpha 11] 4 / 9 [lower-alpha 12] 47 / 440 [lower-alpha 13]
Belgium	Flemish	Groen	1 / 12 [lower-alpha 14]	8 / 102 [lower-alpha 15]		18 / 213 [lower-alpha 16]
	French	Ecolo	2 / 9 [lower-alpha 17]		13 / 63 [lower-alpha 18]	30 / 189 [lower-alpha 19]
	German
Bulgaria	National	Green Party of Bulgaria[12]	0 / 17		0 / 240	–
		The Greens	0 / 17	0 / 240		-
Cyprus	Greek Cypriot	Movement of Ecologists — Citizens' Cooperation	0 / 6	2 / 56		N/A	4 / 478
Czech Republic	National	Green Party	0 / 22	0 / 200 [lower-alpha 20]	1 / 81 [lower-alpha 21]	6 / 675 [lower-alpha 22]	323 / 62,178 [lower-alpha 23]
Denmark	National	Socialist People's Party	2 / 13	15 / 179 [lower-alpha 24]		15 / 205 [lower-alpha 25][13]	126 / 2,432 [lower-alpha 26][14] 1 / 98 [lower-alpha 27]
Estonia	National	Estonian Greens	0 / 7	0 / 101		–
Finland	National	Green League	3 / 13	20 / 200		–	536 / 8,999 [lower-alpha 28]
France	National	Europe Ecology – The Greens	10 / 74	0 / 577		–
Georgia	National	Green Party of Georgia	Not in EU	0 / 150		–
Germany	National	Alliance '90/The Greens	21 / 96	67 / 709		–
Greece	National	Ecologist Greens	0 / 21	0 / 300		5 / 703 [lower-alpha 29]
Hungary	National	Politics Can Be Different	1 / 21	8 / 199		–
Ireland	National	Green Party/Comhaontas Glas[lower-alpha 30]	2 / 13	12 / 160		–
Italy	National	Federation of the Greens	0 / 73	0 / 315 [lower-alpha 31]	0 / 630 [lower-alpha 32]	4 / 897 [lower-alpha 33]
	South Tyrol	Greens	–	–		3 / 35 [lower-alpha 34]
Lithuania	National	Lithuanian Green Party	–		1 / 141	–
Luxembourg	National	The Greens	1 / 6	6 / 60		–
Malta	National	AD+PD	–	–	–
Moldova	National	Ecologist Green Party	Not in EU	–	–	-
Montenegro	National	United Reform Action	Not in EU	4 / 81	–	–	19 / 786
Netherlands	National	GreenLeft	3 / 26		14 / 150	–
North Macedonia	National	Democratic Renewal of Macedonia	Not in EU	2 / 123		–
Norway	National	Environmental Party The Greens	Not in EU	1 / 169		–
Poland	National	The Greens	1 / 51		3 / 460	–
Portugal	National	LIVRE	–	0 / 230		–
		People–Animals–Nature	0 / 21	4 / 230		–
		Ecologist Party "The Greens"	–	2 / 230		–
Romania	National	Green Party	0 / 32	0 / 136 [lower-alpha 35]	1 / 329 [lower-alpha 36]	0 / 1,340 [lower-alpha 37] 1 / 3,174 [lower-alpha 38]	117 / 39,900 [lower-alpha 39]
Slovakia	National	Green Party[15]	–	–	–	-
Slovenia	–	Youth Party – European Greens	–	–	–	-
Spain	National	EQUO	0 / 54		1 / 350	–
	Catalonia	Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds	1 / 54	2 / 350	–
Sweden	National	Green Party	3 / 20	16 / 349 [lower-alpha 40][16]		48 / 1,696 [lower-alpha 41][17]	395 / 12,700 [lower-alpha 42][18]
Switzerland	–	Green Party of Switzerland	Not in EU		28 / 200	–
Ukraine	–	Party of Greens of Ukraine	Not in EU	0 / 450		0 / 1,804	36 / 158,399 [19]
United Kingdom	England	Green Party of England and Wales	Not in EU	1 / 650 [lower-alpha 43][20]	1 / 650 [lower-alpha 44]	N/A	382 / 18,560 [lower-alpha 45]
	Wales					0 / 60 [lower-alpha 46]
	Northern Ireland	Green Party in Northern Ireland [lower-alpha 47]			0 / 18 [lower-alpha 48]	2 / 90 [lower-alpha 49]	8 / 462 [lower-alpha 50]
	Scotland	Scottish Green Party			0 / 59 [lower-alpha 51]	6 / 129 [lower-alpha 52]	19 / 1,227

• 
  Werner Kogler, Vice-Chancellor of Austria
• 
  Dritan Abazović, Deputy Prime Minister of Montenegro
• 
  Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications & Transport of Ireland
• 
  Carlo Ripa di Meana was European Commissioner for the Environment and Italian Minister of the Environment

Green Pro-European demonstration in Rome, 2017

Federation of Young European Greens demonstration in Copenhagen during the Climate Summit 2009

De Grønne from Denmark were expelled from the EGP in 2008. The reason was that De Grønne intended to co-operate with the People's Movement against the EU in the upcoming 2009 European elections, a national party which sits with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left parliamentary group instead of the Greens–European Free Alliance. The party was disbanded in 2014.

On 13 May 2012, the Council of the EGP withdrew the membership of Confederation of the Greens (Los Verdes) from Spain,[25] after several months of negotiations, and mainly because 13 out of 16 parties (formerly within the Confederation of the Greens) decided to join EQUO.

The Green Left from Hungary withdrew its membership on 7 September 2015 because of financial reasons. They disbanded in 2018.

On 10 November 2019, the Latvian Green Party was expelled from the EGP, due to its nationalist, anti-LGBT and anti-immigration views.[26]

The Greens from the Netherlands withdrew the EGP in 2017.[27]

Country	Year left	Name	MEPs (current)	National MPs (current)
Denmark	2012	De Grønne	n/a - defunct
Hungary	2015	Green Left	n/a - defunct
Latvia	2019	Latvian Green Party	-	6 / 100
Netherlands	2017	The Greens	-	-
Russia	2016[lower-alpha 53]	Green Alternative [lower-alpha 54]	Not in EU	-
Spain	2012	Confederation of the Greens	-	-

The EGP hosts a collection of networks that have specific special interest focus, including:

• Federation of Young European Greens, a federation of European Green youth organisations
• European Network of Green Seniors
• EGP Gender Network
• European Queer Greens