GreenYourope 10 – Democracy in Times of Pirates

Democracy is at the core of the 10th annual meeting of EGP Supporters, which we will probably take place in Vienna, in April 2012, under the name GreenYourope, which replaces both Heerlen and EGP Supporters’ Network.

Why democracy? For a start, we put our belief in participative democracy in practice, by inviting all EGP supporters to propose topics for workshops and debates. For your inspiration, however, we have done some creative thinking, resulting in the following options, all of which address new challenges of democracy:

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  Cover of Hakim Bey's famous description of pirate democracy

  The Pirates, who took Sweden – two European seats – and Berlin – 15 seats in the Parliament – by surprise, embarrass many Greens. Competitors or allies, their methods certainly set a new trend in democracy.

• European lists and a Federal Convention by 2015 are just two ways to save the EU from being assassinated by nationalisms. The problem is, that they only will be adopted with a certain amount of popular support. For which we’ll be designing a campaign.

• Arab Spring, Indignados, Occupy: the calls for democratic control are, although very different, getting louder world wide.  How can Green parties respond and support?

• From Durban to Rio + 10: can we give the Green delegation a message, like a proposal for democratic control over the worlds’ rapidly decreasing resources?

And one that has less to do with democracy but everything with ecology:

• Health as a new Challenge for European Greens.