Greenroots strategies for a citizens’ Europe

Conclusions and follow-up of a fringe meeting on November 12, 2011, at the European Green Party congress in Paris. The meeting / exchange was co-organised hosted by the Individual Supporter’s Network to the EGP and Fédécolo, an informal network within the French party EELV that stimulates federalist practices and ideas. Detailed reflections will be added later, here are the main strategies that emerged and how you can get involved.

Fédécolo, an informal federalist group within Europe Écologie-Les Verts, has shown that informal groups can weigh upon a party’s programme and policies simply by writing good reflection texts, asking candidates to respond to declarations, or organising public events.

GreenYourope, a European Network of grassroot Greens, has shown that many forms of action and reflection are possible and called for – from crossborder actions to a GreenYouropean site – which connect the European and cross- and trans-border approach to everyday life.

From these experiences, and inspired by the philosophical introduction of Edouard Gaudot and Peter Loosli’s presentation of a Swiss-French initiative in the Geneva region, we have identified the following strategies for common ‘Greenroots’ actions that could have an immediate and powerful impact.

STRATEGY 1: Trans-border activist communities. This strategy aims at creating trans-border regions where Greens from both sides of country borders think and plan the future of the region, and at spreading the news about existing initiatives. It focuses on creating a common trans-border identity and action.

STRATEGY 2: Expatriate elections exchange programme. This strategy focuses on identifying expatriates and expatriate communities of various nationalities within cities or urban areas that can support both the Green parties in their countries of origin and the local Green party during election campaigns. The Swedish community in the recent municipal elections in Oslo has provided a good example.

STRATEGY 3: Mobilising for a Federal Europe. This strategy aims at reinforcing the (democratic) legitimacy of the EU by changing the Union’s rules. The real work has to be done by representatives of member states in the European Parliament and council. But without action in society, federalists won’t get a majority, as Andrew Duff’s attempt at trans-national lists proves.

Each strategy targets a specific group of Greens; people living in border regions, expatriates from urban areas, those who expand their horizons through the Internet and convinced Europeans. In all cases though, we’ll use upcoming electoral campaigns identify concrete issues and trigger energies. And the strategies share the following broad effects: they

* Increase the voter base by encouraging foreigners and bi-nationals to register as voters

* Increase the visibility of Greens and their share in election results

* Increase our grassroots’ task force by mobilising people to join us in full or for specific actions.

The first and second strategy can help us to build a basis for the third: if we manage to put forward a couple of inspiring examples, and expand those to other regions in Europe, we can build our European elections campaign in 2014 on a Europe wide platform of citizens, and present a Federal Europe as a concrete and credible alternative!

Starting point for those actions are grassroot Greens. What can you, as a member of a Green party, do, no matter whether you are living in an international urban area, a border region or simply on the digital web?

1) Identify upcoming elections and find out what legal rules apply to the participation of foreigners;

2) Contact local trans-border communities, expatriates and expatriate communities, or federalist groups inside your party. If the Green party of one of the nationalities involved has an expat section, this should be your first contact point (for the French party, it’s Guillaume Sellier at the European Parliament);

3) If your national party doesn’t have an expat section, make sure it creates one – and contact the Network if you need support!

4) Inform potential voters/militants of upcoming elections, issues and rules for registration – many people living abroad are not yet registered to vote in either their original country or their new one.

5) Motivate MPs, city councillors, MEPs, etc. to campaign abroad. Find funding from your local party for their travel costs, if necessary, telling them it contributes to building a European public sphere.

6) Report back within the ISN or your local federalist network, to share best practices and ideas.

Parallel to those two strategies, we’ll prepare the ground for the third: a Campaign for a Federal Europe. The Paris Declaration provides a starting point within the EGP. Meanwhile, you, members of Green parties can

Join a federalist group inside your party or, if it doesn’t exist, set up such a group – and contact us to get new links
Organise, together with other federalist movements, local debates about a Federal Europe;
Help us to find partners to organise a European Citizens’ Initiative for a Federal Europe in the run-up to the European Elections 2014
Take part in the online debate we’ll be launching shortly