Tour 06 – The Story

HEERLEN on TOUR ’06 – The Story

Heerleners who wanted to see and hear for themselves how the other European Greens get together took off in to no less than six festivals, summer weekends, – universities and congresses … to get that authentic local whiff and to bring the European Green Party and its individual supportership to grassroots members. Underneath are their stories. But before you plunge into them read our ….

Apology to the EGP The newsletters and folders we distributed this summer, tell you that the Heerlen Group is campaigning for an open, democratic European green party. By this we mean a party like the national ones, linking European individuals, not just a parties. If we have suggested that the EGP is not open and democratic, this has been totally unintended. Democracy exists in forms as there are democratic parties and the EGP, as a common project of 35 democratic green parties, is certainly one of them.

24-27/8 Coutances (Manche, Fr) – JOURNÉÉS D’ÉTÉ (Les Verts)

Oui, je veux devenir membre du Parti Vert Européen! – Christophe Rossignol Plan B … États Généraux?

Coutances – From the future European constitution through encounters with oversees greens from as far as Guadeloupe to over a hundred members eager to become individual supporters of the European Green Party: a lot was on the menue in this little Normandy village. More

25-27/8 – Nieuwpoort (Be) : GREEN SUMMER WEEKEND (Groen!)

- Johan Hamels, secretaris Groen! en penningmeester EGP

Personal Europe stories

Between family talk and a walk in the dunes the members of Groen! found time for a literary salon and the meaning of Europe for a young prominent. More 1-3/9 Berlin (Ge) – FUTURE CONGRESS Wie geht’s nach Morgen? (Die Grünen)

‘Ich will Mitglied der Europäischen Grünen Partei werden’ - Antje von Broock

Back to radical root

Berlin – Although the proof would come a fortnight later, when the German Greens scored 13,1 % in the regional elections, the party’s Future Congress (1-3 September) marked their recovery from the recent crisis. The congress announced a return to the radical roots and the visionary prospects Die Grünen once were famous for, and a frankness to name the dilemma’s all green parties face. Making Europe one of the six main themes, the party also posed its candidacy for hosting the first European Green Summer University in the near future. The only thing it did not do, was to discuss the EGP’s draft A Green Future for Europe with its members. more

10/9 Amsterdam (Ne) – A GREEN FUTURE FOR EUROPE – panel debate (Groenlinks)

Direct membership: when?

Amsterdam – Some want it large, others more integrated; some want shared values, others multiculturalism. But however divided the participants of this debate were about the future of the EU, on that of the EGP they agreed: direct membership is the only way to achieve a breakthrough. The only question still open: when should it be introduced? more

21-24/9 Hove (UK) – AUTUMN CONFERENCE Green Party of England and Wales

‘Yes, I want to become a member of the European Green Party’- Jean Lambert, member of the European Parliament for the GPEW

Fighting ‘fakes’

Hove – Whereas in home affairs rivals try to steal its environmental agenda, the Green Party of England and Wales gradually gets more interested in European affairs. During the autumn conference in the seaside resort of Hove, even the individual supportership of the European Green Party, tabled by the Heerlen Group, was subject of a small but lively debate. more