From Heerlen to EGP Supporters’ Network

The Supporters’ Network hasn’t started from scrap. It builds on almost eight years of experience of a Grassroots’ initiative from 2002 called Heerlen Group.

In January 2002, twenty-odd members of the Green parties of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands met in Heerlen, a former Dutch mining town a stone’s throw from Three Countries’ Point where their country borders meet. The meeting took place at a symbolic moment: only days before the Euro had been introduced, Europe’s common money which made European citizens literally feel the Union in their pockets for the first time.

Each had his own reason to attend. Some dreamt of a borderless Europe in which Europeans are organised in European parties and vote for nation-less lists. Others saw social movements increasingly cross borders, gather in social forums, counter summits and international protests, and regretted that the Greens, who have their roots in those movements, still had nation-state based strongholds. And yet others wanted to share views and practices with Greens from other countries or where already living in an international world.

But they shared a dream: a Europe owned by its citizens just as Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are owned by theirs.

European Dream

The European dream as we called it, might have been logical: if you share your money and your market, why not share a political space to discuss and address the consequences? But reality proved to be different. The Europe that hit the headlines was, and still is, the Union of governments and heads

of state, not the Europe of Parliament and public debate. Only once every five years that changes: during the elections for the European Parliament. But even those are organised nationally. And so are political parties. With good reason: they depended on national funding, which is based on national results.

Soon however things started to change. For some procedural reason the European Federation of Green Parties changed its statutes. It seized the moment to change its name as well, into European Green Party. That may have been partly intended as window dressing for the European campaign of 2009, as critics pointed out. But …

…it also proved to be the start of a process of ever closer cooperation, resulting in a new Charter, a series of vision papers on issues like migration,  economy and social affairs, that gradually replaced the culture of voting resolutions that warned the world for the last time but were forgotten before the ink was dry. The most recent of those visions, the Green New Deal for Europe, that tackles both credit and climate crisis, was not only the basis for the successful European campaign of 2009, but will most probably cast its shadows far into the future.

And the parties adopted the Individual Supportership, the first ever formalised right to participate in party politics on a supra national leve, which the Heerlen Group saw as an ideal starting point to pursue its ideals from.

Added Value

A line in the statutes however is not enough to bring about change. Some EGP member parties turned out to have serious doubts about the idea, fearing that individuals might undermine their position within the EGP, or that political enemies might join en masse through the European door and harm their position back home. Others were afraid that energy put into European action would sap forces needed for their own programme. And yet others, the majority, were simply not interested or put the issue at the bottom of their priority list.

So the group decided to prove the contrary. It •campaigned across borders during European Elections, together with local groups along country borders – some of whom had never really bothered about European elections before; • participated in anti international anti-nuclear actions and  • attended European Social Forums to give Greens more visibility on the international scene.

It also developed more permanent activities, like • stimulating permanent cross border cooperation between local and regional groups, by putting best practices (Borderless Green and Social in the northern German-Dutch border region, the Iron Curtain Trail or the thriving three party cooperation of Les Verts, Groen! and Écolo in Flanders) online, a proof that joining local forces across borders can make a difference, • annual meetings, during which grassroots Greens from all over Europe share its passion for a borderless Europe, • interactive communications channels, • and a tour along party meetings to spread the message to local Greens – and collect their views on the matter.

What has it brought?

New horizons – like a taste of local beers, Green football interlands– most matches ending, in good Green tradition, in a draw; an exchange of party gadgets, like an EU recipe booklet, a daring slogan ‘You decide who’ll get in’ found on a German Green condom pack, and paper windmills in all shades of green.

New People - Altough most active Network members still come from the original three countries, people from all corners of Europe have joined since. And the current team consists of no less than 7 nationalities and 8 party memberships.

Inspiration – the Network came across cross border projects for landscape parks and bicycle trails, greener harbours and local food policies, or against coal plants and unnecessary airports. It discussed common concerns like the rise of populism making you wonder whether the Green message shouldn’t be told in a more accessible way, or the local possibilities of the Green New Deal.

A taste for diversity - Les Verts (Fr) adore heated debates from dawn till well after dusk, Écolo (Walloon) combines marathon training sessions with innovation and creativity – like Archiborescences et biomimetism as a new principle for building houses and designing cityscapes. The English and Welsh Greens, not represented in government because of the countries problematic election system, show what difference local ambition can make, even in mega cities like London. And German Greens adore electing their members of European parliaments in marathon sessions in which each candidate has the right to deliver an elaborate speech.

United in Diversity

Party cultures are very different indeed, the Network found out: German Greens tend to stick to hierarchy, whereas GroenLinks is relatively ‘flat’ and the Green Party of England and Wales only gave up its principle of having no leader after a battle of over 25 years. And politically speaking, some parties tend to put red first, others green; some reject economic growth, whereas others believe the greenhouse effect can be tamed by ecological rules.

Most differences, however, have less to do with the parties than with tensions within the Green concept as such, and occur in every party. In the end, all Greens agree that all that human activity should accept the limits of the ecosystem and extend social justice and human rights to the entire earth. And although for some the European Union is part of the problem and for others part of the solution, all agree that, once a supra national level of decision making exists, it is better to play an active part in it than to hide behind national walls.

So grassroots of all parties have all the more reason to follow their party leaderships leaders and join hands. And indeed, wherever the Network went, it saw an eagerness to exchange experiences and views; and to think and talk together about the Europe we share.

2009:

OUT Heerlen Group - IN EGP Supporters’ Network

Still there were reasons for concern: the number of people actively engaged in cross border participation didn’t go up much – and certainly didn’t match the growing pile of proposals from within the Network, and the expectations of some of our fans.  There are several reasons for it:

• For individuals, the national level still prevailed. People joining our group do so out of idealism or the desire to be part of a European political space, not out of political necessities  like winning elections, building a political career or tabling proposals for change; those battles are still fought in the national arena.
• The same could be said for parties, whose support is indispensable. It is the main reason that, for most, implementing the EGP Supportership and stimulating international participation still aren’t high on the priority lists.
• Within the EGP, the Heerlen Group was seriously handicapped by its’ status as a self-named pilot project for individual Supportership; resulting in skepticism in the executive, the EGP Committee, and confusion among parties and individual Greens.

The last problem has been tackled succesfully after almost three years of talks with the Commitee, which valued our work but  wanted a certain amount of control. A solution was found in the form of a newly created EGP Supporters’ Network, with both grassroots’ representatives (2/3) and EGP committee nominees in its coordinating team, which will build on Heerlen experience. After an almost unanimous vote the Network was accepted by the EGP council in March 2009.

The newly created Network will use its stronger and clearer position as an EGP initiative, tackle the remaining hurdles by paving the way to the individuals supportership for parties that are still hesitant, announcing the option more clearly, and launching, together with party branches and working groups, actions that prove that it adds to the Greens’ acting capacity.

Facts and figures

The Heerlen/EGP Supporters’ Network has

• organised 7 annual conferences and one regional one
• visited Écolo, Les Verts, GroenLinks, Groen!, the Green Party of England and Wales and the European Green Summer University in Frankfurt am Oder/Slubice) during 5 years of ‘Heerlen on Tour’
• organised 12 fringe meetings for party delegates during EGP councils and congresses,
• issued some 38 <CHCK> Newsletters
• run the website www.greenyourope.net for five years, and
• organised 2 Cross Border Relay tours for the elections of 2004 and 2009.