Watered-down Greens aim to remain a force for good

By Karen Carstens

Date: 10/06/04

RELATIVELY speaking, green politicians will have a less powerful voice in the new, 732-seat European Parliament, but they are due to emerge only marginally weaker than they are now in terms of sheer numbers.

Their stronghold is Germany, where some 13 environmentally friendly candidates on a list of 30 are tipped to make it into Parliament.

Grouped together with MEPs from a range of regional parties under the 47-strong European Free Alliance/The Greens banner, there are currently 38 Green members - the number is expected to stabilize at 39.

The party looks set to lose out in the new member states, with only Slovenia, Latvia and Malta due to reinforce its ranks, according to Helmut Weixler, spokesman for the Greens in the Parliament.

There is also "a very slim chance", he said, that Green MEPs will get elected in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic, compared to no chance in Poland, where a national 5% threshold will prove impossible to cross.

"We would need something like 30% of the votes in Warsaw," Weixler said.

A 'better food' campaign for a 'European food culture' has been key to the Greens' election strategy. Seeking to promote healthy and sustainable farming and eating habits, with a special focus on the health of children, it struck a chord in countries including Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Preventing 'GM contamination' - when genetically modified crops end up intermingling with their conventional or organic counterparts - was also high on the agenda.

Other issues included combating climate change, the EU's controversial chemicals policy reform - due to be debated this autumn by the new Parliament - and scrapping the Euratom Treaty on nuclear energy.

The Greens have also pushed for the opening of EU accession talks with Turkey.

Events have played well into the hands of the Greens, notably the European Commission's approval last month of Syngenta's Bt-11 GM sweetcorn for import into the EU and a global renewable energy conference earlier this month in Bonn, Germany. Meanwhile, Hollywood also lent a helping hand: The Day After Tomorrow, a climate-change disaster blockbuster, hit European cinemas just a few weeks ago.

The Greens used the opportunity to distribute thousands of campaign flyers to moviegoers in several member states.

Another American film, Supersize Me, about a man who eats a well-known burger chain's 'supersize' portions for several weeks and documents what happens to his body in the process, also "fits right in" to the Greens' 'better food' message, Weixler added.

But in order to maintain a high profile in the next Parliament, the Greens would need to enter into alliances.

One option would be to band together with the Liberals, who are set to have some 70 members in the new legislature.

Another would be a loose alliance of 'pro-European' parties.

But whatever coalition they choose to become a part of, the Greens insist they will keep their political identity.

Article forms part of a European Voice 'European Election Special'.