European-wide Green alliance brings together 25 parties
Financial Times, 5 June 2004

By Hugh Williamson in Berlin

An alliance created by 25 Green parties before next week's European parliamentary elections has helped counter the focus in many countries on national rather than European issues, according to a leader of the Green parties.

European issues have taken a back seat to debates on the performance of national governments in most of the European Union's member states, but the creation of the European Greens has forced party members and the public to focus on cross-border issues, said Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

"Our candidates have made a commitment in the common platform to focus on European issues. This has made a difference in how the Greens are seen, and, in some countries, in our election chances," said Mr Cohn- Bendit in an interview with the Financial Times. He is a French member of the European parliament (MEP), but is a leading candidate for the German Greens in the elections.

Polls suggest the German Greens will double their share of the vote from 6 per cent in 1999 to more than 12 per cent next Sunday.

Support is relatively strong in Ireland, France and Portugal, although the common platform has not helped stir interest in eastern European countries which joined the EU in May.

Mr Cohn-Bendit, one of Europe's best-known MEPs, admitted that finding common ground between Green parties spread between Helsinki and Athens had not been easy. Divisions over sensitive issues such as European integration had posed problems.

He said this had led to "vague wording" on such issues, and an acknowledgement that parties could stray from the platform in detailed policy debates.

Parts of the party's common policy agenda included issues such as stronger measures against climate change, less focus in transport policy on heavy goods traffic, stricter controls on genetically-modified food, and the promotion of a European film industry.

He acknowledged that Green candidates had also been drawn into national debates, such as conflicting national positions towards Iraq, but argued that this undermined the basis of European politics.

"We need to foster a political culture where we argue about European social policy or the EU's role in the world as passionately as about national issues."

In a German poll yesterday 56 per cent of respondents said that domestic issues were more important than European concerns.

Mr Cohn-Bendit criticised the media for largely ignoring the elections to the European Parliament. "Editors decide the public are not interested, and this turns into a vicious cycle".

He predicted that the Socialist and Liberal groupings in the European parliament would build common platforms ahead of the next European elections in 2009.