Happy Europe Day!
73 years ago, on 9 May 1950, the Schuman declaration marked the beginning of the most ambitious peace project on the continent, a project aimed at making war in Europe "not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible".
Today, we celebrate the peace and unity that we have managed to secure in the European Union over the past decades.
However, our celebration is bittersweet: Putin's illegal and unprovoked war of aggression has brought war back to the European continent, with devastating consequences for the Ukrainian people. His war is also an attack on the values that define us as Europeans: democracy, human rights, and freedom, and an attempt to destabilise the very thing we celebrate today: unity in Europe.
Following the invasion, the EU was swiftly unified in its condemnation of Putin's war and in support of Ukraine. Despite Putin’s hopes to divide Europe by weaponising Europe’s energy supply, the EU demonstrated resilience and held firm in the face of adversity time and time again.
As Greens, we have stood united and have shaped common answers both at the national and European levels. Our support to the Ukrainian resistance will continue for as long as it takes and as much as it is needed.
But this war is also a pressing reminder that, to keep up to the European dream, maintain its peace promise and create shared prosperity, the European Union must deliver on challenges that have become even more pressing with this war.
73 years ago, the pooling of coal and steel production was the tool to serve peace and solidarity.
Today more than ever, making our continent independent from fossil fuels, meeting the goals of the Paris agreement thanks to massive investment in the just green transition, countering social inequalities and fighting internal attacks on democracy, is the only way to deliver on the original peace promise of the European project and ensure sustainable shared prosperity.
Today more than ever, for the European dream to become true, for Europe to be able to protect its values, to maintain peace, to organise our economy within the planet boundaries, and to make sure no one is left behind, Europe must go green.
In solidarity,
European Green Party Co-Chairs Mélanie Vogel, Thomas Waitz
