Spring Council ends: Determined for an open and democratic Europe

PRESS RELEASE

EUROPEAN GREEN PARTY SPRING COUNCIL ENDS: DETERMINED FOR AN OPEN AND DEMOCRATIC EUROPE

The European Green Party's Spring Council in Utrecht, the Netherlands, has come to a close. In light of a succesful Council, the Co-Chairs of the European Green Party, Monica Frassoni & Reinhard Bütikofer, share the following statement:

"Three hundred participants travelled here from over 30 countries, to join us for the 24th European Green Party's Spring Council. Our main objective was to speak on how we can open perspectives to strengthen and transform the European project which, today, appears to be particularly shaky. For us, the European project remains one of peace, welfare and Green transformation. The need for a united Europe is why we want to change the EU.

We decided to focus on three main aspects. Firstly, the strengthening of the European project and its transformation. Especially in terms of democracy by reclaiming ownership for the citizens. We can’t leave the discussion up to populist forces, who actually don’t have a proper political proposal to offer.

In terms of content we focused on a Green approach to the economic dimension, like the state of the European steel industry and Nord Stream 2. We, the Greens, are also putting our weight in the balance for the divestment campaign. We think it is an essential instrument in the battle on climate change. It is a priority, not only for the Greens, but for the whole of our society.

Furthermore, we held talks on migration, pointing out that the first priority for us is to win the argument that the EU Member States can and should accept to take in more refugees and properly organise their distribution among them. The necessary agreements to support neighbouting countries like Turkey in hosting refugees should not be exclusively finalized in order to keep our frontiers closed.”