To start off this year’s European elections, the European Green Party (EGP) has adopted its common election manifesto. The manifesto will be presented to European citizens in all the 24 official languages of the European Union, and Catalan. The delegates from the 45 EGP member parties adopted the 2014 Manifesto unanimously.  

Austrian Green Madeline Petrovic has been elected to the EGP Financial Advisory Board at our Electoral Convention meeting in Brussels. Her confirmation to the post, which took place before the Plenary session, was uncontested.   

The Greens in the European Parliament have called for calm after the escalation of violence in Kiev, and said that the EU should adopt targeted sanctions against those who are responsible for the new bloodshed. Green Group co-president Rebecca Harms, who is a member of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, has also called for the Red Cross to be deployed to Kiev.

This year, together with our 33 member parties in the European Union, the European Greens will run the third common European electoral campaign. With the campaign claim “Change Europe, vote Green,” we will demonstrate our vision to change Europe for the better and put it on a sustainable path. The campaign, which we will kick off at our Electoral Convention on Saturday 22 February, will be built on participation, transnationalisation, our Common Manifesto and personalisation. Our two leading candidates, Ska Keller and José Bové, will be the faces and the voices of our campaign and support our member parties across Europe. 

The European Green Party (EGP) have joined with Yeşiller ve Sol Gelecek Partisi, the Turkish Green party, to condemn the new law which would give the transport and communications minister sweeping powers to order the removal of websites which are deemed to infringe on privacy. It would also restrict access to proxy sites which allow users to work around censorship laws, and force internet providers to keep information about their customers' habits online.

The Greens are threatening to ask the European Parliament to officially censure the European Commission, if it continues to push for authorisation of a new GM crop variety. 19 different member states opposed the authorisation of GM maize 1507 on February 11 in the EU General Affairs Council. EU health and consumer policy commissioner Tonio Borg indicated that the European Commission would proceed with the plan nonetheless.

The German Greens gathered in Dresden for their Bundesdelegiertenkonferenz, a three day conference from February 7-9 to decide on their manifesto and select their list for the upcoming European elections. With over 600 amendments and a thrilling race for the top positions on the list, it was an exciting weekend in Dresden.

The 2014 Winter Olympics, opening tonight in Sochi, Russia, is the most expensive Olympics ever. Reports about the catastrophic environmental damage caused during the construction of the games, and Russia's poor human rights record, have overshadowed what should be a joyous international event.