Preliminary
This paper proposes a new asset for the EGP: the EGP Supporters’ Network, intended to help to stimulate European participation by and contacts between grassroots Greens, using the Individual supportership as a statutory tool.
The proposal was drafted after extensive consultation with parties and already involved in Individual Supporters’ activities, the EGP committee and the Heerlen Group, a grassroots network that has been promoting the individual supportership during the last years - as was decided during the EGP council in Montreuil last October 2008.
Because some parties and delegates proved not to be very familiar with the issue at the time, and their cooperation is vital for the scheme to succeed, this resolution is followed by a background text, in which the origin and implementation of the individual supportership are explained, as well as the reasons this Network should be created now, on the eve of the European Elections campaign 2009. The resolution itself defines the nature and purpose of the network, as well as its structure, accountability and financing.
Henk Nijhof (GroenLinks), Lin Tabak (Heerlen Group), Johan Hamels, Juan Behrend (EGP Committee).
TOWARDS AN EGP SUPPORTERS' NETWORK
Background and resolution tabled by GroenLinks, in cooperation with the Heerlen Supporters’ Network and the EGP Committee and supported by Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Zieloni 2004, the Hondarribia unification movement of Los Verdes, Bart Staes (MEP for Groen!), Pierre Jonckheer (MEP for Écolo), Jean Lambert (Green Party of England and Wales).
I. Resolution:
The EGP Council, meeting in Brussels on 29th March, decides to create an EGP Supporters’ Network, an open, flexible and non-hierarchical structure linking individuals, groups and networks from all Green parties, in which all initiatives for cross border participation are welcome and will be encouraged, to help to build a common political space for Greens from all over Europe.
1. Characteristics of the Network
The Supporters’ Network is • Open - to all members of the member and observer parties of the EGP and all persons whom those parties or the EGP have admitted as EGP supporters. • Borderless – so Grassroots Greens from all over Europe can participate, • European – so people from parties and regions not yet represented will be especially encouraged to join, • Border crossing – Many individual parties have working groups on European and international affairs. Some even organise EGP Supporters’ activities for their members. The role of the Network however is, to link Greens from different parties. On the other hand, its scope isn’t limited to European and foreign affairs. The Network may stimulate cooperation on theme issues, cooperation between local groups on either side of a border and contacts between groups that are involved in town twinning or in similar projects,• Free but focused – Such a space doesn’t yet exist and no one, neither parties nor grassroots members, know what it should be like. The Network will be the place to freely experiment with cooperation tools and find out which ones work and which don’t. The Network can only become a success however, if it is trusted by the EGP and its member parties and feels that its capacities are welcomed and used,
• Accountable – As a project regarding all member parties, the Network is fully accountable to the EGP council.
2. Purposes of the Network
A. The main purpose of the Network is, to offer grassroots Greens a concrete European and cross border participation perspective, and to facilitate cross border communication and exchange between individuals, networks and groups. B. As the individual supportership is the structural link between grassroots Greens and between grassroots Greens and the EGP, the Network will, together with the EGP committee, promote its introduction and implementation in the member parties. Whenever asked for, the Network assists those parties to implement the scheme. C. As part and parcel of the European Green family the Network cooperates closely with the EGP, its member parties, other Green grassroots structures like the European Network of Green Seniors and the Federation of Young European Greens, and the Green Group in Parliament. The Network may be asked by EGP, member parties or Greens/EFA in the European Parliament to play a role in cross border campaigns and projects, – if possibly in cooperation with the Green Foundation and/or training and research units of individual parties. The Network in turn may propose actions and projects to the EGP and its member parties, and may advise on other EGP-activities addressed at grassroots members, like the Update Flash and common campaigns.
3. Place of the Network within the European Green structures
A Coordination Team coordinates the Network’s activities and ensures a cooperation with the EGP, the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament and the EGP member parties that benefits all. The team consists of twelve members: eight supporters, three nominated by the EGP Committee one of which a member of that committee, and one nominated by the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament. The supporters are chosen by the Network members. To optimise the European character and to ensure all initiatives are heard, a wide variety of party- and geographical backgrounds and sub- initiatives is aimed at.
The team members join because they believe in the project and want to put energy and time into it. Together they are responsible for a good cooperation with the parties. The supporters’ representatives are responsible for maintaining the contacts with the supporters, and with cross border grassroots’ initiatives. The representatives of the EGP and the Greens/EFA are responsible for maintaining the contacts with their organisations. Team meetings are open.
The team sees to it that the Network acts in accordance with the above-mentioned characteristics and purposes. Together with the EGP committee and the member parties it is responsible for the implementation of the individual supportership. Each year it submits a motivated activities’ plan and the composition of the new coordination team to the EGP council for approval, and a report of past activities for evaluation.
The Network has at least the Individual Supporters as ‘human working capital’.
4. Finances
The Network’s activities are financed out of the EGP budget, from the Supporters’ fees which have been earmarked to be set aside and used for Supporters’ activities - and must be collected from the individual parties by the treasurer of the EGP. (Individual Supporters’ Resolution, Dublin 2004). The EGP and the member parties may decide to give additional funding for specific activities.
The Network is financially accountable to the EGP. Each year it submits, together with the Activities’ Plan, a motivated budget, which has to be approved by the EGP council. Each year the Network submits a financial report, to be evaluated by the council.
II. Background
Individual Supportership
In 2004, during its first European Congress, the European Green Party has introduced the Individual Supportership, a right for members of Green parties to participate directly in European and cross border politics. It was a political first: no other political family offered such a formal possibility for its grassroots members yet. The individual supportership is more than just a line in the statutes, it is an expression of the Greens’ vision on democracy: common goals are best served if the citizens involved share one single political space. And it answers a growing need of people to engage in international action. And it can, by furthering cross border debate, considerably reinforce the common message and increase the European Greens’ capacity to act.
EGP Supporters don’t have a right to vote – this would completely change the nature of the EGP, which is basically a party of parties. But the Individual Supportership does create a direct link between individuals and the European level: EGP supporters receive regular information about what goes on in Europe’s Green parties and the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament. Supporters also can be actively involved: they may participate in common actions and campaigns, have the right to attend EGP councils and congresses and form working groups –as was decided during the council in Dublin in 2004.
Implementation
A line in the statutes however is not enough to get individual Greens involved, because the EGP doesn’t have a direct link to them. In order to make the individual supportership work, the member parties have to implement it and encourage their members to subscribe. This process is now coming off the ground. Three parties have been especially successful: GroenLinks (NL), which announced the scheme widely during its 2004 elections’ campaign and got almost a thousand subscriptions, Déi Gréng (Lux), whose Congress decided by a statute change to make all its members EGP supporters - and will start to implement the individual supportership during the 2009 election campaign.
By February 2009, 11 parties have agreed to the scheme or are about to do so: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (GE), Écolo (BE), the Green Party of England and Wales (GB), Groen! (BE), GroenLinks (NL), the Irish Green Party/Comhaontas Glas (IE), Déi Gréng (LU), the Scottish Green Party (GB), Los Verdes (ES), Miljøpartiet de Grønne (NO) and Les Verts (FR). About 1700 supporters are registered. They all receive an almost weekly Update Flash from the EGP office. Subscription rate varies: the better the supportership is advertised within the party, the more people join.
Participation
An initiative that promotes the supportership by experimenting with cross border participation, is the Heerlen Group, an initiative of grassroots members of European Green parties. The group was founded in 2002, by members of four European green parties – Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, GroenLinks and the two Belgian parties Écolo and Groen! The founders had different ideals: some dreamt of a borderless Green Party in Europe which Greens of all levels and ranks talk about issues of common concern on a daily basis, just as they discuss national politics in their national parties; others just were eager to share views and experiences with Greens from other countries; and yet others were concerned that ngo’s increasingly acted on the international level whereas Greens did not. But all agreed that it would be good to join forces and help the EGP and its parties to create a European Green public space.
From the moment the EGP adopted the Individual Supportership, the Heerlen group has acted as a pilot project. The members have been promoting the individual supportership within their parties and elsewhere, by visiting parties and by organising fringe meetings during EGP councils and congresses. They have stimulated cross border cooperation between local groups. And they have developed participation tools, like
• An interactive website & newsletter,
• A tour along member party events to talk to grassroots about the EGP and participation possibilities and collect new ideas,
• A yearly conference for brainstorms, exchange and getting new people aboard,
• An elections relay tour along country borders in which local groups across national borders campaign together, connecting local issues to the European common cause. See appendix (to be distributed separately) for inspiring best practices.
In the course of 2007 the Network has offered its people and tools to the EGP to become an integral part of the Green structures, for three reasons
1. To reinforce common action and the support for it by creating a bond between the European level and individual Greens, and
2. To send a clearer message to parties and individuals that the Network is an integral part of the EGP.
3. To help the EGP, together with the parties, to give a clear message to the voters. European Greens are no longer the only political family to use individual participation as an asset - the PSE/PES for example have some 75 local groups, and have created an online possibility to join directly. The Greens however have the advantage of time. They can profit from having been the first, by improving quantity, quality and visibility of their supporters’ scheme.
Why create a Supporters' Network
Because people change. An increasing number of citizens don’t live in one single country any longer. They constantly expand their horizons because they study or train abroad; have international contacts through work, family or friends. They are exposed to international news, and want to stay in touch with what is happening beyond their national borders. And they are eager to exchange views or be engaged in international action and exchange. The more the Greens – the most international of political families – welcome those internationally minded and offer them a political home, the better they’ll answer a need and might even attract a new category of members – people who will in turn reinforce the Greens’ international image.
Because politics change. Since the first European elections in 1979, the Green parties have increasingly cooperated, basically within the European Parliament, first as individual members, then, together with regional parties, as a group: the Greens/EFA. To date the group consists of 43 MEP’s, who closely cooperate. When you vote Green, you don’t only vote for people from your own country; you elect an international team with a wide range of experiences.
To give that group backing, the parties have joined forces. They formed a Coordination that changed into a Federation and in 2004 into the European Green Party. The name changes mark an evolution towards an ever-increasing cooperation, from purely logistical to common campaigns and elections’ manifestos and, from 2006 onwards, of common policy making. By engaging into this process the parties – and the EGP committee that has been a driving force behind it - have shown courage: parties need to compromise on decisions made back home, and on national electoral strategies. This process is bound to flourish and pass from negotiation to common thinking and acting. But it can only do so if the members of those parties also are encouraged to share a common political ground.
Because the world around us changes. Today’s challenges are less and less limited to country borders. Many NGO’s have well understood that; they are increasingly organised at an international level – think of Amnesty, Greenpeace or the French doctors. They offer citizens international action perspectives – like donation campaigns, counter summits, and Social Forums. Political parties however still are nationally focussed, because that is the level where votes and seats have to be won and where the funding comes from. Even the elections for the European Parliament, one of the few international democratic bodies, are organised on a national basis.
The EU on the other hand increasingly influences people’s lives. If no common political space is created to match this influence, it will be met by growing protests. Europe’s member states are not yet ready to create such a space by, for example, agree to transnational lists. But the Greens can help to pave the way, amongst other things by creating that space for their own grassroots. By accepting the Individual Supportership in 2004, the member parties of the EGP have opened the door. By inviting grassroots to participate in the common campaign, the EGP campaign team has taken a second step. By welcoming the Supporters’ Network described above, thus encouraging grassroots participation initiatives, the Green parties of Europe can further help to create that space.
Download the complete collection of resolutions from the 2009 Spring Council in PDF format here...