The Ecologist Greens (Greek: Οικολόγοι Πράσινοι, Oikologoi Prasinoi) are a Greek Green ecologist political party. It has existed since 2002, yet the ecologist movement in Greece dates many years and was characterised by a reluctance to actively become involved in the political scene. They are a member of the European Green party.
History
The Ecological Forum, the body that lead to the establishment of the party, was founded after a proposal of the local group Ecological Movement of Thessaloniki (Greek: Οικολογική Κίνηση Θεσσαλονίκης, Oikologiki Kinisi Thessalonikis), and brought together members of the organization “Green Politics” (Greek: Πράσινη Πολιτική, Prasini Politiki), the previous Greek member of the European Green Party, with other local ecological groups and independent ecologists.
On 7-8 December 2002, the Eco Forum called for a conference that convened in the building of the Athens Lawyer Association, and it decided to establish the Green Ecologists and elected a 18 member council to coordinate the establishment of a new political entity. In the coming months, focus groups were created to shape the constitution and the political positions of the body, which were adopted by the first congress of the party in May 2003 at Panteion University.
2006 prefectural elections
In the prefectural elections of 2006, the Greens supported 2 combinations, the “Eco-Athens” in the municipality of Athens, that took 1.4% of the votes and “Ecology Solidarity” that won 4.6% and acquired 2 seats on the Departmental Council in the prefecture of Thessaloniki, as well as 53 other municipal and County sets in rest of the country.
2007 national elections
At its 5th Congress in March 2007, the party decided to contest the 2007 Greek legislative election. Nanos Valaoritis, a distinguished living Greek poet, became the party’s leading candidate in the 2007 Greek legislative election. The inclusion of additional artist candidates (such as sculptors, painters) indicate that the party enjoys some support among the Greek art community.
2008 Congress
During 29 & 30 of March 2008 the annual congress of the party took place in Athens at the Gini building of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The annual congress is the highest political entity of the party and was attended by a record of 235 members. Members of the party are recently (September 2008) reaching 700. With the 2007 Greek legislative election, its first general election, the party became the sixth largest party in Greece and the largest party without parliamentary representation.
The Ecologist Greens today
In the December 6-7-8 Party General Assebly it was decided to contest the 2009 summer European Elections and the list of party candidates was elected. The Ecologist Greens managed to elect an MEP in the European Elections of June 2009, but they narrowly failed to gain representation in the national elections that followed in October 2009. Nevertheless, their share of the vote increased to 2.53% gaining approximately 100,000 more votes than in the 2007 Greek legislative election.
Aims
The basic principles of the Ecologists Greens, as determined by their constitution[1] are: sustainability, social justice, nonviolence, direct and participatory democracy, respect for diversity, decentralization and subsidiarity, protect and restore natural ecosystems, the quality of life, personal and social responsibility and equity
Electoral results
| Results since 2004 (year links to election page) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Type of Election | Votes | % | Mandates | ||||
| 2004 | European | 40,873 | 0.67 | 0 | ||||
| 2006 | Local (Athens Municipality ) | 3,822 | 1.39 | 0 | ||||
| 2006 | Local (Prefecture of Thessaloniki) | 25,655 | 4.6 | 2 | ||||
| 2007 | Legislative | 75,529 | 1.05 | 0 | ||||
| 2009 | European | 178,964 | 3.49 | 1 | ||||
| 2009 | Legislative | 173,439 | 2.53 | 0 | ||||
Affiliations
References
External links
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Greek Green MEP gets EU to release unpublished 18-country report on Roma
Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and Minority Rights Group – Greece (MRG-G) welcome the European Commission (EC)’s commitment to finally and belatedly publish before the end of 2010 the “Report on activities to improve the impact of policies, programmes and projects aimed at the social inclusion and non-discrimination of Roma people in the EU.” The report was prepared by the European Roma Rights Centre (with contributions by GHM and MRG-G for Greece) and submitted to the EC in June 2010: it included a synthesis report and 18 country reports (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom).
The EC did not publish it even when Roma were in the headlines following France’s actions in mid-summer. Despite a published regret by ERRC for its non-publication, expressed in the Council of Europe High Level Meeting on Roma on 20 October 2010, the EC continued to withhold publication. For that reason, Greek Green MEP Mihalis Tremopoulos, who has consistently showed commitment to Roma rights, tabled a question to the EC on 4 November 2010. On 16 December 2010, in her answer, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding announced the forthcoming publication of the report: any other answer was indeed not possible… All related documents follow.
Parliamentary questions
4 November 2010
E-9113/2010
Question for written answer to the Commission – Rule 117
Michail Tremopoulos (Verts/ALE)
Subject: Report on the social inclusion of Roma people
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2010-9113+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
On 12 July 2008 the Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities issued a call for tenders for a study on ‘activities to improve the impact of policies, programmes and projects aimed at the social inclusion and non-discrimination of Roma people in the EU’.(1)
The contract for this study was finally awarded to the European Roma Rights Centre (2), and according to the programme the study was to be presented to the Commission in May 2010.
Has the Commission received this report, and if so, when will it publish it?
____________________________
(1) http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:178110-2008:TEXT:EN:HTML
(2) http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/media/03/B3/m000003B3.pdf
E-9113/10EN
Answer given by Ms Reding
on behalf of the Commission
(16.12.2010)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2010-9113&language=EN
The Commission has received the report referred to by the Honourable Member on activities to improve the impact of policies, programmes and projects aimed at the social inclusion and non-discrimination of Roma people in the EU. It intends to publish the report before the end of 2010.
European Roma Rights Centre recommendations for the Council of Europe High Level Meeting on Roma scheduled for 20 October 2010
http://www.coe.int/t/dc/files/Source/ERRC_Recommendations_High_Level_Meeting.doc
18 October 2010
(…) The ERRC has also produced a multi-country study of good practice in all areas of Roma inclusion policy (including policy, funding programmes and projects) for the European Union; unfortunately the EU has yet to publish the work but we hope that it will be published soon. (…)
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THESSALONIKI 29th June 2009
The works of the 6th Regular Green Ecologist Party Conference, held at Macedonia University in Thessaloniki from 26-28/6/2009, were concluded with the election of the party’s Panhellenic Council and the Executive Committee.
The first meeting of the 34 member Panhellenic Council took place immediately after the end of the conference and it elected the 6 members that will comprise the Executive Committee, the central organ of Ecologist Greens, who have no individual party leader, president or secretary.
The members elected were the following:
* Eleonora Zotou (Ελεονόρα Ζώτου)
* Joanna Kontouli (Ιωάννα Κοντούλη)
* Katia Lebessi (Κάτια Λεμπέση begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting)
* Yiannis Paraskevopoulos (Γιάννης Παρασκευόπουλος)
* Michalis Petrakos (Μιχάλης Πετράκος)
* Nikos Chrysogelos (Νίκος Χρυσόγελος)
The MEP Michael Tremopoulos was not included in the Executive Committee, since, after being an Executive Member for two consecutive years, he was not entitled to be re-elected. In this way the Ecologists Greens manage to allow all members to participate as much as possible, in more posts that involve responsibility.
Decisions and other documents of the conference be published in a later post.
ATHENS 13th June 2010
The works of the 7th Regular Green Ecologist Party Conference, held at Panteion University of Athens from 11-13/6/2009, were concluded with the election of the party’s Panhellenic Council and the Executive Committee.
The first meeting of the 34 member Panhellenic Council took place immediately after the end of the conference and it elected the 6 members that will comprise the Executive Committee, the central organ of Ecologist Greens, who have no individual party leader, president or secretary.
The members elected were the following:
- Eleana Ioanidou (Ελεάνα Ιωαννίδου)
- Yiannis Paraskevopoulos (Γιάννης Παρασκευόπουλος)
- Joanna Kontouli (Ιωάννα Κοντούλη)
- Tasos Kromidas (Τάσος Κρομμύδας)
- Michalis Petrakos (Μιχάλης Πετράκος)
- Yannis Tsironis (Γιάννης Τσιρώνης)
