Unfortunately my schedule meant that I couldn’t take part in Blog Action Day yesterday (exam revision and travelling), but I’ll try to make up for it once my mid-term exams are over next week. Before that though, I have to get through the rest of the European Green Party’s council meeting in Malmö. There is quite a lot of discussion of our performance in the European Parliament elections earlier this year, and hopefully I can make some of it into an interesting post later on. I’m tweeting stuff as I go along under @tredford01, with the #EGP hashtag that a few others here are using.

So I spent the weekend at the European Green Party Congress in Brussel at the European Parliament, as the lone Scottish Green Party delegate. It’s the first one I’ve attended, and I really must say, it was brilliant!

I don’t know how other party groups do these things, but most of us Greens seem so open to really working in a pan-European way, which I think is fantastic. As is usual with international conferences, I ended up meeting a load of great people from all over the place, and sort of avoiding any other Brits who happened to be around. There was even the highlight of being able to sit in one of the MEP seats in the Hemicycle (yes, as you can probably tell from the rest of this blog, I’m most certainly a politics geek).

I really feel both exhausted and energised. It is great to see just how enthusiastic people all over the continent are for getting greens elected to the EP, and how much effort is being put into the campaigns. Three very long days of the Congress, and not too much sleep have taken their toll though, so I’ll write something more political about the Congress once I’ve had more than four hours sleep. That might be a bit tricky though, as I’m currently on the Thalys train to Münster for a model United Nations event all this week.

There’s been an interesting situation simmering in Mexico. The Partido Verde Ecologista de México recently came out in support of the death penalty, prompting concern from the European Greens. Initially, there was a call for the Mexican Greens to be expelled from the Global Greens, on the grounds that they had transgressed a core principle of the green movement, expressed in the Global Greens Charter as:

6.10 Demand that the death penalty be abolished worldwide.

Personally, I would agree that some action ought be taken against the Mexican Greens if they are willing to show disregard for the Charter, which sets out the fundamental ideas of the green political movement. This view is of course open to accusations of ideological imperialism, exporting the sensibilities of Europe to an advanced developing state, and naturally these accusations were made.

I have to say, this seems to me to be somewhat patronising. The fundamental respect for human life enshrined in Article 6.10 should be universal. It is not something for which I can see any argument for Mexican exemption. The idea that a stated opinion from Europe to Mexico is an imperialistic one merely reinforces the idea that Mexico, and the Mexican Greens are not equal to European states.

It was announced today that the European Green Party does not any-longer consider the Mexican Greens to be part of the green political family. I’m inclined to agree, at least until the views on the death penalty are reconsidered.

Georgian War

The European Green Party has called for unconditional ceasefire in Georgia. The Co-operation & Development Network of young greens in Eastern Europe has also spoken against the conflict, and plans an action in Hungary to call for peace and remember those killed in the fighting.

Berlin Neo-Nazi Parade

A Neo-Nazi group in Berlin has announced plans for a protest march through an immigrant district, against the construction of a Hindu temple. Derek Wall blogs about it here, and a Facebook group has been formed also.

Party News

Ireland

Questions over the Lisbon Treaty rumble on in Ireland, as an email is sent to Party members, asking for their views on the controversial treaty. The Irish Times covers the story.

Meanwhile, there are concerns over changes to the student-finance system, with a demonstration being planned, involving the Irish Young Greens. Again, the Irish Times have the story.

UK

Caroline Lucas MEP featured in an article in The Independent on Monday, in which she answered questions from members of the public (and a few party members).

Europe

The European Green Party has criticised the attendance of European leaders at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

France has laid out plans for progress on environmental measures during its presidency of the European Union.

The EU is in the early stages of examining a ‘supergrid’ electricity distribution system to bring solar power from the Sahara to European states.

László Kovács, EU Taxation Commissioner, has supported the concept of windfall taxes on oil companies, to compensate the poor for high fuel costs.

Rules limiting power consumption for some electronic devices while on standby are expected to be approved by the EP later this year, probably taking force in 2010.