On March 28 activists of JEF and UEF participated in the European Greens Party (EGP) election congress in the European Parliament. The federalists asked the Greens to nominate their candidate for the position of the President of the European Commission.

The congress delegates found a federalist leaflet on his/her seat with a motion to insert a new Congress agenda point – “Election of the Green candidate for President of the European Commission”.  

Previous to the official opening of the congress all delegates therefore had the chance to read the leaflets.  The innovative action brought smiles on the delegates’ faces as well as it started discussions on the topic among the delegates. The leaflets stayed on the tables of the congress participants for the rest of the day as a reminder to act!

Although Daniel Cohn-Bendit, MEP and Co-President Greens/EFA in the European Parliament announced that the Greens oppose the re-election of José Manuel Barroso as European Commission president, the Greens did not nominate their own candidate.

UEF and JEF suggested during a similar action in Madrid the exactly same agenda change at the Congress of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in December 2008. Until now we have not been presented with a PES candidate even if PES President Rasmussen told federalists at the press conference that they have not decided to NOT do it. This means that still no European party has nominated their contra candidate to Barroso. The Greens missed a great opportunity to be the first party to introduce a change that would make Europe both more transparent and democratic.