Federation Formed by 22 of Europe’s ‘Green’ Parties

Twenty-two environmentalist “green” parties from countries across Europe decided Saturday to create closer ties and adopt a joint political program.

The parties, from Georgia in the east to Ireland in the west, voted at a meeting here to establish a European Federation of Green Parties, based in Vienna, to replace the looser Coordination of European Greens set up in 1984.

Leo Cox, political secretary of the European Green Coordination, said it was time to “assimilate and integrate our opinions, our working methods, and this assimilation can only take place at a European level.”

The 17-page political program calls for a pan-European collective security system comprising all European countries. “In the long term, the European Greens don’t envisage a role for national armed forces,” it says.

It also says green parties within the European Community must work to transform the EC into a “democratically controlled federation open to all European states.”