Editor: last update 30 March 1997; europe; index

The statutes of the European Federation of Green Parties

As last changed at the Fourth Council in Turin at 10 February 1996.

STATUTES

Preamble

• the Guiding Principles of the European Greens, decided upon by the last Coordination's meeting in June 1993
• and the common wish to establish an European House build on ecological, democratic, social and pacifist principles

The founding member parties form the European Federation of Green Parties (the European Greens), hereafter called the Federation.

The Federation as such takes part in the activities of similar transnational and global green cooperation structures.

The seat of the Federation is situated in Vienna.

The Federation

• assures a close and permanent cooperation among the Members in order to accomplish the common policy, laid down by the Congress;
• stimulates and organises initiatives and activities on a European scale under the supervision of the Council and the Committee;
• devotes itself to an open, active, constructive and critical approach to the ongoing integration processes in Europe towards a world wide cooperation.

The members maintain their name, identity and autonomy of acting within the scope of their national and regional responsibilities. The Federation is a mandated political body : the Guiding Principles of the Federation, are binding for the Federation's political bodies on the European level and should be committing for the Member's policies on the national and regional levels.

a. The Federation is composed of green parties, i.e. parties that meet the following requirements

• being established in a state or a region of Europe;
• having subscribed to the Guiding Principles of the Federation;
• having accepted the Statutes of the Federation;
• having been accepted by the Federation as a Member according to the regulations for the application procedure elaborated by the Council.

c. The Council may, by a three-quarter majority, suspend or withdraw the membership of any member party, if it believes it is in the Federation's interest to do so. The member party must have a minimum of three month's notice before a meeting of the Council which discusses a motion of expulsion.

The Council can at the proposal of the Committee by a two-thirds majority attribute the status of observer to parties, organisations or movements that agree on the Guiding Principles of the Federation.

Having the status of observer does not automatically qualify for membership in the Federation, nor is it a condition for application.

Privileges and duties of the Observers are laid down by the Council in respective regulations.

a. In the European Parliament the Federation is only represented by the Green Group in the European Parliament, hereafter called the Green Group.

b. Before admitting MEP's who do not belong to a member of the Federation, the Green Group consults the Committee, which then reports to the Council.

c. The Federation favours the constitution of a political structure on the EC-level within the framework of the Federation.

The Members of the Federation may organise themselves in sub-areas within the framework of the Federation.

a. The bodies of the Federation are

• the Congress
• the Council
• the Committee

c. The Members of the Federation are obliged to follow certain rules regarding the gender represented in all bodies of the Federation, namely,

• as regards the Congress: delegations of four members must include at least two women, the other two may be either men or women; all larger delegations must include both 40% men and women, the other members may be of either sex.
• as regards the Council: in the case of one delegate, that delegate may be either male or female; in the case of two delegates, one must be female, the other can be male or female.
• as regards the Committee: at least 40% of the members elected must be women and at least 40% men.

• The program and the general policy of the Federation
• The change of the Statutes of the Federation (vide Art. 10 b).

• The delegates of the Members of the Federation
• The Members of the Committee.

• the Congress consists of 400 delegates allocated proportionally.
• each Member has the right for four delegates. This applies also for regional parties which don't run against each other in national or European elections. Where two regional parties are running against each other they only are entitled to two delegates each.
• The delegates will be allocated according to two keys :

  50% of the 400 delegates are proportionally divided according to the number of votes, the Members reached in the last national elections. The votes above 2 million are divided by 2 for this calculation.

  the other 50% of the delegates are proportionally divided according to the percentage reached in the last national elections. For parties that participated in European elections the average of the European and national elections will apply.

• Where member parties are running in alliances their votes will be calculated from the votes of the alliance in proportion to the green parliamentarians have gotten in comparison to the total number of the parliamentarians of the alliance.

  Parties that do not get a minimum of four seats via the proportionally allocated delegates, get additional seats (above the 400).

f. All Congress regulations are established by the Council.

g. The Committee is entitled to invite special guests and guest delegations to the Congress.

a. The Council consists of delegates, allocated according to the following rules :

• Each member party has at least one voting delegate.
• Parties who have more than 2000 members or got more than 200.000 votes in the last national or European elections will get a second voting delegate. In the absence of one delegate the other can vote by proxy.
• Parties who have more than 20.000 members or got more than 2 million votes in the last national or European elections will get a supplementary vote.
• Parties who got 5% or more of the votes in the last national or European elections will get a supplementary vote.
• Parties who got 10% or more of the votes in the last national or European elections will get a supplementary vote.
• For parties who participate in elections in an alliance with other parties their voters or their percentages will be calculated as in article 9 d.
• For parties participating in the elections, the adjustments of the number of delegates are made right after the respective elections.

• the Members of the Committee
• the delegates from parties, organisations and movements with observer status
• the Members of the Bureau of the Green Group.

• coordinate initiatives and activities in line with the Programme, the general policy and the Statutes of the Federation;
• elect the Committee and appoint the Arbitrage Committee.
• decide on the application and exclusion of Members and Observers;
• advise the Green Group in their decisions on their admittance of MEP's, who do not belong to a Member of the Federation, after consultation with the national green party concerned;
• support and evaluate the Committee's activities.
• approve staff, budget and treasury regulations after hearing the Financial Committee;
• propose to the Congress changes of the Statutes or change certain articles of the Statutes (except articles 9d and 10a and this clause);
• elaborate all internal regulations herein specified.

a. The members of the Committee are

• two spokespersons; one man and one woman
• the secretary-general
• the treasurer
• five further persons

c. Each member of the Committee is elected in function by the Council for three years. No member may be elected for more than two terms consecutively

d. The secretary general

• is a functionary (paid full time) of the Federation
• is in charge of the Secretariat and carries out the decisions taken by the bodies of the Federation;
• coordinates the cooperation of the secretariats of the Members with the bodies of the Federation;
• in accordance with the spokespersons, drafts press releases and is responsible for the agenda, the preparations and the taking of the minutes for the meetings of the Federation;
• is responsible to the Committee and the Council for the carrying out of the domestic rules and regulations;
• reports annually to the Council on the Secretariat's activities and on the political and organisational developments and perspectives of the Federation.

The speaking and voting rights in the bodies of the Federation are not bound by imperative mandates.

The Committee and the Council are entitled to establish permanent commissions and ad hoc working groups.
Reports and proposals are to be submitted to the Committee or the Council for approval.

a. In the Internal Regulations are specified rules about staff, treasury and budget.

b. Members who do not meet their financial commitments will lose all voting rights.

ARTICLE 15

The Federation is financed by membership fees, donations and other contributions. The Treasurer, in agreement with the Committee, drafts the budget and the finance procedure, that must be approved by the Council.
The Treasurer supervises the Federation's budget and reports to the Committee every three months.
The Committee is responsible for the finances of the Federation.

In the event of the liquidation of the Federation, after the settlement of all obligations, the remaining financial means are reimbursed to the member parties in relation to the annual membership fees paid according to the Financial Rules of the Federation.

ARTICLE 16

The Financial Committee consists of the treasurers of the Members of the Federation or their appointed representatives and meets at least once a year.
As advisory body to the Committee and Council regarding staff, budget and treasury matters the Council appoints an auditors committee of 3-4 persons.

At the suggestion of the Committee the Council approves all domestic regulations on matters that are left unsettled by the Statutes.

The Council may appoint a Arbitration Committee, entitled to settle disputes between persons and bodies on statute and regulation matters.

Decisions taken by the Arbitrage Committee are binding to all persons and bodies of the Federation.

ARTICLE 19

For a period of transition until 31.12.1996 the number of delegations mentioned in article 9.d. should be limited to two hundred.In this case the minimum number of delegates per member party will be two. The council can prolong this period of transition.