Green Salon brings together Green politicians with academics, activists, and industry experts for frank and open discussions on under-explored topics as they emerge on the political agenda. While advances from research and industry in the domain of robotics and artificial intelligence abound, public and political debate over the ethics and oversight of technology remain in their early stages.
Natalie Bennett was in Finland as part of the Green European Foundation’s expert group for a transnational project on Universal Basic Income, initiated in 2017.
In the framework of the “Basic Income for all EU Citizens?” transnational project, the GEF expert group, comprising Basic Income experts from Finland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, ateended the BIEN Congress to discuss the latest developments in the studies and application of the Basic Income models across Europe.
In addition to their participation in the conference, the expert group came together in a meeting organised by GEF to facilitate the development of the GEF Basic Income project.
GEF was present throughout the Congress, displaying and disseminating the outcomes of various GEF projects related to the topic.
Read the article in Spanish.
The energy transition is already well underway. However, it is happening at different speeds across the continent. For the past 100 years, geopolitical strength has depended on access to fossil fuel resources. With the support schemes for renewable energy and the rise of citizen energy, the energy system is taking a new course towards greater democratization and decentralization.
With the Paris climate agreement, Europe is facing the global responsibility to keep global warming within 1.5°C. Renewable capacity in the EU has increased by 71 percent between 2005 and 2015, contributing to sustainable development and more local jobs. In the most advanced countries and regions in Europe it is often the local government and citizens who are driving the transition. At the time of publication of this Atlas, the EU’s next generation of energy legislation is in the process of being finalised. The targets and regulations agreed to take effect by 2030 will shape Europe’s energy system for the next decade – one of the last critical chances to take sufficient action to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Cooperation on the European level is key to ensuring the right conditions for switching to renewables. Back in 2010, several countries in the Union were already on their way towards integrating large amounts of renewable energies into their systems. They also pushed for stable and reliable frameworks at EU level, as well as ambitious binding targets.
We can already tell that the EU’s 2030 ‘Clean Energy package’ sets out roughly the right direction for the path towards renewables, but it fails to ensure the speed and depth of the transition. The proposed renewable energy and energy efficiency targets are far too modest, particularly given the falling technology costs and availability of new renewables technologies, thus jeopardising the progress achieved in previous years. The EU energy framework needs to be better aligned with its long-term climate commitments.
The next big challenges in Europe’s energy transition are the heating and transport sectors. So far, renewable technologies have not penetrated the transport, heating and cooling systems as much as they have the electricity system. In transport, we are beginning to see a shift to electrified transport and electric vehicles – driven by fast-advancing storage and battery technology and decreasing cost.
Bringing the heating, cooling and transport sectors together with the power sector – connecting sectors that are currently isolated from one another – will allow Europe to reach a 100 percent renewable system with technology that is already available today. This will enable us to overcome the longstanding renewable energy challenge – that of variable supply. When electrified, the heating, cooling and transport sectors will become large sources of flexible storage that back up the electricity sector. When wind and solar energy is plentiful these sectors can flexibly be used by heating systems and the batteries of electric vehicles, making ‘backup’ nuclear or fossil fuel capacities redundant.
The advantages of renewable energy are clear, especially when they are owned and controlled by communities: cleaner air, warmer homes, industrial benefits. Furthermore, money stays local, more jobs are created, energy poverty is reduced, and most importantly, renewable energy contributes to saving the planet.
With this Atlas, we aim to contribute to an open and facts-based discussion on the European energy transition, whilst advancing this ambitious European project that unites European citizens.
This project had the aim to to raise awareness among stakeholders, politicians and the general public for the economic potential of a Green Economy, to stimulate changes in consumption and production patterns, and promote a participatory approach to policy making. The report and other project activities respond and contribute to one of the priorities for Bulgaria’s presidency of the EU in 2018: eco-innovation as a driver for economic progress.
The purpose of the research was to accomplish the following goals set by the project:
The research report highlights which political conditions have to be fulfilled to move towards a green economy in those three countries and compares the prospects of Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia in terms of social factors, legal framework and the policy framework.
Digital version in English is available here
Digitial version in Bulgarian is available here
Digital version in Macedonian is available here
Digital version in Serbian is available here
In a referendum on 23 June 2016, 51.9% of the participating UK electorate (the turnout was 72.2% of the electorate) voted to leave the EU. On 29 March 2017, the British government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union. The UK is thus on course to leave the EU on 29 March 2019.
This event has enormous implications not only for the future of the EU as a polity, but also for the green transition to a sustainable society and economy which is the fundamental aim shared by Green parties across Europe. The Green European Foundation therefore decided, with the help of its national project partner organisations, coordinated by Green House think tank in the UK, to hold a series of public discussion events over the course of 2017 to explore those implications.
The project aimed to examine these questions on a comparative European basis, involving selected EU member states for which Brexit raises particularly pressing issues, related either to their relationship with the UK or to their own national political situation (or both).
The rationale behind the project was two-fold. Firstly, it was intended to provide a platform for the exploration of the possible short- and medium-term impacts of Brexit on environmental and economic policies directly affecting the transition to sustainability, both in the UK and in the rest of Europe. Secondly, it was motivated by the belief that the Brexit decision in the UK raises urgent and difficult questions about the continuing coherence and effectiveness of the EU as a polity, at least in its current form, and whether it still represents the best vehicle for the achievement of sustainability in Europe in the long term.
The results and key finding are summarised in this paper. Free digital version is available for download below.
The UK is at a turning point, whether we like it or not. This paper explores how this could be used as an opportunity to reflect on what kind of future we want for the UK.
Currently economic growth is directed to where the economy is already strongest. This is further skewing who benefits, with inequality growing across the UK. It is expanding London, building on Green Belt and commuter suburbs, expanding cities and other centres of growth. This capital-centred growth is ignoring climate and environmental challenges and making life and livelihoods for many more precarious and insecure. To redirect the economy of the UK we need a plan, that joins up strategies and investment for jobs and skills, industry and infrastructure, housing and environment to align to the environmental and social challenges of today.
We need to do it in such a way that transitions us to a green future that is climate secure, and ensures no-one is left behind. Attaining a better quality of life for all requires a better redistribution of jobs around the UK to rebalance the economy regionally and in terms of income. This needs a rapid transition to shift our economy, politics and ways of living so they are sustainable within our resource and climate limits. This then would give us freedom and security, and generate the most crucial of aspects needed to enhance our collective resilience: hope.
This paper will first explore how the trends towards a gig economy and automation provide an opportunity for this to be realised as a new approach, before setting out why, what and how such a green industrial strategy might be realised.
The manual’s aim is to promote the economic potential of a Green Economy by summarising the most important definitions and giving policy makers a tool at hand to argue in favour of a green economy and to debunk the most common misconceptions.
Download the digital version of the manual in English here.
The digital version of the manual is also available in Turkish here.
The 21st century democracy in Europe is in dire straits. Citizens feel disconnected with politics. Many people, especially youngsters, no longer see the traditional democracy as a good system of governance. Democracy like we know it today seems to be overdue for a profound upgrade. How can we reverse the erosion? Will parliament survive the digital era?
Democratic institutions haven’t changed much since their formation in the 19th century. Even though our lives have been permeated with digital technologies, our parliaments and local councils have not. If we do not intervene quickly, our democracy is threatened to fall behind on digitalisation, and the gap between citizens and politics will grow even more.
Nonetheless our digitalised society offers a fertile breeding ground for citizens who organize themselves in innovative ways to participate in political decision-making. Digital initiatives like online knowledge centres and participation platforms pop up everywhere in Europe. For example, did you know that the mayors from Barcelona and Paris use digital platforms to actively engage citizens in outlining policy? What is the potential of these technologies to renew democracy? What are the challenges? What about participation of the elderly for instance? And how can local governments respond to these growing digital trends?
In this trend paper we explore innovative approaches to democracy. The paper was produced in the aftermath of the (W)E-Democracy European Thinking Day held in Brussels on 26th May 2017.
This report is one of the outcomes of GEF’s transnational project on Basic Income. Within this framework two study visits and multiple discussions on the topic took place.
The demand for securing all members of society against life’s adversities and the negative effects caused from social structures has been an ongoing concern of all social formations. From a historical point of view, this need was expressed in various forms in different times throughout history, ranging from food distribution to the poor in the times of the great empires (i.e. Egyptian Empire) and the charities of the monasteries in Middle Ages, to a universal basic income for all, the major social demand in late capitalism.
In contemporary industrial and post-industrial capitalism, this demand is expressed in two distinct political proposals: The first one focuses on unconditional universal basic income for all members of society irrespective of their financial status (Van Parijs, 1992) and the second one focuses on conditional basic income exclusively for those in unfavourable situation – if not in the most unfavourable situation – with respect to acceptable levels of living.
Read about the Finnish Basic Income Model here.
This report is one of the outcomes of GEF’s transnational project on Basic Income. Within this framework two study visits and multiple discussions on the topic took place.
The Finnish Greens have been talking about the possibility of a basic income since 1980’s. Initially the term ‘citizen’s wage’ was used, but in the 1990s the term ‘basic income’ became standard. 2007 marked a big step forward in the basic income debate; that year, the Greens presented their first comprehensive basic income model. It established for the first time that a transition to a basic income model is possible. The basic income model was calculated using micro-simulation modelling as a cost-neutral and feasible model with a view to showing how Finnish social security could be organised in a new way so that it would be more just and supportive for everyone. In 2007, the Greens proposed that a basic monthly income of €440 be distributed to all Finns, and that a related tax reform be implemented.
Because the Finnish social security system was reformed and the associated minimum benefits improved, the Greens needed to update their basic income model. This update was done in 2014. The basic income level was then set at €560, which is still equivalent to the minimum level of social security for an unemployed person. The Greens’ 2014 basic income model did not restate the objectives of the model, since these were detailed in the context of a paper published with the 2007 model. This model has also been translated into English. The basic income model presented by the Greens in 2014 is still highly topical. When they published the model, the Greens insisted on a pilot study of the basic income, which the current Government of Finland has now implemented. In the basic income pilot, a small number of unemployed people receive a basic income of €560, which they will not lose even if they find work or receive other income. The pilot study is in many respects incomplete, but it is nevertheless yet another step towards realising the utopian idea of the basic income in practice.
The Finnish Greens based the calculations for their 2014 model on the micro-simulations calculated by the Finnish Parliament’s information service. The analysis based on the simulations can be accessed at www.vihreat.fi/perustulo (in Finnish). The analysis was very thorough, and it also showed many of the problem areas in the basic income model. For example, it argued that it is very difficult to combine the basic income with housing benefits. Nor does the basic income model also remove all economic disincentives. Even so, the analysis does provide a credible basis for the model proposed.
Next, the Finnish Greens aim to modify the model on the basis of the results of the ongoing pilot study. At the same time, the Greens have started discussing how housing benefits can be combined with the basic income model, and how implementing the real-time income register could enable social security automation as intended by the basic income model.
People all over the world are taking their future back into their hands. Together, they are taking initiatives in the fields of renewable energy, local food production, sharing tools, and so forth. This is the most hopeful movement of our time. Where the market and state fail, people are taking action. As free citizens, they are reinventing the collective, with open partnerships where personal development and social engagement go hand in hand. This observation seems to contradict what we experience every day. The system errors of our society model fill the newspapers: climate crisis, unstable banks, refugee flows. Accepted wisdom is that uncertainty is increasing. But both trends are happening, not by coincidence, at the same time.
While examining the two interlinked concepts of Freedom and Security, this publication suggests that the answer needs to be the transformation into a socioecological society in the 21st century. It argues for the realisation of a societal project that strives for equal freedom for all people to flourish in security, within the boundaries of the planet, and proposes concrete steps towards it.
Digital version in English is available here.
Digital version in French is available here.
Digital version in German is available here.
Digital version in Hungarian is available here.
Digitial version in Spanish is available here.
This report was part of the transnational project “A green transformation: Freedom and Security in uncertain times” . An updated version from April 2021 is available here.
This online tool was developed by the Green European Foundation with the support of GreenCampus and is the result of continuous cooperation of Green campaigners at the European level.
The first part of the handbook, a comprehensive theoretical guide to campaigning strategies and techniques, is divided into three sections: Campaign Preparation, Running the Campaign and After the Campaign. This theory is complemented by a second part, which includes examples of Best Practice from various political campaigns at all levels – local, regional, national and European. These case studies offer concrete tales, suggestions, tips and advice that can inform and steer your future work as campaigners and volunteers.
Download the print version of this tool here.
The Green European Foundation (GEF) and Green Group in the European Parliament (Greens/EFA) promote education and training and provide opportunities for building capacity and encouraging networking among Green actors across Europe.
Our aim is to raise awareness among citizens about Green solutions to the challenges Europe faces, and to enhance the ability of activists, politicians and citizens to work on issues with a European dimension.
To this end, we have initiated an online learning programme which complements our face-to-face trainings and uses the potential of digital tools to bring together European actors to learn, discuss and expand their networks.
After a successful experience in implementing an online learning programme – “Impact Europe: Online Course for Green Activists”, we have developed this guide to empower other organisations interested in online education to develop their own courses.
The structure of the guide follows the entire process of developing an online course – preparation, production, testing, launch and follow up. Each chapter of this guide is dedicated to one of the main stages in the process of developing an online course and contains:
Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing humankind. Global warming causes growing economic, social, and ecologic losses. The challenges we face cannot be overcome by solely raising consumer awareness or by encouraging the private sector to adapt cleaner production practices alone. What we need is a system that will enable decision-makers of all levels, from individuals to international institutions, to act as a coherent whole on the path to achieve the determined targets.
Green economy offers a conceptual, theoretical, and practical framework that will enable this transformation. This report features Green economy policy recommendations for the fields of urban policy, land use, and energy. The mission of this report is to look at EU climate change mitigation and adaptation and its best practices in the fields of urbanization, land use, and energy in light of Turkey’s current conditions.
The common characteristic of all innovative practices featured in this report, such as passive buildings, energy co-ops, community- supported agriculture (CSA), bicycle use for inner-city transportation, urban vegetable gardens, and regenerative agriculture, is that they create easy and widely applicable environmental and climate-friendly alternatives and provide new ways for private citizens to be directly involved in the economy and even generate income.
According to its citizens, immigration, terrorism, the economic situation and the state of member states’ public finances are the most important issues facing the EU. Less important, but still in the top 10, are unemployment and climate change. According to the latest Eurobarometer, a staggering 54% thinks that their voice doesn’t count in the EU. News about terror threats, refugee crises, budget cuts and corruption don’t paint a rosy picture of the reality we currently live in. Populists thrive on fear, human rights and freedoms are questioned and cynicism among citizens seems to be winning ground.
At the same time however, an ever-increasing number of citizens strike sparks in this seemingly dark tunnel, by developing social-ecological initiatives. To rebuild communities from the bottom up, to revitalize a more sustainable economy and to strengthen ties of solidarity and care, while governments struggle to manifest our common identity. Everywhere in Europe, hopeful democratic citizen initiatives emerge in fast pace. And knowingly or unknowingly, they are already making a difference, whether it be small or big, by building social and sustainable alternatives within the current neoliberal model of fear. Like swimmers against the tide, citizen movements get organised to take domains like production, finance, energy and care back in their own hands. So, join us for a walk through Europe and explore some of these exciting initiatives, because this is how citizens react to the policy of fear and austerity in our disrupted societies.
Digital version is Spanish is available to download here.
The Alliance 90/The Greens Party has succeeded in taking over governmental responsibility in the majority of the 16 federal states. This is a great success for the party. However, in order to remain successful and to encourage general confidence in politics, a sober look at the factors which led to the success and which will continue to do so in the future is required.
How does good governance work? How does government participation change the decision-making processes and the political objectives of a party? How does good cooperation between those responsible in federal and state government function?
In this study the political scientist, Arne Jungjohann, has analysed Green government participation of previous years and in answering the questions above arrives at interesting conclusions.
The project Green Values, Religion and Secularism was about dialogue and plurality within the Green movement. For two years, we have been debating and reflecting in a conversation on the relationship between secular and religious values in a political context. We published a collection of interviews and we conducted and took part in debates, seminars and media events. In this report, we try to give a small glimpse into the topics we talked about and the insights we gained.
In the publication and in the seminars two major themes were discussed. Firstly, the interconnectedness of religious or secular values and political attitude; secondly, the role of religion in the public forum. Topics that came up were the difficulty of defining religion and its changing role in society; conflicts between religions and fundamental rights, such as the freedom of religion and the principle of sexual and gender equality; the role of Islam in Europe and the relationship between spiritual worldviews and the struggle for a sustainable and just society.
The wide network of the Green European Foundation and its partner foundations were crucial in exploring these topics reflecting deeply on culture and identity in Europe. In this report, you will find a summary of the themes discussed as well as some recommendations how the Greens could proceed with this urgent debate on the relation between religions and secularism both in society as in our parties
However, the long-awaited recovery has not materialised: even though the level of European GDP (Gross Domestic Product) reached its pre-crisis level in 2014, the employment rate, in spite of the educational attainment, is still dragging behind and the poverty rate has substantially risen. It is as if whenever growth materialises, it only benefits the happy few. This unambiguously testifies to the inefficiency of the usual economic recipes in the current globalised and highly connected world.
This study, commissioned by the Greens in the European Parliament and the Green European Foundation, aimed at questioning current practices and policies in six fields structuring our economic model and at investigating alternative ways that are more adapted to the current challenges by being more socially inclusive and more appropriate on climate and environmental issues. It overlooks to fields of: labour markets; the fight against inequality; tax collection; international trade’ and monetary and banking systems;
The study is not meant to provide its readers with a toolkit or a textbook to reboot our economic model so that we can distance ourselves from the growth of the Gross Domestic Product mantra and engage a fair and green transformation of the economy. Instead, it outlines priority sectors that need to be reframed in a genuinely sustainable mode.
State aid rules, which govern when public authorities may grant assistance to selected undertakings, play a crucial role in determining the economic and environmental future of the EU. This report, commissioned by the Greens/EFA Group and authored by the E3G think-tank, outline a range of measures that would ensure state aid rules help Europe transition to a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy.
As Europe prepares to make major investments in areas such as energy and transport in the coming years, state aid rules that create a level playing-field for different industries and phase out damaging subsidies for fossil fuels will benefit investors and the public alike.
This publication is available to read in English or German.
The project consisted of a set of events, organised by the above-mentioned institutions, aimed at identifying the main challenges in ensuring the wellbeing of migrants and asylum seekers in Europe. This report, which included the participation of the author in the 6 events organised in 5 countries between May and September 2016 in Spain (Barcelona and Madrid), Germany (Berlin and Munich), United Kingdom (Oxford) and Greece (Athens), was developed as part of this project with a twofold objective:
Firstly, it summarises the main findings from debates held within the GEF transnational migration project involving a wide range of actors, from policy-makers, civil society and refugees themselves;
Secondly, it provides an analytical view of the divergent trajectories of the debate to identify a solid common ground and to build a narrative that would precede new policy proposals offered by the Green political family.
You can read the report by accessing it below.
