Similar but Different?

Due to their grassroots orientation and their pan-European approach, green parties in Europe have been more sceptical towards EU integration than other European party families. As a result, their transnational party organization, the European Federation of Green Parties (EFGP), is not restricted to parties coming from EU member states. In this respect they differ from other important party families in Europe. On the other hand, the EFGP and its predecessor organization took on tasks related to the political system of the EU, such as the elaboration of platforms for the European elections or the incorporation of the green group in the European Parliament into a transnational party structure, as early as the mid-1980s. This makes the greens more similar to the other party families than has been previously supposed. Although major steps have been taken during the last 18 years with regard to transnational party cooperation, the greens have not yet managed to establish a real European party, however.