Central Europ. Round Table - Die Grünen Wien

THE GREEN CENTRAL EUROPEAN ROUND TABLES

During their municipal election campaign in autumn 2005, the Viennese Greens – particularly city government member Monika Vana and district councillor Gerhard Jordan – had the idea of inviting Greens from local groups in their neighbouring countries that had joined the European Union in 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Slovenia) in order to watch the Viennese campaign, to learn from it and to share experiences.

Thus, the "1st Central European Round Table of Green Local Councillors" was founded and, after very positive feedback, established as an annual event. The Austrian Green Foundation (Grüne Bildungswerkstatt) supported the project from the beginning, the network "Green East-West Dialogue" (GEWD) joined in 2007.

Some topics that were and are dealt with:

Green strategies and target groups, the role of affiliated Groups and sections (Green Seniors, Young Greens, Green Women, Queer Greens, Green Business, Green Migrants, etc.), volunteer management and ways to attract new members, Green cooperation in the CENTROPE region, energy policy, how to use the EP election campaign 2009 for local party building, analysis of the 2009 EP election results, exchange of experience with electoral obstacles (% thresholds, signature collection requirements), presentation of campaign concepts, press work, offers for training by Green Foundations, web performance of Greens, prospects for Green Parties in Central and Eastern Europe, etc.

Visits to Viennese districts with strong Green local groups and even mayors (7th Neubau, 8th Josefstadt) offered the possibility to learn about how to put green ideas into practice.

Since 2005, Greens from 9 CEE countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia) took part in Green Round Tables in Vienna, and so did local Greens from Vienna and representatives from the European level (European Green Party, Green Group in the European Parliament, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Green European Foundation, GEWD).

In November 2008, the Green Academy of Styria and the Greens of Graz (who just had gained a deputy mayoress after a very good result in the municipal election), organized a Round Table for Greens from ex-Yugoslav countries with participants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia.

In autumn 2010, local elections took place all over Central Europe (Czech and Slovak Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Vienna) and many new Green councillors were elected.

On November 25th/26th, 2011, city councillors from Brno, Budapest and Warsaw, former city government members from Brno and Prague, a former mayor candidate from Sarajevo and district councillors from Budapest, Prague, Skopje and Zagreb met their Viennese colleagues to discuss about one year of Red-Green city government in Vienna and about Green successes in the 7th district Neubau that has a Green district mayor since more than 10 years.

The guests informed about their activities, and also Green political foundations (like Heinrich Böll-Stiftung from Germany, the Green European Foundation, EcoPolis Foundation from Hungary and Grüne Bildungswerkstatt from Austria) presented their work.