Political Platform

Our political platform document outlines what FYEG stands for as an organisation.  The current version was adopted by the General Assembly in May 2013 and last updated in August 2019 in Istanbul.

2019 Resolution: Venezuela – shades of grey

Over the last years, the economic, social and political situation in Venezuela have worsen and  turned  into  a  crisis  of  international  relevance  since  the  president  of  the  National  Assembly  of  Venezuela,  Juan  Guaidó,  proclaimed  himself  Interim  President  of  the  Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

2019 Resolution: Towards a Europe that works for all

After the shockwaves of the global financial crisis swept through Europe, indicating the unsustainable nature of lax neoliberal economic policies, the answers ruling decision-makers  gave  to  the  crisis  further  deepened  wealth  inequalities  through  austerity measures. These measures, coupled with other  factors, such as climate change, new technologies, demographic changes, and globalization, have not only led to very high youth unemployment rates in Europe (especially in Southern and Easter  European countries) but also to a stance among political decision-makers that “any job is better than none.” But we need to focus on qualitative indicators of young people and other vulnerable groups’ work experience, instead of having a fixation merely on quantitative indicators. The current generation of young people is worse off than their predecessors, pillars of European welfare states are gradually being deconstructed and labour deregulations coupled with new technologies are taking us even further away from a labour market equally benefiting employers and employees.

2019 Resolution: The future of Young Greens in the Green political movement

The European elections of May 2019 were the climate elections. In the months leading to the  elections  young  people  rose  up  in  unforeseen  numbers.  They  have  been  brave,  they  have been calling out the ignorance of mainstream parties on what are the most crucial challenges  our  societies  are  facing  today.  They  reclaimed  their  future.  At  every  step  of  the journey, we were with them, joining them in the streets, spreading a shared message throughout the continent.

2019 Resolution: From climate emergency to climate neutrality

Climate change is an urgent crisis on an unprecedented scale. Alongside the alarming rate of biodiversity loss (sixth mass extinction), it threatens the very foundations of human civilisation.

Despite the aim of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 and at least well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, government reactions have been mainly timid and overdue – and at times utterly negligent. At best, we have seen individual pockets of action addressing the crisis…

Adopted by the EGP Council, Tampere, 8 - 10 November 2019

2019 Resolution: European Train network of the Future

Cross borders, meet people, get together.

European citizens are becoming more and more mobile. We are going out more often, we are going on holiday more frequently and further than ever. That is really amazing from a social and cultural perspective. However, there is a downside to this: the frequency and the impact of flying, notably, is increasing significantly over the years.

2019 Resolution: Europe is not only the Mainland

Despite the inactivity from governments all over Europe, climate change is imminent. Many of these governments represent insular countries, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Malta or Cyprus, as well as states with insular territories and outermost regions, such as Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Croatia or Greece, among others.

2019 Resolution: Climate Emergency – We Can’t Just Stop at Declarations!

By  the  summer  of  2019,  more  than  790  local  councils  across  the  globe  as  well  as  the  governments of the Republic of Ireland and the UK have issued a declaration of climate emergency.  Carried  forward  by  the  increasing  awareness  of  the  climate  crisis,  we  can  expect that the movement demanding similar declarations will grow in the coming years. While  we  in  principle  welcome  these  developments  for  providing  an  accurate  label  of  the  situation  and  a  concrete  frame  for  taking  action,  we  believe  they  also  raise  several  questions.  We  believe  that  for  the  concept  of  climate  emergency  to  prove  successful,  the  climate  movement  needs  to  work  intensively  towards  specifying  the  demands  for  measures which should follow any climate emergency declaration.

2019 Resolution: Building Pan-European Solidarity – Perspectives from Eastern Europe

The  2019  European  Elections  demonstrated  that  Greens  have  become  a  considerable  political power in the EU and we have Green Wave materialized in some EU Member States as well. With the climate crisis being fought for becoming a priority in the EU and outside, also major established political parties falling short on people’s expectations, it is projected that Greens will gain more traction in the foreseeable future. This year Greens group in the European Parliament has 75 MEPs that gives them more leverage to engage and further Green agenda on the EU and Member States levels as well as outside the Union. Especially, Green MEPs that are subscribed to the relevant committees working on the EU external policies  will  be  able  to  position  themselves  and  contribute  to  the  policy-making  for  the  non-EU countries. And hopefully, with the coming years, Greens will be able to significantly shape and influence the decision-making in the EU institutions.

2018 Resolution: Palestine: Towards The End of Occupation, an Establishment of Peace

For almost three generations, Palestinians have lived in occupied territories where each day, more and more land and resources have been confiscated by settlers, and where the Palestinian inhabitants have endured constant humiliation and violation of their human rights. As the Israeli government continues to mistreat Palestinians and their culture and history, it is not an option to remain silent. At the very end of 2016, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was passed, demanding the end of Israeli settlement activity on Palestinian territory. Nevertheless, the Israeli government legalised 4000 houses of settlers in Palestine in February 2017. This FYEG resolution is not aimed to put an end to internal discussions on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Rather, we call for an increased effort to fight for equal treatment, security and freedom in the region. As long as the power dynamics are unequal, sustainable peace cannot be established. To create this equal playing field the steps that are presented in this resolution are needed. It is beyond the scope of this resolution to describe the full extent of all the steps that have to be taken to solve the conflict. We condemn all war crimes from both sides. 

2018 Resolution: License to Heal

A third of the world’s population has limited access to essential medicines. Also in developed European countries the costs of new and expensive medicines can cause problems of accessibility. High prices of drugs threaten every patient’s’ right to treatment.

2017 Resolution: Towards a comprehensive protection scheme for Climate Refugees

As stated in the resolution “Hot air or climate justice? The COP21”, adopted on May 28, 2016 during the General Assembly in Prague, Czech Republic, rights of climate refugees are currently not being discussed during the Conferences of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conferences. This despite the fact that according to the United Nations, by mid-century one in 30 people could be displaced as a result of climate change.

2017 Resolution: Time to give young citizens the right to vote

A basic idea of democracy is that all people in society should have the same right to influence political decisions, no matter who we are. Public governance is not just for the smartest, those with the best education or the most mature; it is for everyone. The more excluded from the right to vote, the more distorted becomes our representative democracy.

2017 Resolution: Take active initiative towards Israeli-Palestinian peace

In order to facilitate the reconciliation process between various Member Organisations of the Federation of Young European Greens [FYEG], the General Assembly calls on all parties involved in this issue to consider this resolution. Without a proper debate, this resolution does not necessarily fulfil the needs of all Member Organisations and can hence only be understood as the starting point for a discussion. It is understood that this paper cannot be seen a final position, but rather as a sign of good faith and trust in the possibility of a good debate between all parties that results into an end of the damaging debate between MOs at the next reasonable opportunity: 

2017 Resolution: Stop fighting the humanitarian smugglers, create safe passage instead!

The fight against refugee and migrant smuggling has evolved into a central paradigm of EU asylum and migration policies in the past several years and has played a pivotal role in the public discourse ever since the adoption of the EU Agenda on Migration and the Action Plan on Migrant Smuggling in 2015. We consider the policy prerogative of fighting smugglers misconceived in several ways.

2017 Resolution: Reinventing our agricultural policies

In 1957, European leaders decided to start a Common Agricultural Policy to commonly face challenges such as the low income of farmers, the dependence of Europe from foreign production, the instability of market and the high prices of food. Sixty years later, European Agriculture is once again stuck in a deep systemic crisis and faces new challenges. Because of the too low prices, many farmers cannot live from their production. Industrial agriculture keeps on using too many chemical inputs and pesticides threatening both our health, our soils and climate. 

2017 Resolution: Progressive municipalities to change Europe

The rise of national populism in Europe is mainly caused by the lack of citizenry empowerment and neoliberal policies and others. One element that contributed to the multiple societal challenges we are facing is a lack of citizenry empowerment at the transnational level. Instead of reacting progressively to these challenges, the European Union is pressing the member states to comply with the demands of capitalistic structures to continue with neoliberal policies as if nothing happened. This left the vast majority of people behind. The continuation of neoliberal policies and the lack of democracy at the European level are only some of the causes that led people to consider the false solutions proposed by the far right.

2017 Resolution: A harm reduction approach to drug policy

In many European states, narcotics policy springs from the view that drugs should never be present in a society. Based on this ideology, the goal becomes a simplistic one: minimising the demand for narcotics. This is typically done by stigmatising drug users, believing that less people will use narcotics if you make them suffer for it.

2017 Resolution: A brighter future for Southern European Youth

Europe’s Southern countries experimented a great political, social, cultural and economic progress since their entry in the European Economic Community during the eighties (with the exception of Italy). Nevertheless, despite the period of growth and stability in these countries within the context of a buoyant Europe, their structural problems concerning its productive systems and administrations weren’t faced by the EU. What is more, this growth was built upon low skilled employment, bank credits, large infrastructure investment, etc.

2016 Resolution: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia: European comeback wanted

The European Union project has been recently challenged by international situations for which member states would have to stand all together, politically reflecting the values and ideals the European construction is supposed to be based on, in order to fulfill their role as a global player. Unfortunately, they have not always been able to appear as unity to the international community, as the ongoing inability to cooperate for the sake of refugees’ rights tragically shows every day. One reason for this are the discrepancies between European governments’ political stands and the apparently nearly impossibility to find a consensus or an internal arrangement regarding important political topics. Particularly, in the central Europe region, the Polish, Hungarian and Slovakian governments showed in the last months a rather questionable political shift towards right-wing authoritarian populist attitudes and policies.

2016 Resolution: Motion for the federation of young european Greens policy and action on basic income

With a notion to Federation of Young European Green’s values of green social economy and in light of our 2008 Resolution on Basic Income, we, the member organisations of FYEG, demand a European basic income to protect European’s social rights. Taking action for this matter is more important than ever, especially in the light of the economic crisis.

2016 Resolution: Is there a form of life in Europe?

Fortress Europe has during the past year manifested its’ exceptional brutality, exposing the face of those who defend it. Fear and selfishness. Demagoguery and fascism. Whatever the motivation, the result is the same.

2016 Resolution: Hot air or climate justice? The COP21

The Paris Agreement is a two sided medal: Ambitious for what was possible, catastrophic with regard to what is needed. The inclusion of the 1.5°C goal is a success for the Global South and the climate movement. The universality of signatories and the rhetoric leaders used at the COP21 were unprecedented and this agreement is the most ambitious up to now, in addition to it being legally binding. The deal makes reparations for losses & damages caused by the climate crisis impossible. Human Rights and other principles are not ensured. Necessary support for the Global South is not provided. The failure of Paris leaves the planet with a manifestation of global injustice and a poisoned 1.5°C goal.

2015 Resolution: How to End the Crisis

Ever since 2008, the world economy has been shattered by aftershocks of the mortgage crisis in the US. The crisis made its way across the Atlantic and throughout the world taking the form of a banking crisis in the European Union. The Heads of EU States swiftly bailed out the banks with public money turning the banking crisis into a debt crisis. The eurozone, an elliptic system of monetary union lacking a common economic policy was the first to show symptoms of this failed political attempt to avoid an implosion. The crisis has shown how tightly interconnected and interdependent our economies really are, as well as the weak spots of our Union.

2015 Resolution: Freedom for the Western Sahara

As Greens we have always supported the anti-colonialist struggles of those who have been under the control of often European countries. Even today, colonialism is still visible on the maps. The Western-Sahara, under Moroccan occupation, is one of these cases, whose liberation has been demanded on countless occasions by the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation. We the Greens in Europe demand the freedom of Western-Sahara and an end to this case of colonialism just outside our borders.

2015 Resolution: Building Bridges

FYEG believes that freedom of movement is a human right, migration is not a crime and no human is illegal. We strive for the complete abolition of borders and the unquestionable right for everyone to choose a place of residence and of work.

2015 Resolution: A Europe that saves lives

The same scenario repeats over and over again: Boats filled with refugees trying to reach Europe, yet drowning, unidentified, in the Mediterranean instead. The European strategy has been one of indifference and cruel cynicism for all too long. We are ashamed of Europe that lets people drown at its shores in order to prevent others from coming. We are ashamed of European leaders for whom more than 20.000 dead in last 15 years were not enough to take the necessary actions to finally protect lives of refugees and migrants at High Seas. Europe cannot and must not let people die at its doorsteps. A Europe that leaves people dying at its shores is not the Europe we want and not the Europe we need and we can live in.

2015 Project Outline: Olive Tree Branch

The last General Assembly (Strasbourg, July 2014) voted the resolution Olive Tree Branch, mandating FYEG to promote training and further discussion between all its structures on the issue of the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. To take this forward taking into account the range of positions existing within the Federation, the EC has put together the attached project outline proposal.

2014 Resolution: Our Rights are not for trade – Smash TTIP and CETA!

2014 Resolution: Olive Branch

2014 Resolution: For A Europe of Diversity, Inclusion and Openess: We Counter the Far Right!

2014 Resolution: Financial management within FYEG

2014 Resolution: A better election process

2013 Towards Economic Democracy

2013 Roma inclusion policy paper

2013 NO to shale gas extraction in Europe

2013 Let’s discuss European solidarity, not European identity!

2013 Election Campaign Manifesto for the 2014 elections

2013 Campaign plan for the 2014 elections

2012 Political Platform

The political program of FYEG is our most important political document.

2011 “Support of the campaign for UN parliamentary assembly”

2011 “For a local and ecological agriculture”

2011 “Fight against patriachal violence”

2011 “End of nuclear energy”

2011 “Direct democracy”

2011 Policy paper on debt and austerity

2010 “Towards A Mandatory European Cruelty Free Standard: Right To Know, Right To Choose!”

2010 “A Green Perspective on European Youth Policy”

2010 Post Copenhagen Resolution

2009 “The Roma Minority In Europe: A Nomad Path To Exclusion”

2009 “More Regionalism - More Europe”

2009 “Legalize Abortion - Give Women The Right To Decide”

2009 Paper on Drug Policy

2008 Young Green Manifesto: A Green Europe Or No Europe

2008 Statement on Green Social Economy

2008 Resolution On Basic Income

2008 Paper on the European Union

2008 Paper on EU External Relations After The Lisbon Treaty

2006 Statement on Migration

2006 Resolution on contraction by Chiche

I. Why infinite growth is a myth

II. Why economic growth is not a desirable policy goal

III. What about “zero” growth as advocated by the club of Rome in 1972?

IV. And Jobs? How will we create enough employment?

V. Why not sustainable development?

VI. What kind of society would we like to live in?