Die „Rainbow Group“ (Regenbogenfraktion) wurde 1984 gegründet und war die zweitkleinste Fraktion im Europäischen Parlament. Sie bestand aus drei sehr heterogenen, voneinander unabhängig agierenden Untergruppen – eine davon war „Green Alternative European Link“ (GRAEL). Die GRAEL bestand aus Parlamentarier_innen bzw. früheren Abgeordneten aus vier Ländern: Deutschland (Die Grünen), Niederlande (Groen-Progressief Akkoord), Belgien (flämische Agalev; wallonische Ecolo) und Italien (Democrazia Proletaria). 1988 erschien die Broschüre „Rainbow politics“, in der die programmatische „Paris Declaration“ vom 28. April 1984 abgedruckt ist. Werfen wir einen Blick in die europäische Grünpolitik vor dem Beitritt Österreichs.
//zitat// Our common commitment to a new, neutral, decentralized Europe made up of self-administering regions, each maintaining its own cultural individuality, is based on the following points:
- We are against the deployment of nuclear missiles in Eastern and Western Europe. We are in favour of complete disarmament and the dissolution of military and power blocs.
- We are in favour of a no-compromise policy on the environment so as to safeguard the ecological balance. We are against pollution of the air, the water and the soil and against the destruction of nature and the countryside through reckless urbanization.
- We stand for equal rights for women in all areas of society.
- We demand action against unemployment and social security cuts, in the interests of employees and consumers, as part of an economic policy and a policy on employment and social benefits.
- Policy towards the Third World must be based on a position of equality with the population of the Third World; we stand for a reorganization of economic relations between Europe and the Third World and for closer cooperation between European solidarity movements and the movements of the Third World.
- We are in favour of the free exercise of fundamental civil rights as one of the most important preconditions of an emancipated society which safeguards the ecological balance.
- We advocate an ecological form of agriculture with which we would like to further the existence of small and medium-sized farms.
//zitatende//
Zum Weiterlesen: Elizabeth Bomberg: Green parties and politics in the European Union. London [u.a.]: Routledge 1998