From October 11th-13th, 2012, a group of 27 party activists and local councillors of Die Grünen Vienna went on a study trip to Brussels.
A visit to the European Parliament (watching the session of one of the EP Committees) and talks with Austrian MEPs Ulrike Lunacek and Eva Lichtenberger and Greek MEP Nikos Chrysogelos (on the “Euro crisis”) was part of the programme of the first day, followed by a visit to the office of IGLA Europe (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association).
Viennese Greens in the European Parliament with MEPs Ska Keller (Germany) and Ulrike Lunacek (Austria).
On the second day, groups went to the “Wien Haus” (a kind of “embassy” of the City of Vienna) and to the EU Commission Visitors’ Centre respectively, and afterwards to the office of the “European Green Party” (EGP) whose Committee just had a meeting there.
The delegation in the headquarters of the “European Green Party” (EGP) in rue Wiertz.
In the afternoon, the delegation was visiting the “Green European Foundation” (GEF) and afterwards the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) where the British unionist Sarah King talked about the campaigns for a social Europe.
Conversation with European Trade Unionist Sarah King.
In the evening, board members of the “European Network of Green Seniors” (ENGS) informed about their work during a dinner at the Brasserie “Falstaff”.
On the third day, after a walk through “art nouveau” quarters of Brussels, it was possible to talk to some groups of the Belgian Greens ECOLO-GROEN (in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode and Schaerbeek) who were campaigning for the local elections that were held just the day after the visitors from Vienna left Brussels.
Greens from the Brussels Region (ECOLO-GROEN) campaigning in Schaerbeek, October 13th, 2012.
At home, they learned that the Greens did well in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels Region where they scored 12.4% of the vote in average and got 100 seats in the local councils plus one mayor in the municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort.
Greening the cities 