Everything about Pauline Green totally explained
Dame Pauline Green (born ) is a former
Labour and
Co-operative Member of the European Parliament and former Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the
Party of European Socialists (PES). As leader of the PES, she'd a central role in the controversy surrounding the failure to discharge the
European Commission (EC)'s 1996 budget, bringing the first motion of censure against the Commission but voting against it. She then changed her position following corruption allegations raised by Commissioner
Paul van Buitenen to call for
Jacques Santer (then
President of the European Commission) to react promptly or be sacked. Green lost the leadership of the PES in 1999, which was attributed in part to her handling of the incident.
Following her re-election as an MEP in 1999, Green announced that she was retiring politics to take up a position as the first female Chief Executive of
Co-operativesUK, a position that she still holds today. Her work with the organisation has included sitting on and responding to the recommendations of the
Co-operative Commission, facilitating the organisation's merger with the
Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) and working to "secure and celebrate" the Co-operative Advantage.
She was made
Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2003 New Year's Honours List for "her service to the Co-operative Movement and to the development of the European Union", and is also the current President of
ICA Europe.
Early life
Green was born Pauline Wiltshire in
Gżira As a result, Green spent "a lot of [her] very young days in army barracks" and "missed out on secondary and further education". before retiring in 2000. He and Green divorced in 2003.
Whilst staying at home to look after her two children (a son and a daughter), Green studied for a degree from the
Open University. She then spent two full-time years studying at the
LSE for an
MSc (Econ) in Comparative Government. She spent two years between 1982 and 1984 as a lecturer at Barnet College of Further Education, before becoming an assistant teacher at a Special Educational Unit. In 1985, she left her teaching career to become Parliamentary Advisor on European Affairs to the Co-operative Union, a position which she left in 1989 as her political career began.
Green was elected Leader of the
European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) in 1993, beating incumbent leader
Glyn Ford. She only served for one year, however, after having been chosen and championed by then Labour leader
John Smith to become the new leader of the PES.
She held the position for five years (1994-1999), and was involved at senior levels of policy making in the
European Union and member governments. In 1998 there were rumours that she'd stand to be Labour's candidate for
Mayor of London. Whilst she expressed an interest in the position, she maintained that she wouldn't be able to commit to the position until after the 1999 leadership elections because of her European commitments.
Controversies
Green was seen as a strong advocate of EU parliamentary and institutional reform: she was vocal in her criticisms of any hint of impropriety, for example calling ex-commissioner
Martin Bangemann's appointment to
Spanish telecommunications giant
Telefonica "sleaze soaked" for the impression it gave that he'd used his position in the EC for his own advantage - even though he'd broken no rules. However, her own final year as leader saw its own controversy with allegations of corruption against the EC.
One of the Parliament's duties was to discharge the budget, confirming that the year's spending had been in line with the plans originally set by the EC and that the money had been spent honestly and efficiently. However, the parliamentary budget committee decided that it couldn't fulfill this duty with regard to the 1996 budget until points concerning the reduction of fraud in the transport system had been clarified. For six months, the debate raged, with Green initially supporting the campaign to discharge the budget (whilst calling for more radical change), but only after a group of specialists that included two senior Socialist MEPs announced that there had been a slight improvement. Parties from the centre and the right began to claim that the PES were only supporting their own members, and ultimately the move to discharge the budget was defeated.
It was then that Green asserted that the argument would normally be solved in a national democracy by a
vote of confidence: since that option didn't exist in EU legislation, she instead tabled a motion of censure against the EC. Green explained that "One of the fundamental reasons for tabling this motion of censure was to decide now - immediately - whether or not the European Commission is able to do its work."
Because of their belief that the EC should be allowed to continue its reform work, Green and the PES announced that they'd be voting against their own motion of censure - effectively trying to defeat a call for the sacking of the EC that they'd made.
As the argument continued, the parliament also refused to discharge the 1997 budget - and at the same time, allegations of corruption were made against the French commissioner
Édith Cresson. Commissioner
Paul van Buitenen accused Cresson of having employed her friend and dentist for eight months as a special advisor on the Environment, at a cost of £30,000. The position was described by sub-contractors in sworn statements as a job "for which he isn't required to do any work". The EC agreed to launch an enquiry in return for the parliament ending its moves to censure the commission.
The eventual report found that the allegations were correct, and Green joined those calling for Santer to respond promptly or risk losing his own position. A second censure motion was tabled, but before it was voted on the entire EC
resigned - although they were still allowed to keep their salaries and jobs as an interim arrangement to electing a new Commission.
The EU member governments - including
Tony Blair's - were not keen on extending the Parliament's powers, but on
May Day the
Amsterdam Treaty came into effect, which extended their influence somewhat. However, Green's stock was damaged by the long controversy, with even her friends and supporters considering that her handling of the affair didn't come across as a coherent strategy, that Green dismissed as a "cheap jibe" that had been blown out of all proportion with a reduced majority of 26,477. This was typical of the Labour Party's performance, with its share of the vote slipping from 44.24% in 1994 to 28.03% causing a resultant reduction in seats from 62 to 29. The European Socialists also did badly in the elections, and lost their dominance of the Parliament, with the
European People's Party becoming the largest group in Parliament.
Green was asked by Prime Minister Tony Blair to restand for the Parliamentary Group leadership. to allow the brokering of a deal making
Robin Cook to become PES president. The following September, she also lost her seat on the Labour
National Executive Committee, with the slump in her popularity being largely attributed to her earlier handling of the EC "scandal" and Labour's poor performance in the European parliamentary elections.
In November 1999, Green announced that she'd be retiring as an MEP to become the first female chief executive of the Co-operative Union, officially taking up the position on
New Year's Day 2000.
Green was caught up in further controversy the following year, regarding the list of voters eligible to decide the Labour candidate for the 2000 London Mayor elections. Complaints were made about Green's inclusion on the list despite her resignation as an MEP with her vote reported as being "worth a thousand times that of any ordinary member".
Co-operativesUK
Green already had a track record in the UK co-operative movement. As well as her status as a Labour and Co-operative MEP and advisory position with the Co-operative Union, she'd been a
Woodcraft Folk leader and was made president of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 1999. As an MEP, she'd also been elected President of the 1997
Co-operative Congress. She was welcomed to the movement by the 2000 Congress President, Pat Wheatley, who described her as "someone of great wisdom, true co-operative principles" and "a shining example of 'courage under fire'" for her work with the PES.
Within two weeks of starting work at the Union, Green sat down with other high profile members of the co-operative movement and drafted a letter to Tony Blair. The letter - signed by Green,
Lord Graham of Edmonton, Graham Melmoth, and Len Fyfe - called on the Prime Minister to sponsor a commission to review the co-operative movement and determine its future development and modernisation. The letter arrived against a background of the impending merger of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) and
Co-operative Retail Services to create
the Co-operative Group, as well as recent efforts by entrepreneur
Andrew Regan to
demutualise the CWS. Blair responded favourably to the request, and pledged his support in setting up a
Co-operative Commission. leaving Green to begin the work of co-ordinating the Union's response.
The Union began a "deliberate attempt to secure and celebrate [the] co-operative advantage" by increasing its ties with other organisations across the co-operative movement: they began providing professional and admin services for the
United Kingdom Co-operative Council (UKCC) and ICOM, and working with co-operative support organisations across the country to establish the "first ever 'all movement' Co-ordination Movement". The membership voted in December 2002 in favour of a change in the Union's name to reflect its new make-up and in January 2003 the organisation was officially relaunched as Co-operatives
UK.
Green continues to work at "driving a culture change in Co-operatives
UK" - for example leading the organisation to become the first co-operative to partner with the
National Association of Co-operative Officials (NACO) as its recognised trade union or successfully opposing recommendations from the
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) that would have seen co-operative members' share capital classed as debt, "destroying" the co-operative advantage.
Honours
In 1988, Green was awarded honorary Doctorates from the
University of North London and
Middlesex University, and was made Commander of the Order of Honour in 1994 by the
President of Greece. She has since been awarded the Grand Golden Cross with Star by the President of the Republic of
Austria, and been made Grand Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Cyprus. The organisation was formed by ICA Europe and the
Co-ordinating Committee of European Co-operative Organisations (CCACE) to "work together on issues of importance to co-operatives in Europe", following a drive by Green for closer co-operation between the major European co-operative bodies.
She has been described as "strong, confident and well organised" by
Neil Kinnock, "a refreshing no-nonsense figure" by
Phillip Whitehead and "guided by common sense and an antagonism (which amounts almost to contempt) towards the superficialities of political image-making" by
Roy Hattersley.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pauline Green'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://pauline_green.totallyexplained.com">Pauline Green Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
