Green Party (Romania)

The Green Party - The Greens (Partidul Verde), often shortened to The Greens (Verzii) is a Romanian political party that ideologically follows green politics and environmentalism. It is currently led by co-Presidents Marius Lazăr and Lavinia Cosma. The Green Party is the only political party in Romania that is a member of the European Green Party (EGP). Thus, it is a full rights member of the European Green Party (EGP), represented by the Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament.

Ideology
Partidul Verde - Verzii is a party that has a socially moderate-conservative ideology and from an economic point of view it is from the centre to the left-wing, being among the few center-left political organizations in Romania. Before the 2022 Congress, the party was economically much more center-right.

Social
The Greens Party is supportive for environmental causes, such as reforestation and reductions in carbon emissions. It supports an extension in individual rights as well as greater separation of church and state, including a gradual removal of all state funding for religious institutions. Like the vast majority of Romanian political parties, it is supportive of European integration.

Environment and green economy
The Greens consider that the budgetary and private financial flows invested in industries with high carbon dioxide emissions are today greater than the budgetary and private financial flows intended for adaptation to climate change and the successful green transition.

They support the participation and representation of young people in democratic and decision-making processes at all levels, i.e. by having children involved in the evaluation and formulation of policies through dialogue with experienced people and by organizing debating groups in schools, high schools and universities.

They also support the right to vote from the age of 16 for all types of elections.

Youth politics
Advocates for all new legislative acts and public policy projects to be approved only after assessing the impact on young people up to 30 years old. They support the introduction of a mechanism for monitoring legislation from a youth perspective, including both an impact assessment and a mechanism for consultation with youth representatives when legislation has an impact on young people.

The decrease in the number of NEETS in Romania (young people who neither work, nor study, nor participate in a professional training program) can also be done by developing a wider professional orientation process, starting from the age of 12. They want to enable young people to benefit from visits/short experiential internships to for-profit and non-profit organizations, in close cooperation between schools, local administrations and respective organizations/enterprises to allow young people to have a first contact with the professional environment.

They also support the introduction of Universal Basic Income for students over a period of 3 years.

Work and workers
The Greens considered that in Romania and beyond, the "price of work" has unfortunately become the "cost of work". The work performed is not rewarded at its true value in Romania. We are still a country of cheap labor, with an explosive potential that risks blowing up all social balances. The Greens support increasing the minimum wage and linking it to the minimum consumption basket for a decent living. This is the only way decent living will no longer be a dead letter in the Constitution, and purchasing power will not collapse under the pressure of inflationary crises. They support the introduction of the minimum wage in the European Union as a mechanism of social justice, at the national and European level. They support the strengthening of social dialogue in Romania, the reform of the Labor Code from the perspective of the right to collective negotiations, respect for health and safety at work and the balance between work and private life. It pleads for a new social dialogue law to confirm and guarantee negotiations at the national level, to facilitate the formation of unions, the initiation of strikes, the negotiation of collective contracts at the sector level. They demand the reduction of the union representativeness threshold from 50%+1 to 30%. They demand transparent reports on health and safety at work and hours worked by employees, in all public and private companies. The success of the green transition means decent, safe, sustainable jobs, a new healthy work-life balance. They ask the Government and the Parliament to urgently ratify the ILO Convention no. 190, of the International Labor Organization for the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work.

Youth organisation (Tinerii Verzi)
Young Greens (Romanian: Tinerii Verzi) is the youth organisation of the Green Party.

Tinerii Verzi, are the only youth organization with a left-green orientation in Romania and also the first to emphasize social and environmental justice.

The organization was founded in March 2022. On August 15, 2022, the first General Assembly of Young Greens took place. In the AG, the statute, the program were validated and the members of the National Bureau were elected.

Young Greens have become candidate members of the Federation of Young European Greens, the youth organization of the European Green Party in May 2023.

On May 24, the Young Green Congress elected Bogdan Dumitraș and Miruna Necula as co-presidents. Later, during June, Miruna Necula was dismissed from the leadership of the organization.

At the moment, the Co-Presidents of the Young Greens are Bogdan Dumitraș (Satu Mare) and Catalina Barzu (Iași), National Coordinator Daria Radovan (Sibiu) and General Secretary Angelo Stanca (Satu Mare).

The Green Youth Organization is a founding member of the AER for Youth organization - the youth organization of the AER pentru România.

History
The Green Party was founded in November 2005 by Gheorghe Ionicescu, after the merger of FER and AP was revoked. Ecologist Federation of Romania (FER) was previously founded in 1990 and is the predecessor of the Green Party. He participated in the presidential election in 2009, supporting the candidacy of Remus Cernea. Also in 2009, Ionicescu died, and Silviu Popa was appointed as a chairperson of the Green Party to replace Ionicescu. Popa was validated at the party congress on 26 September 2009 and resigned in early 2012.

At the local elections held in 2012, the Green Party gained 2 mayors (Iclănzel - Mureş and Azuga - Prahova) and 124 local councilors, with 0.87% of the votes at national level. In the 2012, at the parliamentary elections, the Green Party had two MPs (Ovidiu Iane and Remus Cernea) on the USL lists.

On 13 May 2013, in the context of the public debate on the exploration and exploitation of shale gas, the Green Party is drifted apart the SLU's position and remains consistent with environmental principles, according to the press release: "We oppose to the shale gas, mining operations at  Rosia Montana (Roșia Montană), we are extremely concerned that within the SLU there are more and more opinions and intentions to go ahead, to move towards such projects on shale gas and cyanide. Under these conditions, we cannot continue the collaboration with SLU because we would support such a political direction."

"The Green Party begins a new political path on September 3, 2022. A new team! A new center-left political program! A new approach! At the Dalles Hall in Bucharest, starting at 12.00, the Extraordinary Congress of the Green Party (Greens) will take place. A new statute, a new political program and a new leadership team will be submitted for debate and adoption.

They will apply for the positions of co-presidents: Marius Lazăr – political scientist, and Lavinia Cosma- counselor for vocational guidance, ex-USR parliamentarian, and for that of executive president - Adrian Dohotaru, environmental activist -ex- USR parliamentarian."

On 27 May 2023, an Extraordinary Congress took place in Busteni where Marius Lazar and Lavinia Cosma were re-elected as co-presidents of the Green Party (Greens).

On June 19, 2023, the National Permanent Bureau of the Party decided to exclude former general secretary Silviu Dumitru from the party due to his serious violation of the statute.

On December 9, 2023, an Extraordinary Congress of the party took place, through which it reconfirmed the election of Marius Lazăr and Lavinia Cosma as Co-Presidents of The Greens. The Congress also approved the establishment of the AER for Romania Alliance between The Greens and the Ecologist Party of Romania.



Legislative elections
Notes:

4 FER (Green Party's predecessor) previously merged with AP. The merger was revoked after the elections.

5 Green Ecologist Party members: PER and the Green Party (PV).

6 At that time, for those legislative elections, the Green Party (PV) competed on the PSD ballot, within the Social Liberal Union (USL).