Pauline Green
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Dame Pauline Green (b. December 8, 1948, Malta) was a Labour and Co-operative Member of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom and Leader of the Party of European Socialists. She is now Chief Executive of Co-operatives UK and President of ICA Europe.
Born Pauline Wiltshire in Malta, Green grew up there, as well as in Egypt and Germany. She started her career as a secretary then as an officer in the Metropolitan Police. She is married with two children.
Green won the seat of London North covering the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey with a majority of 5,387 in June 1989. She was re-elected in 1994 with a majority of 48,348. With a large Turkish and Greek Cypriot community in her constituency, she was particularly active on South-eastern European issues.
Green was elected Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) in June 1993 and served for one year. For five years (1994-1999), she led the Party of European Socialists, then the largest section of the European Parliament, and was involved at senior levels of policy making in the European Union and member governments. For a MEP, she was relatively high-profile in British politics and in 1998 there were rumours that she would stand to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of London (see [1]).
Although seen as a strong advocate of EU parliamentary and institutional reform, her final year as leader saw controversy with allegations of corruption against the European Commission and of inaction by the Parliament. The Commission was eventually forced to resign, with some MEPs accusing Green of not being critical enough of the original commission in the early stages of the controversy.
Green topped the London list in the European Parliament Election, 1999. However, the British Labour Party and the European Socialists did badly and the European People's Party became the largest group. Green did not stand for re-election as Leader of the Socialist Group. She retired from the Parliament in December 1999, announcing her new role at the Co-operative Union, the umbrella organisation for consumer co-ops in the United Kingdom.
Green already had a track record in the UK co-operative movement. She had been a Woodcraft Folk leader and worked as Assistant Parliamentary Secretary for the Co-operative Union (1986-1989). As a MEP, she had been elected President of the 1997 Co-operative Congress.
Green's early work at the Union involved responding to the recommendations of the Co-operative Commission set up by Tony Blair and chaired by John Monks, of which she was a member. In December 2001, the Co-operative Union and merged with ICOM, the Industrial Common Ownership Movement, which represented worker co-ops. The merger effectively brought together the consumer-owned sector of the co-operative movement with the employee-owned sector for the first time in over a hundred years. In February 2003 the merged organisation was renamed Co-operatives UK. Green remained Chief Executive and General Secretary of the new body. In 2002, she was elected as President of ICA Europe, the umbrella body for European co-operatives.
Green holds a BA from the Open University and an MSc in Comparative Government from the London School of Economics. 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 received the honours of Grand Golden Cross with Star awarded by the President of the Republic of Austria, Commander of the Order of Honour awarded by the President of Greece, and Grand Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Cyprus.
She holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of North London, Middlesex University and the University of Huddersfield. She continued as Vice President of Socialist International Women which she has been since 1999.
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Categories: 1948 births | Living people | Members of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom | UK Labour Party politicians | UK Co-operative Party politicians | Cooperative activists | Alumni of the Open University | Alumni of the London School of Economics | Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
