Pirate Party Joins Greens in European Parliament

OTTAWA--The Swedish Pirate Party has decided their Member of European Parliament Christian Engström will become part of the Greens/European Free Alliance coalition in the European Parliament.  Engstrom was elected this year on the strength of the Pirate Party campaign for protecting internet users' rights and decriminalizing not-for-profit internet file-sharing, as well as reformation of copyright and patent law, receiving 7.1% of the Swedish vote.  

“We estimate that we have the best opportunity to achieve results for our policy by the Green Group,” said the party in a statement.  Joint presidents of the Greens/EFA Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit also released a statement saying that the Pirate Party shared the Greens/EFA group's “principles and values in defending internet users' rights.”

The Greens have been an important force in European politics since 1984 and work in coalition with the European Free Alliance, which consists of parties representing stateless nations.  The two parties from the Green/EFA Group and together develop a common political action plan for the parliamentary session.

In the 2009 election, The European Greens won 11 new seats in the parliament, bringing their total to 46 Green members.  The EFA has 7 members.

"Canadians need only look to Europe to see that Greens are in the forefront of combating restrictive patent and copyright laws," said Canadian Green Leader Elizabeth May.

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Contact:
Michael Bernard
Communications Officer
Green Party of Canada
613-562-4916 ext. 244
(c) 613-614-4916
michael.bernard@greenparty.ca