GREENS' MANIFESTO LAUNCH: The Greens published their pro-EU and anti-war manifesto yesterday in Belfast, stressing the election was not just about Northern Ireland in the EU, but also about the EU in the North.
The candidate, Ms Lindsay Whitcroft, portrayed her party as part of a wider EU movement with 45 MEPs. The manifesto, published in common with other Green parties across the EU, is a 28-page document which covers food, agriculture and fishing, transport, energy, social policy and the welfare state.
It outlines ideas concerning global trade, EU foreign and energy policy, cultural diversity and the proposed EU constitution, which the party supports.
The party made a direct appeal to Northern voters fed up with the "toxic politics" of unionist versus nationalist, calling for support for "a truly European party".
The major parties were dismissed by co-leader Dr John Barry as being "Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin lite", on the one hand, and "big-house and big-mouth unionism" on the other.
Ms Whitcroft applauded the expansion of the EU to 25 members and outlined her vision of "a social EU" based on "the politics of quality of life".
Ms Whitcroft said the Belfast Agreement "could do for Northern Ireland what the EU had done for post-war Europe".
She criticised the designation of Assembly members as either unionist or nationalist, claiming this institutionalised a form of sectarianism.
Turning to wider global issues, Ms Whitcroft said there should be a concerted drive to develop renewable energy projects.
Renewable energy has as much to do with international peace as with international energy demand, she said.
She pledged her party to stand for the development of the EU, for the euro, for the proposed constitution and against the war in Iraq.