Политика және кооператив қозғалысының көрнекті қайраткері Полин Грин

British Labour politician

Dame Pauline Green, (born 8 December 1948) 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 Parliamentary Group of the PES, she had 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 EC official 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 from politics to take up a position as the first female Chief Executive of Co operatives UK, a position that she held until 2009. Her work with the organisation 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. In the 2003 New Year Honours Green was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) while also holding the office of the President of ICA Europe until her election as President of the International Co operative Alliance (ICA) in November 2009. As with her appointment to Co operatives UK, she is the first female president in the organisation's history.

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". and – acquiescing to her father's wishes that she did something "safe and steady" – Green studied for an Ordinary National Diploma in business studies. She started her career as a secretary with a wallpaper manufacturers, before joining the Metropolitan Police on her 21st birthday. 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 Parliamentary Group of the PES. Ian White, an MEP elected at the same time as Green, said: "Although the parliamentary group formally elected Pauline, the "deal" was put together by the national party leaders. I believe that, had it been an open election, she would have won in any case, hands down, on competence alone." She held the position for five years (1994–99), and was involved at senior levels of policy making in the European Union and member governments. In 1998 there were rumours that she would stand to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of London. Whilst she expressed an interest in the position, she maintained that she would not be able to commit to the position until after the 1999 leadership elections because of her European commitments.

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 had used his position in the EC for his own advantage – even though he had 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 could not 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 did not 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 Parliamentary Group announced that they would be voting against their own motion of censure – effectively trying to defeat a call for the sacking of the EC that they had 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. Commission official 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 is not 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 did not 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 president of the PES (i. e. the wider PES party outside Parliament, not the Parliamentary Group). 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 would 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".

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 had been a Woodcraft Folk leader and was made president of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) in 1999. As an MEP, she had 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 continued 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. In October 2002, Green was elected as the President of ICA Europe, the umbrella body for European co operatives. 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. Green announced that she intended to retire as chief executive of the organisation in 2009, saying: "I will be 60 at [that time] and I have always intended to retire when I reached that milestone. The Board [of Co operatives UK] and I agreed that it made sense for me to finish after Co operative Congress 2009, which is, to all intents and purposes, the end of our co operative year." She was succeeded in November 2009 by Ed Mayo. Green was elected chair of the board of Supporters Direct following her retirement from Co operatives UK, and also elected President of the International Co operative Alliance (ICA). Following her election, she stood down from her position within Co operatives Europe. She resigned as President of the ICA, two years before her term ended, as the result of The Co operative Group cutting its financial support for the ICA.

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. 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.