The Green movement as an electoral force is relatively young. Indeed, the first ecological and alternative political groups emerged in late 1960’s, but most of European Greens parties were founded a decade later or more. After the 1st European election in June 1979, Greens felt the need to exchange points of view and to collaborate at European level. It took some years to set up some organization.

The European Green Coordination was founded in June 1983. The 1st Congress held in Liège, Belgium, from 31 March to 1st April 1984, gathered Greens of Benelux, UK, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. It was the time of the very setting up a European Coordination of Green Parties. The way of working of the European Green Coordination was based on Congresses. After Liège in 1984, others Congresses were held in Dover (France) in March 1985, in Stockholm (Sweden) in August 1987, in Antwerp (Belgium) in April 1988, in Paris (France) in April 1989 and in Zurich (Switzerland) in July 1991. Since November 1985, the EGC had a statute and, according to it, a co-secretariat consisting of 4 or 5 members.

But, as membership grew, new issues, ideas and initiatives emerged in rapid succession. It became evident that an informal structure would not be up to the task, however competent individuals were running the Co-Secretariat. Moreover, events in Europe of historical magnitude had proven that there was a need for a Green argument on matters of European level; be it on democratization of the European Union, or peaceful transition to post-Communist era in Central and Eastern Europe, or ethnic conflict in Bosnia. Ten years after its foundation, the EGC was turned into the European Green Federation. The Co-Secretariat was replaced by the Committee and the meeting by the Council.

The European Federation of Green Parties, founded in June 1993 in Majvik, Finland. The EFGP was a European political party, as defined in Article 138A in Maastricht Treaty. The Federation represented its member parties on European level. The member parties, however, maintained their autonomy on the regional and national levels. A year after its foundation, the Federation has 28 member parties in all corners of the continent: "from Cork to Tbilissi, from Lisbon to Nordkapp". At the EFGP first times, Green parties in Europe were: Die Grünen (Austria), Ecolo (Belgium), Agalev (Belgium), Zelena Partija Bulgaria (Bulgaria), De Gronne (Denmark), Eesti Roheline Liikkumine (Estonia), Vihreä Liitto (Finland), Les Verts (France), Georgian Greens (Georgia), Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen (Germany), Politiki Oikologia (Greece), Zöld Alternativa ( Hungary), Comhaontas Glas (Ireland), Federazione dei Verdi (Italy), GLEI and GAP (Luxembourg), Alternattiva Demokratika (Malta), De Groenen General Description of the Archives 6 (The Netherlands), GroenLinks (The Netherlands), Miljöpartiet de Gronne (Norway), Os Verdes (Portugal), Los Verdes (Spain), Partija Zelenija (Russia), Miljöpartiet de Gröna (Sweden), Grüne/Les Verts (Switzerland), Partija Zelenij Ukraini ( Ukraine), Green Party and Scottish Green Party (United Kingdom). The seat of the Federation was Vienna. The Information Office was already situated in Brussels. It had been imperative from the very beginning that the European Federation of Green parties should exceed the boundaries of the European Union and, indeed, Western Europe.

Unlike in most comparable political structures, Eastern European parties had always had their due weight in the Federation, and not only decision-making, but also forming the organization and formulating its policy priorities. Two adjunct projects were associated to the Federation. The Standing Committee on EU affairs, established in January 1994, was in charge of political communication between the member parties and the Green Group in European Parliament. The Green East-West Dialogue project was commissioned to activate contacts between Eastern and Western member parties as well as to report to the Federation regularly on the events and processes in Central and Eastern Europe. In the same way, other networks were set up between various areas, as Mediterranean network or Baltic Sea network working together on specific issues.

Progressively, the EFGP organization showed also some defaults and various people wanted to improve the efficiency of the Federation. The process of statutes change in the perspective of the EFGP decision on establishing a new international non-profit organisation (INPO/AISBL) in Belgium began at The Hague Council Meeting held in Spring 2001 in the Netherlands. The process ended with the foundation of the European Green Party in Rome on 22 February 2004 at the 4th Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties (EFGP) attended by over 1000 delegates. Thirty-four Green parties from all over Europe had joined this new pan- European party. The Greens were the first to form a political party at European level. The other European political federations followed suit in the period 2004-2006. For the Greens this was the culmination of a process which had started with the formation of a loose coordination 1979-1993 and the EFGP 1993-2004.