27/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - German Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler has decided to leave the Greens and Free European Alliance group of the European Parliament to return to the Socialist Group. This is the second defection from this group in just a few days, after the departure of Ozan Ceylun, also a German, who returned to the PES (see EUROPE of 20 October, p.5). The Green/EFA Group now only has 46 members and the PES group grows to 182. The co-presidents of the Greens Group, Paul Lannoye and Heidi Hautala, regretted this decision, saying it was "incomprehensible" since, they say, Mr Kreissl-Dörfler had every possibility to carry out his political work successfully. The co-presidents recall above all the role played by their colleague in the "successful fight against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and WTO reform", and doubt that his "social and ecological ideals will be put into effect (…) more so than in the party which has been his political home until now, the Greens".