24/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - Welcoming the creation, last Friday in Rome of a European Green Party (EUROPE yesterday pp 7 & 8), Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the EPP-ED group at the European Parliament hoped that the Greens would succeed in coming together in support of continued European integration, "as the EP succeeded in doing since its foundation twenty eight years ago. He added that "the pan-European aspiration of the Greens is, however, still far from reality, as they are scarcely represented in the parliaments of the East and Central European countries". In a press statement, the CDU MEP pointed out that out of 162 candidate country observers to the European Parliament, only one was attached to the green group.