Mar Garcia Sanz
EGP Secretary General
Secretary General
of the European Green Party
Assumed office
9 November 2014
Preceded byJacqueline Cremers
Advisor to the Deputy Mayor of Barcelona in Sustainability, Environment and Urban Services
In office
2002–2007
Chief of Cabinet of the Deputy Mayor of Barcelona
In office
2007–2011
Environmental and Local Economic Development Advisor in the City Council of Barcelona
In office
2011–2014
Personal details
Born
Maria del Mar Garcia Sanz

(1974-09-11) 11 September 1974
Sabadell, Spain
Political partyEuropean Green Party
Other political
affiliations		Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds
Esquerra Verda
SpouseJordi Guillot Miravet
Children2
EducationUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona
ESADE

Maria del Mar Garcia Sanz (Spanish: [maˈɾja ðel maɾ ɣaɾˈθja sanθ]; born 11 September 1974) is a Spanish politician and a political scientist. She has served as the Secretary General of the European Green Party (EGP) since November 2014.

She was also a member of the Executive Committee and National Council of the Catalan Greens, Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV), and is a member of the national Council of its successor, the Green Left.

First years and education

Mar Garcia was born in Sabadell, Spain. She has a bachelor's degree in Political Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She also studied Public Administration at the ESADE Business School.

Her native languages are Spanish and Catalan. She is also fluent in English.

Professional and political career

In order to finance her studies, she worked several part-time jobs throughout her university education. After graduating, her first professional experience was as a Junior Consultant in an international consultancy group specialized in health care. Following this experience, she worked at the City Council of Barcelona for 12 years. During the coalition government between Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and ICV that lasted from 1999 to 2011 (without Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya from 2007) - she worked as an Advisor to the Deputy Mayor in charge of sustainability, the environment and urban services for five years (2002 – 2007). After that, she was the Chief of Cabinet of the Deputy Mayor for four years (2007 - 2011). While in the opposition she was an Environmental and Local Economic Development Advisor for three years (2011 – 2014).[1]

In June 2003 she began her involvement in politics by becoming a member of the Catalan Green Party (Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds) where she has held several different responsibilities: a member of the Political Commission of Barcelona, a member of the National Council, a member of the Executive Committee and a member of the International Relations Working Group. She is also member of the trade union Comisiones Obreras.

In November 2012 she was elected[2] as an Executive Committee Member of the European Green Party at the 17th Council Meeting of the European Greens held in Athens. Throughout her mandate she was responsible for strategy planning for the Green family, for the party's Gender Network, and for capacity building and networking coordination among member parties.

Two years later, in November 2014, Mar Garcia was elected[3] as the Secretary General of the European Green Party at the 21st Council Meeting of the European Greens in Istanbul (2014), taking over from the previous Secretary General who stepped down from the role. Garcia was re-elected[4] at the 23rd Council Meeting of the European Greens in Lyon (2015) for an extended mandate that would cover the 2019 European Election campaign.

In November 2019 she once again ran for the position of Secretary General and was elected.[5] The election took place at the 30th Council Meeting of the European Greens in Tampere.

She attended the 2018 and 2019 Netroots Nations, a political convention for progressive political activists in the USA.

She is the only female Secretary-General of a pan-European party.[6]

Mandate as Secretary General

During Mar Garcia's first two mandates (2014 – 2019) her political priorities have been:[7][8][9][10]

  • Strengthening and supporting the member parties for better political coordination and cooperation at a European level;
  • Campaigning for the divestment from fossil fuel;
  • Gender equality and equal rights for LGBTI people;
  • Launching a Green platform for citizen engagement: the ChangeMaking Network – Tilt!

During this period, the European Green Party created several spaces for diverse stakeholders in Green politics to connect, such as:

  • Green Local Councilors network:[11] provides a platform for Green Councilors that work on a local or regional level to share their experiences and best practices;
  • Global Greens and European Green Party Congress: held in Liverpool and gathered more than 2.000 Greens from all over the world;[12]
  • European Ideas Lab (EIL): The European Green Party together with the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament brought together change-makers from all over Europe, representing civil society, activists, movements and Green politicians. There have been two editions in Brussels: February 2017[13] and March 2018[14] and some regional editions: Dublin (2017),[15] Graz (2018),[16] and Madrid (2018).[17]

During this mandate, a high priority was given to the enhancement of collaboration among the European Green family, namely among the Member Parties spread across Europe, the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, the Federation of Young European Greens and the Green European Foundation. Also during her mandate, the Change Making Network Tilt! was born. This citizens’ movement demanding a fairer and greener Europe, has 200.000 members.

During her term as Secretary General, the European Greens achieved the best ever results in a European Election. Through an innovative digital campaign[18] present all over the European Union, the share of votes for the European Greens increased from 7 to 10 percent. The number of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) elected to the Greens/EFA group increased from 52 to 75.

In 2018 Politico ranked her as one of the 20 women who shape Brussels.[6]

Stances

Garcia is an enthusiastic pro-European. “Europe is the best instrument to manage the global challenges that we face in a globalised world, the best structure to deal with environmental and democratic problems” she said in an interview with La Vanguardia.[19] She is a convinced ecologist with a social approach and considers climate issues and social justice to be interrelated: “the backbone is the fight against climate change and the preservation of the planet as it is the unique ecosystem compatible with the human existence. From this, you can tackle social, labour and economic rights”.

She considers that the European Greens are the best alternative to fight against national populism as Greens stand for “[we stand for] open and inclusive societies which manage refugees and migration. A feminist society”. “We have three main pillars: the fight against climate change, more democracy and rule of law”.[20]

Despite being happy with the success of the Greens following the 2019 European Elections, she wants one of her biggest future challenges to be “strengthen the Green presences in the East and South of Europe”.[21]

Personal life

Mar Garcia has two children and is married to Jordi Guillot Miravet.

Publications

Mar Garcia has published the following academic articles:

  • Nogués, G; Garcia, M; Castells, L; and Salvans G. (1999) “La Campanya contra el Quart Cinturó. Un moviment social urbà”. Revista Catalana de Sociologia, no 8, pp. 117–132.[22]

See also

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ "Mar Garcia LinkedIn profile page". LinkedIn.
    2. ↑ "EGP elects new Committee in Athens Council". European Greens.
    3. ↑ "Mar Garcia Sanz elected Secretary General of the European Green Party". European Greens.
    4. ↑ "European Green Party elects new leadership in Lyon". European Greens.
    5. ↑ "@surdeuropa has just been re-elected as Secretary General of the European Greens at the 30th Council of the European Greens in Tampere, Finland". @europeangreens on Twitter.
    6. 1 2 "Women who shape Brussels 2018 - Mar Garcia Sanz". Politico Europe.
    7. ↑ "EGP – ACTIVITY PLAN 2016 as adopted by the Lyon Council" (PDF). European Greens.
    8. ↑ "EGP ACTIVITY PLAN 2017 as adopted" (PDF). European Greens.
    9. ↑ "EGP ACTIVITY PLAN 2018 as adopted - PREPARED FOR 2019" (PDF). European Greens.
    10. ↑ "Adopted EGP ACTIVITY PLAN 2019" (PDF). European Greens.
    11. ↑ "Green Cities Conference". European Greens.
    12. ↑ "Global Greens & European Greens Congress 2017". Greens2017.
    13. ↑ "European Ideas Lab". Greens/EFA.
    14. ↑ "European Ideas Lab - Brussels". European Greens.
    15. ↑ "Regional European Ideas Lab - Dublin". Greens/EFA.
    16. ↑ "Regional European Ideas Lab - Graz". Greens/EFA.
    17. ↑ "Regional European Ideas Lab - Madrid". Greens/EFA.
    18. ↑ "European Greens Manifesto - European elections 2019". European Greens.
    19. ↑ "Mar García Sanz, la catalana que tiñe de verde Europa". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 1 June 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
    20. ↑ "Mar García: 'Els estats-nació ja no tenen la massa crítica necesària per fer front als reptes que tenim al davant'". www.publico.es. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
    21. ↑ Pellicer, Lluís (9 June 2019). "Surfeando la ola verde". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
    22. ↑ Garcia i Sanz, Maria del Mar. "La Campanya contra el Quart Cinturó. Un moviment social urbà". Hemeroteca Científica Catalana. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
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