With 48 MEPs - up 14 on the 2004 elections - will Europe's ecologists become a force in the EU parliament ? Some commentators are none too convinced while others have noticed that this traditionally left-wing movement has taken a right turn.

The Greens in the Brussels' region have just formed a coalition with Liberals and Christian Democrats, reports Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. A historic shift is also visible in Germany, where Greens have announced for the first time that they are ready to cooperate with Christian Democrats and Liberals at a federal level.

For some time now the argument goes that Greens should jettison traditional links for new ones. In France, for instance, Greens almost outpolled former coalition partners the PS, whereas in Portugal and Italy they scored as well as far-left movements they are usually associated with. "The Greens must start talking about climate change in an economic context (creating new jobs in a green economy), abandon their links with the extreme left, and deal with Liberals or Christian Democrats in the same way the moderate left does, Rzeczpospolita opines.

Elsewhere, Belgian ecologist party MEP Philippe Lamberts argues that Greens share certain values with the right. "Socialists and free-market liberals believe that the measure of quality of life is your material status," he says. "We think, as Christian Democrats do, that the good life is not the amount of money on your bank account." Greens, also, Rzeczpospolita pointedly remarks, are more likely to have criticised Communist dictatorships.