Dame Pauline Green, (born 8 December 1948) is a former Labour and Co-operative Member of the European Parliament and former Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Party of European Socialists (PES). As leader of the PES, she had a central role in the controversy surrounding the failure to discharge the European Commission (EC)'s 1996 budget, bringing the first motion of censure against the commission but voting against it. She then changed her position following corruption allegations raised by EC official Paul van Buitenen to call for Jacques Santer (then President of the European Commission) to react promptly or be sacked. Green lost the leadership of the PES in 1999, which was attributed in part to her handling of the incident. Following her re-election as an MEP in 1999, Green announced that she was retiring from politics to take up a position as the first female Chief Executive of Co-operatives UK, a position that she held until 2009. Her work with the organisation included sitting on and responding to the recommendations of the Co-operative Commission, facilitating the organisation's merger with the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) and working to "secure and celebrate" the Co-operative Advantage. In the 2003 New Year Honours Green was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) while also holding the office of the President of ICA Europe until her election as President of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in November 2009. As with her appointment to Co-operatives UK, she is the first female president in the organisation's history. Early life Green was born Pauline Wiltshire in Gżira on the island of Malta to an English soldier serving with the Royal Artillery and his Maltese sweetheart in 1948. The family moved between Malta, Egypt and Germany, following Green's father wherever he was stationed. As a result, Green spent "a lot of [her] very young days in army barracks" and "missed out on secondary and further education". Following her father's return to civilian life, the family moved to Kilburn in London when Green was aged fourteen, and – acquiescing to her father's wishes that she did something "safe and steady" – Green studied for an Ordinary National Diploma in business studies. She started her career as a secretary with a wallpaper manufacturers, before joining the Metropolitan Police on her 21st birthday. She later said that it was working on the