[4] 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.

[16] Green was born Pauline Wiltshire in Gżira[2] on the island of Malta to an English soldier serving with the Royal Artillery and his Maltese sweetheart in 1948.

[2] During this period Green was increasing active in local politics,[4] becoming secretary and then chair of the Chipping Barnet Labour Party, before standing in (and losing) the elections for a seat on the area's council in 1986.

[2] Due to the changing political landscape, Green found that her job increasingly saw her lobbying to Brussels, with her particular interest being a directive backed by the co-operative movement creating common standards for food hygiene across Europe.

[26][27] Green was seen as a strong advocate of EU parliamentary and institutional reform: she was vocal in her criticisms of any hint of impropriety, for example calling ex-commissioner Martin Bangemann's appointment to Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica "sleaze soaked" for the impression it gave that he had used his position in the EC for his own advantage – even though he had broken no rules.

One of the Parliament's duties was to discharge the budget, confirming that the year's spending had been in line with the plans originally set by the EC and that the money had been spent honestly and efficiently.

For six months, the debate raged, with Green initially supporting the campaign to discharge the budget (whilst calling for more radical change), but only after a group of specialists that included two senior Socialist MEPs announced that there had been a slight improvement.

It was then that Green asserted that the argument would normally be solved in a national democracy by a vote of confidence: since that option did not exist in EU legislation, she instead tabled a motion of censure against the EC.

Commission official Paul van Buitenen accused Cresson of having employed her friend and dentist for eight months as a special advisor on the Environment, at a cost of £30,000.

[35] However, Green's stock was damaged by the long controversy, with even her friends and supporters considering that her handling of the affair did not come across as a coherent strategy,[4] although one commentator at the time did praise the way she had "ridden the Brussels storm with verve and conviction.

In November 1999, Green announced that she would be retiring as an MEP to become the first female chief executive of the Co-operative Union, officially taking up the position on New Year's Day 2000.

[9] The decision led to criticism from some quarters, as the mechanics of the electoral system meant that the public would not vote in Green's successor, and instead the next candidate on Labour's list automatically replaced her.

[44] Green was caught up in further controversy the following year, regarding the list of voters eligible to decide the Labour candidate for the 2000 London Mayor elections.

[48] She was welcomed to the movement by the 2000 Congress President, Pat Wheatley, who described her as "someone of great wisdom, true co-operative principles" and "a shining example of 'courage under fire'" for her work with the PES.

[49] Within two weeks of starting work at the Union, Green sat down with other high-profile members of the co-operative movement and drafted a letter to Tony Blair.

[48] There was a whispering campaign amongst Labour MPs that the commission was intended to look at the party's funding relationship with the co-operative movement, which Green dismissed as "nonsense.

[11] This work continued into 2001, with Green using her joint positions in ICOM and the Union to facilitate a merger of the two organisations, bringing together the worker and consumer co-operative sectors that had existed separately for over 100 years.

[53] The membership voted in December 2002 in favour of a change in the Union's name to reflect its new make-up[54] and in January 2003 the organisation was officially relaunched as Co-operatives UK.

[2] In the New Year's Honours 2003 Green was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) "for services to the Co-operative Movement and to the development of the European Union"[64][65] She has been described as "strong, confident and well organised" by Neil Kinnock, "a refreshing no-nonsense figure" by Phillip Whitehead and "guided by common sense and an antagonism (which amounts almost to contempt) towards the superficialities of political image-making" by Roy Hattersley.