Fellow peoples of Europe,
The European Union has been created and evolved the decades that followed the tragedy of the Second World War. It started with the primary objective of healing the open wounds of this unprecedented tragedy. It gradually evolved though to a closer and closer union of member states, which brought us to the ‘Erasmus Generation’, hundreds of millions of young people who feel Europe as their homeland.
As long as there were many Europeans with living memories from the Second World War, the necessity for the Union had never been challenged nor had its direction ever been questioned. Clearly, the EU was destined to become a federal union, with the monetary union being the first significant achievement in this journey.
Unfortunately though, time has passed and these living memories of the war are fading away together with the subjects carrying them. In parallel, the fast evolving international landscape in terms of economy and diplomacy is calling for a stronger European voice.
All of a sudden, what was till recently perceived as unthinkable starts to be happening. Several voices in Europe do not hesitate to question the very necessity for European integration. These voices, populist and nationalistic mostly, are in essence boosted by the notorious inability of national political elites to meet proper governance standards in terms of strategic direction. More often than not, governments across Europe unfairly blame the EU for anything bad may happen, hiding this way their lack of governing capacity.
Apparently, it has been proven an unrealistic expectation of us All, the peoples of Europe, to witness national governments to promote true European integration, as this very integration is perceived as suicidal for and by themselves. It is then time for us All to respond to the call of history for continuing the journey started by our parents and our grandparents. The time has come for Europe to be united in real, for the EU to evolve to the European Federal Union.
It is not about a rhetoric statement, asking national governments to do something about that; on the contrary, the very subjects who make national government legitimate now demand the creation of a federal state with clearly defined competences, believing that this is what best serves the peoples’ interest.
The Rome Manifesto, authored by a diverse group of progressive young Europeans in 2017, offers an excellent platform for the launch of a pan-European political movement for the European Federal Union. Our priorities are simple:
- We want a democratically elected executive governing branch for the European Federal Union, complemented by a federal judiciary branch and of course a federal parliament.
- We want to unite the military and the diplomatic resources of all of the European Federal Union Member States, under the command of the federal European government.
- We want to enhance the European monetary union with federal budget management, federal taxation and, of course, federal borrowing.
- In parallel we want a plethora of competencies to be repatriated to the national level, achieving the highest level of clarity and accountability between fender and state level competencies.
The vision of the EU’S founding fathers was to create a family able to protect all of its members throughout their whole lives. Our understanding of protection includes liberty, equality, justice, human rights, economic independence but also welfare and healthcare for each and every citizen of Europe. The coronavirus pandemic and the miserably uncoordinated response of the EU member states made the need for European integration more evident than never before.
The coronavirus pandemic uncovered several quite uncomfortable truths. The peoples of Europe have been paying enormous amounts for many decades in order to create and sustain Europe’s pride, the social state. Yet, the moment when the social state should protect the peoples of Europe, the moment when this enormous investment had to pay off, it notoriously failed to do so.
Why was that? Evidently because of the unnecessary fragmentation and because of the inability to explore economies of scale. The nation-state illusion is the one to blame for the loss of tens of thousands of Europeans during this pandemic, under truly unthinkable conditions. The news of Italy receiving help from China, Russia and Cuba, instead of receiving help from their sibling EU member states, marked a deep wound to the feelings and the pride of every European. The news, this unthinkable lack of solidarity, made hundreds of millions of Europeans realize that, should an existential threat come up, European solidarity under the current EU status is anything but certain. This has been the straw that broke the camel’s back. A true change is needed now. The European Federal Union has to come to existence immediately.
The peoples of Europe have now realized that our parents’ and grandparents’ vision for a truly united Europe is the right way forward. For this vision to come to life, we need to keep moving in the same direction and to accelerate the pertinent pace. It is up to us, the peoples of Europe, to demand and achieve the creation of the European Federal Union and this is the founding objective of our pan-European political movement.
In the days, weeks and months to come we aim to inform and mobilize as many of the 500 millions Europeans as possible. We are confident that the fundamental law of democracy, which is no other than respecting the will of the many, will prevail. For most of the EU member states, participating in the European Federal Union will be their first time of being truly independent, truly free. This fundamental liberty is a right for each and every European and our movement aims to solidify it.
The European Federal Union will have the means to stimulate European economy, to secure research, scientific, technological, academic and digital sovereignty. Federal Europe will bring individuals and businesses back to the route of growth and prosperity via leveraging its enormous resources in the most efficient possible manner.
United we stand to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. United we stand to deal with the economic crisis which will inevitably follow it. United we stand to build a superpower of freedom, justice, equality and growth for all of its 500 million people and for positively influencing the whole world. United we stand for making The European Federal Union our exciting new reality.
Europe, April 2020
2 replies on “Declaration of the Peoples’ Movement for the European Federal Union”
Could Ukraine join the union? Russia? Belarus?
Let’s first clarify that we are talking about the envisioned European Federal Union, not for the actual European Union that exists today. In order for a new member to join the European Federal Union, a unanimous approval vote is required by All existing members. In that case, yes, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus theoretically could join the European Federal Union if all other members approved their candidacy. And that would be really amazing news, as it would mean that these countries would have left autocracy behind and they would have turned to modern democratic States.