OUR FEDERAL EUROPE, SOVEREIGN AND DEMOCRATIC - Union of European Federalists

Adopted by the UEF XXVII European Congress, Valencia, 4 July 2021

The XXVII Congress of the UEF, held in Valencia in presence and online on 3-4 July 2021,
welcomes the launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe
and welcomes the fact that

the UEF President, Sandro Gozi, is among the MEPs participating in the plenary and also the UEF Vice-President, Domenec Ruiz Devesa;
the UEF participates in the plenary as one of the organisations representing the civil society;
many members of the Board of the Spinelli Group are also in the delegation of the European
Parliament in the plenary.

In the awareness of the phase of profound transition that Europe and the world are going through towards a new economic and social model linked to digitalisation and the ecological transformation of the production and organisation of our way of life; and towards a new international order that presents many challenges and in which Europe must protect its model of values and its interests;

is convinced that the Conference represents a great opportunity:

of democratic participation and confrontation with the citizens in order to show which Europe they want for their future;
to show that the will of citizens is to build a sovereign and democratic Europe: effective in action, strong in solidarity and in the protection of fundamental rights, European values and the rule of law, capable at the same time of ensuring the safety of citizens and fighting inequalities in our community;
to realize the project of the Founding Fathers, who fought to build the European Federation as a community of destiny;

that the time has come for federal solutions for Europe.
At the same time, it is aware

that if the process of the Conference were to fail, it would fail also the possibility of reforming the European Union and adapting its institutions to the new political phase that is opening up after the pandemic.

The XXVII UEF Congress therefore
reaffirms

that the objective of the process initiated by the Conference must be an effective reform of the Treaties;

recalls

the Appeal Our Federal Europe, Sovereign and Democratic, which has been designed to accompany the start of the Conference; it has been co-signed by the Spinelli Group, the European Movement International, the President of CERM, and has been endorsed by more than 450 personalities from the world of politics and institutions, culture, labour and enterprise, and was taken up by numerous European, national and local newspapers throughout Europe;
the general policy resolution unanimously approved by the Federal Committee on 19 December 2020 which listed the Treaty reform proposals on which UEF believes the Conference should focus, i.e.:

the creation of a fiscal capacity of the European Union, so that it can collect the resources it needs to implement its policies on its own. The fiscal power to be exercised in line with the priorities of the European political agenda is a necessary condition for the emergence of a European sovereignty able to operate in the name of the common interests and values of European citizens and to achieve fairer taxation within the
European Single Market.
the attribution of new competences to the European Union so that it can be sovereign, according to the subsidiarity principle, at macroeconomic level and in foreign and security policy and in research, health and training;
the reform of the decision-making process in a way to grant the Union with sufficient autonomy to act in the new areas of competence, i.e. through an extension of the ordinary legislative procedure, with the co-decision of the European Parliament and the Council;
measures to promote fundamental rights, both within the Unione and externally,the democratic principles and the rule of law underpinning the European Union with regard to possible illiberal drifts in the Member States;
the question of ratification by qualified majority of the EU Treaties. Since some member states might not initially share the project for a federal Union, the time has come for the majority of countries that agree to share a part of their sovereignty - in those fields that are no longer manageable at national level - to go ahead to build a Europe open to all, safeguarding the unity of the European Union, but at the same time restructuring EU in a way that it provides for different levels of integration and participation;

calls, in addition to that,

clear reforms in order to encourage stronger pan-European democracy — real European political parties and proper campaigns for European elections — particularly the creation of a pan-European constituency and transnational electoral lists headed by the candidates for President of the European Commission.

recalls

the guidelines discussed in PC1 meeting for the federalist campaign on the platform,

reminds

the idea and proposals already published on the digital platform in the thematic area of European democracy (For a true European democracy: abolish the right of veto and assign direct powers to the European Parliament in taxation and foreign policy; There can be no true European democracy without an autonomous EU fiscal power), together with those in preparation on the new competences, the respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law and the ratification of the new Treaty by majority;

and

the information and guidelines sent to the national sections in order to set up a coherent and strong European campaign and let our federalist proposal reach the citizen’s panels and the members of the plenary;

underlines therefore

the importance of organising a well-coordinated campaign at this stage to maximise the impact of federalists and their ideas and influence the outcome of the Conference

and urges the European statutory bodies and the national sections

to commit for the success of the federalist goals and proposals in order to make of the Conference on the Future of Europe a moment of true European democracy able to trigger the birth of a federal political Union