The Role of the Federalists for a Federal Europe, Sovereign and Democratic

Adopted by the Federal Committee of UEF, Online 11 December 2022.

A federal Europe, sovereign and democratic, is more urgent and necessary than ever The role of the federalists

The UEF Federal Committee, in reiterating the extreme concern

• for the dramatic situation caused by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, with its repercussions in terms of security and international relations, with its brutality and cruelty that take us back to scenarios that we in Europe had hoped to have erased forever;
• because of the seriousness of the economic fallout of the conflict in Europe, particularly related to the energy crisis, which even threatens the functioning of the Single Market;
• for the impact that the redefinition of global geopolitical trade and economic relations is bound to have on the EU;
• for the worrying rise of nationalism and extremism within the European Union

recalling

• that in 2023 we will celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the European Congress celebrated in The Hague in 1948,
• that the current Treaties entered into force on 1 December 2009 and during these years the Union has faced unprecedented transnational challenges as climate change, Brexit, huge migrations and asylum challenges, Covid pandemic or the blatant war of aggression provoked by Russia in Ukraine,
• that the last Convention on the Future of the European Union, was established by the European Council in December 2001 as a result of the Laeken Declaration more than 20 years ago,
• that on 9 May 2022 the Conference on the Future of Europe finished its work and presented its conclusions, including legislative proposals and the call for a new Convention; in addition to legislative proposals, the opening of a process of wider institutional reforms is needed in order to implement the Conference’s conclusions and strengthen the mechanisms citizens’ participation;
• that a new Treaty is necessary now in order to include new common policies responding to the EU citizens requests and the EU interests and values and in order to strengthen the Union capacity to act immediately when facing emergencies and new challenges;
• that after the adoption of the European Parliament’s resolutions of 4th of May and 9th of June 2022, the Council has delayed the transmission of the activation of article 48 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) to the European Council until at least spring 2023;

stresses

• that fifteen years after the signature of the Treaty of Lisbon, face to the enormous international challenges and in view of the new European geopolitical dimension, a deep reform of the EU is unquestionable to achieve its federal purpose;
• how this reform passes through the overcoming of the current intergovermental mechanisms that subordinate every decision to the reaching of a consensual agreement between the governments of the member states, paralysing the Union in many cases due to the inevitable divergences between immediate and narrow national interests. That is why the time has come to entrust the elaboration and defence of the European interest to independent supranational institutions to truly promote the EU general interest as their objective;

therefore reiterates

• the urgency of a federal Europe, sovereign and democratic - a necessary condition to protect the values and interests of Europeans - and thus to initiate a thorough reform of the Treaties that also paves the way for a true Constitution and a full Federation.

Recalls in this regard

• the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) and the will that emerged particularly in the final part of its proceedings with a clear demand for a Europe:
  • more effective and democratic, with stronger and more citizen-involved European institutions;
  • more united in its democratic and fundamental values and in guaranteeing inclusive societies and equal opportunities for citizens in life, education and training, and work;
  • equipped with instruments to make citizen participation effective and constant;
• the proposals contained in the final CoFoE report, with particular reference to those elaborated by the Working Group on European Democracy, from which it emerges:
  • the need to reform the EU in a federal sense, clarifying the competences and roles of the different levels of government, transforming the Council into a true second legislative chamber, giving effective powers to the European Parliament in legislative and budgetary matters;
  • the need to overcome unanimity voting, replacing it with qualified majority voting;
  • the importance of uniforming and reforming the European electoral law in order to create a genuinely European political confrontation and participation, establishing transnational lists for the election of a number of MEPs on a European basis and strengthening the system of Spitzenkandidaten (heads of the lists) to elect the President of the European Commission;
  • the need to reopen the debate on the Constitution, to set our common values and agree on the rules of decision-making of the European Federation;
  • the request to start the process of convening a Convention aiming at reforming the Treaties towards a Constitution;
• the resolutions adopted by the European Parliament on 4 May 2022 on the follow-up to the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe and on 9 June 2022 on the call for a Convention on the revision of the Treaties, which call for the convening of a Convention to open the reform of the Treaties on the basis of the recommendations that emerged from the conference;

• the commitment made to this effect also by the leaders of the European institutions at the closing ceremony of CoFoE;
• the contribution of the federalists to the achievement of these results through their campaign on the CoFoE platform and their contribution to the work of the conference.

Therefore observes with extreme concern

• that, after the adoption of the European Parliament’s resolutions of 4th of May and 9th of June, the Council has delayed the transmission of the activation of article 48 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) to the European Council;
• that, on October 18 2022, the General Affairs Council decided not to forward the Parliament’s amendments to the European Council and not to notify the national Parliaments until the work of the Parliament on the issue of Treaty reform is completed;
• that the European Parliament is currently confronted with this impasse; affirms
• that the Conference on the Future of Europe created the conditions that can lead to open a constituent process. It created a framework for discussion and the elaboration of proposals on the future of Europe capable both of involving citizens and elected representatives together, and of revealing the gap, when considering the future of Europe, between the expectations of the citizens and European Parliament on the one hand and those of many governments on the other:
• how, therefore, the Convention requested by the European Parliament must be framed within this political perspective: it owes its legitimacy to the work of the CoFoE, and because it is an assembly in which the role of the European Parliament can become preponderant it becomes possible to conduct a political battle to bring out the need for a genuinely federal reform;
• how crucial it is, therefore, not to give up on the prospect opened up by the Conference on the Future of Europe, and to urge the European Parliament to continue to fight courageously to achieve it, because the battle for a federal political Union cannot be abandoned only because of the reluctance of some Member States to reform the Treaties.

remember

• that in any case, the European Union needs to redefine itself on the basis of different levels of integration reflecting the will of those governments that wish to limit themselves to the current integration and of those that are in favour of establishing a political Union;
• that such a redefinition implies either that an agreement is reached on the new structure - i.e. that those opposed to political integration do not block those who want to build it - or that, in the absence of such an agreement, the group of states and peoples that want to deepen the union go ahead anyway, with a constitutional and political break-up, and renegotiate the new relationship at a later date;
• that in both cases a driving role of the European Parliament is needed, as well as an alliance of likeminded governments and political forces (within not only the European Parliament, but also the national parliaments), which can then expand once the dynamic and federative process is set in motion;

asserts

• that the role of the federalists at this stage is to support the pro-European forces within the EP to continue the fight for the Convention;
• that in case the Council does not proceed in transmitting the request to launch the Convention to the European Council, or if the latter denies its approval, the UEF should urge the European Parliament to continue claiming for a Treaty change process by taking - from the outputs of the Conference on the Future of Europe - a strong and symbolic initiative to assert the right of citizens to have their demand for a constitutional process respected;
• that this is the best way to prepare for the 2024 European elections, which could offer the opportunity to strengthen the constituent process through a continent-wide debate;

notes with great satisfaction

• the initiative of a large group of CoFoE Citizens' Panel Ambassadors who, on the occasion of the event in the European Parliament on 2 December on the follow-up to the Conference, delivered a letter to the Council asking it to follow up on the requests contained in the CoFoE conclusions even when they call for a Treaty reform; and in this sense they expressed their support for the EP calling for a Convention to be set up to this end.

In this framework, the FC of the UEF

welcomes

• the achievements and the leadership of the European Parliament in the Conference and the resolutions of 4th May and 9th of June;

welcomes

• the election of the UEF President Sandro Gozi as chairman of the Spinelli Group - a group of committed federalists who should lead the EP initiatives towards a Constitution - and stresses the importance of this opportunity, at a strategic moment in the federalist battle, for the UEF to play a vanguard role in the European Parliament;

urges

• the AFCO Committee to prepare its new Report on the amendments to the Treaties as quickly as possible, and to include all the amendments (or a new Constitution with the same purpose) needed both to implement all the proposals of the Conference that require Treaty change and to provide the Union with adequate powers, also with regards to energy, foreign, security and defence policy to respond adequately to the geopolitical and energy crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine;
• the European Parliament to approve such a Report on 9^th of May 2023, with a big ceremony involving CoFoE members, starting with citizens;
• the Council to transmit to the national Parliaments and the European Council the EP Report and its request for a Convention under art.48 TEU in order to have a decision by the European Council in June 2023 or at the latest in a special ad hoc meeting over the summer;

undertakes

• to work at the European level through the Spinelli Group to get the EP to take initiatives drawing attention to the Council's legal and political duty to bring before the European Council the request to launch a Convention; these could also (but not exclusively) include joint initiatives with national Parliaments;
• to support the mobilisation of the Citizens’ Panel Ambassadors, who represent the vanguard

of the citizens who participated at all levels in the Conference, and to work with them;

• in the national sections to set up Spinelli Groups and Intergroups for Europe in their respective parliaments, linked directly with the Spinelli Group in the EP also to converge in the call for a Convention aimed at launching a Treaty change process towards a federal Europe, sovereign and democratic;
• to further mobilise civil society and active forces at grassroots level to support the constituent effort of the European Parliament;
• to use the opportunity of the Spanish presidency to relaunch the political momentum for a federal reform of the Union by establishing an Interparliamentary Assembly (to bring together the EP and the national Parliaments) in order to share and support the EP report either in view of the start of the Convention, or, if the decision has not been obtained yet, in order to claim it together with the EP;
• to work for the 2024 elections to be, in the wake of this process, a moment of democratic, federalist debate in order to commit the political forces to supporting - as a major objective of the new legislature - the constituent process and the re-founding of the EU on federal bases by establishing a Constitution for a federal Europe, sovereign and democratic;

commits

• to explore the possibility to ratifying the new treaty in a pan-European referendum

proposes

• a new European Congress in the 75th Anniversary of the Hague Congress alongside the EMI with the goal to share the federalist roadmap ahead of the Convention;
• to organise a public demonstration on 9 May on the occasion of the approval ceremony of the EP Report on Treaty change in order to support the European Parliament in its constituent battle.