I UEF European Congress

The first Congress of the UEF had been programmed at its constitutive meeting in Paris and it was held in Montreux from August 27th to 30th 1947.

About two hundred delegates and observers from sixteen nationalities attended the congress and that the officially accredited delegations came from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and they represented about 100,000 members.

The participation of several eminent figures and delegations demonstrated that there was a keen interest in federalist ideas. Sixteen countries were represented in Montreux, together with some 40 activist groups. The participants also urged the convening of a mass event involving all the forces active in Europe. Less than a year later, this took the form of the Hague Congress.

The most important part of the Montreux Congress, namely the political line which emerged from it and which can be summarised in the
sentence ‘‘begin in the west’’.

From the Resistance movement to the foundation of the UEF, a pivotal role in the federalist line was played by the vision of a united Europe, intended as a third mediating force between East and West with the aim of contrasting the formation of opposing blocs within a prospective of world unification and peace. The political line of the UEF, however, now had to face a reality which was becoming increasingly clear. On the one hand, the USSR was effectively lowering the iron curtain and was opposed to any concept of European unification. On the other hand, the USA was offering, with the Marshall Plan, decisive help and favoured the beginning of a European unification process in their sphere of influence.

The federalists found themselves forced to make a rather drastic choice: either accept the idea of beginning the construction of a European federation in the west with American help, or refuse the Marshall proposal, continuing to pursue European unification but running the risk that the USA would return to isolationism and that a great opportunity would be lost. Brugmans supported with great effectiveness the former alternative, and he managed to gather the consensus of a very large majority of the UEF. The fundamental concepts of the ‘‘begin in the west’’ line can be summarised as follows:

1. the union of western Europe would have to be achieved without the east, but not against the east;
2. only western European countries had democratic governments and therefore the possibility of choice on a domestic and international level;
3. the European federation would help to lead the countries of eastern Europe towards democracy.

The ‘‘begin in the west’’ line did not imply a breakdown in the conveyance of the Resistance’s European federalist message, but represented its application to the real-life post-war conditions, which were now evident after a short transitional period. (Source: The UEF from 1946 to 1974 by Sergio Pistone)