III UEF European Congress

The documents of this Congress are archived in the Historical Archives of the European Union: they were digitised by the Team of the HAEU that we really thanks. The folder includes preliminary documents, speeches, reports, newspaper articles.

The entire folder can be viewed here: LINK

The third UEF General Congress was held in Strasbourg and welcomed almost 500 delegates and observers.

The UEF at that time was working on the campaign for a Federal Pact for Europe, but had also reacted with great awareness to the historic opportunity of the proposed European Defence Community that would lead to the more siginificant UEF action for the realisation of a European Political Community.

This is the main motion approved:

The III Congress of the European Union of Federalists

notes that the present situation in Europe requires the immediate establishment of a Federation open to all democratic States, but composed, as of now, of States already prepared to join.
- reaffirms that in order to bring about this Federation it is necessary to establish between the States a Pact of Federal Union which will institute a Government, a Parliament, a European Supreme Court and representative economic and social bodies, and which will transfer to these authorities certain attributes of national sovereignty concerning foreign policy, defence, the progressive unification of economies, finance, the protection of human rights and of communities.
- notes that in order to achieve this aim it is essential that the States willing to unite by a federal bond undertake to convene a constituent European federal assembly, composed of representatives of the peoples and not of the governments, and charged with voting a Pact of European Federal Union, which will come into force as soon as it has been ratified by a minimum number of countries specified in the Pact itself, and which will remain open to the acceptance of the others.
- and resolves to use all the means at its disposal to ask the Peoples, Parliaments and Governments to convene a European Federal Constituent Assembly to vote on the Pact of Federal Union.

Strasbourg, 18th November 1950