In her State of the Union Speech, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, takes stock of the European policies of the past year and sets out the priorities for work in 2022.

In her State of the Union Speech, the President of the European Commission first referred to the most important developments and successes of the past year. These include, among others, the measures to overcome the health crisis. Despite considerable criticism at the beginning, 70 percent of the adult EU population have already been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by the end of August 2021. The European Commission has also procured enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to cover the entire EU population and other parts of the world.

She also referred to the European economic recovery plan, NextGenerationEU, which sets the framework for a greener, fairer and more digitalised post-crisis economy and which will reshape Europe for the next decades. The first European climate law will write into law the European Green Deal's goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030, making Europe's economy and society climate neutral by 2050.

After one of the toughest years in its history, Europe needs to look towards the future with renewed hope. In the coming months, the European Commission will therefore focus on the following priorities:

• Continuing the vaccination efforts in Europe and speeding up vaccination globally, as well as strengthening the pandemic preparedness.
• Working on closing the climate finance gap, together with our global partners.
• Leading the digital transformation that will create jobs and drive competitiveness, while ensuring technical excellence and security of supply.
• Ensuring fairer working conditions and better healthcare, and creating more opportunities for Europe’s youth to benefit from the European social market economy.
• Stepping up our cooperation on security and defence, and deepening EU’s partnership with closest allies.
• Defending European values and freedoms, and protecting the rule of law.

“The Union of European Federalists (UEF) welcomes the assessment made by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: the attention to young people, first of all, because the European project is primarily about securing their future; the attention to security, in all its aspects, social, health, geopolitical. Then, the reference to the greatest merit in the past year, which is undoubtedly in the area of combating the economic consequences of the pandemic with the multi-billion financial package, the recovery fund. And, as the tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan shows, the proposal for the European Union to initiate the development of a true European Defence Union and to set up quickly an autonomous rapid reaction force. However, as European Federalists, we need also to stress the need of deepening European integration. The past year’s crisis made very visible the need for a more united Europe. Hence, we can’t miss the opportunity to make the Conference on the Future of Europe a true forum with citizens to work together to achieve a more sovereign and democratic Europe.” says UEF President and MEP Sandro Gozi.

"We urgently need a strong, legitimate, and properly financed political Union that can tackle the great transnational challenges of our time, acting decisively in a wide range of policy areas, from climate change, growing social inequalities, health and migration to foreign affairs and defense. That is why we must be ready to move forward by a majority, without letting ourselves be stopped by the states that want to paralyse the Union, from migration policy to the other dossiers that are essential if we are to regain control of our own destiny.“ the UEF President firmly underlines.

UEF with its member sections and over 30.000 members from all 27 EU member states is not alone with its positions. This spring, together with the Spinelli Group and the European Movement International, UEF published the Appeal „Our federal Europe - sovereign and democratic“ signed by more than 500 high-ranking personalities from all over Europe.

At watershed moments in history, communities need to adapt their institutions to avoid sliding into irreversible decline, thus equipping themselves to govern new circumstances. After the end of the Cold War, the European Union, with the creation of the monetary Union, took a first crucial step towards adapting its institutions; but it was unable to agree on a true fiscal and social policy for the Euro. Later, the Lisbon Treaty strengthened the legislative role of the European Parliament, but again failed to create a strong economic and political Union in order to complete the Euro.

Resulting from that, the EU was not equipped to react effectively to the first major challenges and crises of the XXI century: the financial crash of 2008, the migration flows of 2015- 2016, the rise of national populism, and the 2016 Brexit referendum. This failure also resulted in a strengthening of the role of national governments — as shown, for example, by the current excessive concentration of power within the European Council, whose actions are blocked by opposing national vetoes —, and in the EU’s chronic inability to develop a common foreign policy capable of promoting Europe’s common strategic interests.

Now, however, the tune has changed. In the face of an unprecedented public health crisis and the corresponding collapse of its economies, Europe has reacted with unity and resolve, indicating the way forward for the future of European integration: it laid the foundations by starting with an unprecedented common vaccination strategy, for a “Europe of Health”, and unveiled a recovery plan which will be financed by shared borrowing and repaid by revenue from new EU taxes levied on the digital and financial giants and on polluting industries. This federal plan constitutes a major leap towards the creation of a financial and fiscal Union capable of asserting European sovereignty both domestically and abroad, and as such, it needs to become permanent.

Now, as European citizens, we are eagerly awaiting the start of the Conference on the future of Europe, an event designed to bring together citizens, leading exponents of civil society, NGOs, trade unions, and representatives of national and European institutions, to debate and decide how to go about adapting our institutions in a way that will complete the building of our federal Europe. Their efforts must be underpinned by the clear realization that the fundamental decisions on common borrowing and taxation cannot indefinitely remain in the hands of national governments alone, but must be made together in an effective, transparent and democratic way.

Today, we therefore need and want a strong, legitimate, and properly financed political Union that can tackle the great transnational challenges of our time, acting decisively in a wide range of policy areas, from climate change, growing social inequalities, health and migration to foreign affairs and defense. Moreover, we are calling for stronger pan-European democracy — real European political parties and movements and proper campaigns for European elections, based on the creation of a pan-European constituency and transnational electoral lists headed by the candidates for President of the European Commission.

We are striving for a Union that is both a community of destiny and values, and a model for the new world now taking shape - an example of how countries can live in peace together, build cross-border and social solidarity, and protect human rights, the rule of law, and fundamental freedoms.

We firmly believe that our future lies in a Democratic and Sovereign Europe. And the time to build it is now: now or never. Let us not waste this opportunity.

INITIAL SIGNATORIES

Sandro GOZI

President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and Member of the European Parliament (Renew Europe)

Brando BENIFEI

President of the Spinelli Group and Member of the European Parliament (Socialists & Democrats - S&D)

Eva MAYDELL

President of the European Movement International (EMI) and Member of the European Parliament (European People’s Party - EPP)

Esteban GONZÁLEZ PONS

Vice-President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament

Danuta HÜBNER

Former Member of the European Commission, EPP spokesperson in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the European Parliament

Domènec RUIZ DEVESA

Vice-President of UEF and S&D spokesperson in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the European Parliament

Gabriele BISCHOFF

Vice-President of the Europa-Union Deutschland (EUD), Vice-Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the European Parliament

Pascal DURAND

Renew Europe Group spokesperson in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the European Parliament

Daniel FREUND

Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA) and Representative in the Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe

Damian BOESELAGER

Greens/EFA spokesperson in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs in the European Parliament

Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS

Vice-President of the European Parliament (The Left – GUE/NGL)

Fabio Massimo CASTALDO

Former Vice-President of the European Parliament (Non-attached Members)

FIND HERE THE LIST OF SIGNATORIES

SIGN OUR APPEAL #ToFedEU!

Download the English version here

Read the French version here

Read the German version here

Read the Greek version here

Read the Italian version here

Read the Spanish version here

• This appeal has been published in the following media and daily newspapers: El Mundo, La Croix, EU News, Euractiv Italia (1), El País, Euractiv ES, La Vanguardia, Informacion, SWI, EURACTIV Italia (2), Il Secolo XIX, Il Messagero, Frankfurter Rundschau and more.

It can be republished under CC-BY - Attribution 2.5 Generic

Click below to see the submitted Declarations!  

The winning Schuman 2.0 Declaration VIDEO - DOCUMENT

Here all the Declarations submitted:

The 9th May 2020 is the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, a moment that marked the beginning of European integration spiritually and politically. On 9 May 1950, by proposing to pool the production of coal and steel among European countries, Schuman took the bold and courageous step to propose the ‘first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace’. Today Europe needs the same type of leadership, courage and political innovation “Do our present European leaders remember the deep roots of the European project, when every European Summit is a bitter pursuit of short-term, selfish national interest?”, asks Sandro Gozi, President of the Union of European Federalists. "Can they raise above their daily political concerns, break taboos, transform European politics and come up with a radical and far-sighted plan for the future of the EU? What is at stake today is no less than the future of Europe as a political project”

The Union of European Federalists and the Young European Federalists have launched today an appeal and an orientation paper to European decision-makers, at all levels of government, for 10 concrete steps - in the short- and medium-term - for exiting the COVID-19 crisis as a united and prosperous Europe. The appeal and the orientation paper propose a range of measures: from providing a European guarantee for basic public health standards; to restoring the full functioning of the Single Market and the Schengen area, and adopt an ambitious long-term EU budget, to engineer Europe’s recovery through real European resources and on a socially and environmentally sustainable path; as well as the need to relaunch the Conference on the Future of Europe, the instrument to establish a new pact between European citizens and governments at all levels, through a mandate for a European Constitution.

“The vision of the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the EU seems to have been lost, crisis after crisis. Sometimes, the attempts at wearing it down have come from geopolitical competitors, who loathe the EU model based on democracy and the rule of law. Sometimes, like in the case of the COVID-19 outbreak, we are blindsided by a health crisis we couldn’t predict, but that we could have prevented, if we had shown more care to our environment. And yet the more it’s hit, the more Europe shows its strength. But as it was once said, ‘peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it’. Today, that creative effort requires the caterpillar that the EU is today to break free from the chrysalis of intergovernmentalism, and evolve into a real political union, a butterfly able to fly without shackles”, concludes Leonie Martin, President of the Young European Federalists.

Appeal supported by:

Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori CISL/Italian Conferation of Labour Unions - IT
DYPALL network
European Movement Italy - IT
Europese Beweging in België (European Movement) - BE
For Citizens - European Institute for Active Citizenship
Foundation for European Progressive Studies
FutureDem – IT
Garage Erasmus Foundation
Health Citizens - European Institute for Health Promotion
IM Cultural Institute
Italian Youth Council (former Italian Youth Forum) – IT
Jeunes MR – BE
La Nuova Europa - IT
Millennials - IT
OBESSU - Organising Bureau of European School Students Union
Pulse of Europe Czech Republic - CZ (edited)
Studi Centro - Unione Studentesca Europea
The Good Lobby
Young Educators network

The Spinelli Group - This report suggests a way to break the deadlock over the MFF. We recommend restructuring the EU budget into federal and confederal parts. Eurobonds could then be launched without changing the treaty or breaking the balanced budget rule, and at no extra cost to national treasuries. Only if the EU acts federally will it acquire the common fiscal policy it needs to invest in economic recovery.

From public health to constitutional crisis

The European Union is once again in deadlock. The coronavirus pandemic has spawned a new financial crisis. While there was certain to be another financial shock after the crash of 2008, we were unsure of its timing, provenance and symmetry. Nor could we predict the mega scale of the crisis: the collapse of supply and demand, the closure of much of Europe’s business for at least the first half of 2020, and rapidly rising unemployment which could lead to a deep depression.

The European Union is not sufficiently robust to face this crisis with equanimity. The unification project, now 70 years old, is still far from complete. The EU is an integration experiment conducted in real time. There is no precedent for a number of nation-states to engage voluntarily in building a federal union. The emergence of previous federations, notably the USA, postulate analogies but offer no clear roadmap for contemporary Europe.

So the Union today is a hybrid, part federal and part confederal. The federal ambition – “ever closer union” – is not dead, but it no longer commands the allegiance of all its member states or political parties. [1] By way of successive treaty changes and some path-finding jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, the Union has built up its supranational authority. But most of the EU institutions are still run in an intergovernmental way, by traditional diplomatic methods. Decision making in a confederate Europe is bound to be slow and fractious, leaving the potential of the Union as a whole unfulfilled, and its governance weak.

The spread of the coronavirus pitches the EU into its next constitutional crisis. For the Union is unfinished business, a fragile polity under stress. Debate about “the future of Europe” is uncertain. No settled consensus has formed around the final size and shape of the Union. Indeed, the United Kingdom, one of its major member states, has just seceded. Eurosceptic leaders in Hungary and Poland challenge the premise of the rule of law on which the Union’s claim to legitimacy rests.[2]

The creation of the internal market and single currency are great achievements, but they risk being undermined by the failure of EU leaders to pursue integration to its logical conclusion. The European Central Bank (ECB) has to manage its common monetary policy without the aid of a common fiscal policy run by the Commission. The Bank is expected to stabilise the banking system of the eurozone without having proper oversight of the financial services industry. The fact that the EU has no central fiscal policy to complement the national budgetary policies of euro members has led to much discussion about the creation of a fiscal capacity unique to the eurozone. Nothing has been decided, however, leaving the ECB solely responsible for risk-sharing in the eurozone.

A common fiscal policy, of course, would require the coming into being of a discernibly federal government of the Union. The Commission is designed to act as a proto-government, but it has to share its executive authority in many areas with the Council. Although the Council itself, and its senior partner the European Council, can vote to take decisions, they usually prefer the longer and more difficult route of acting by consensus. In any case, the unanimity rule is still imposed for all critical decisions of a constitutional nature.

In other fields, too, the EU house is only half-built. The elaborate ‘external action service’ has no serious common foreign policy, still less a common defence policy or integrated military forces. The European Parliament does its best to bring democratic accountability to the Union but it is not elected on a transnational basis and does not enjoy federal political parties to connect it with the electorate. There are still too many restrictions on full legislative power for the European Parliament, not least with regard to budgetary matters. National parliaments, meanwhile, cannot act federally even if they wished to do so. Parliamentary influence on the shaping of the general interest of the Union remains weak.

The Union’s latest Treaty of Lisbon (2007) includes provisions that would streamline decision-making in a democratic way, but these lie unused.[3] Nowhere are the internal contradictions of the EU’s structure more exposed than in the regular round of argument over spending money. Every seven years after debilitating negotiations on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), which must be decided by unanimity, we sigh and say “never again”.[4] But reform of the system never takes place. Seven years later we are back where we started, with squabbling between the richer and poorer states, frayed tempers and, eventually, sub-optimal results.

What are we arguing about?

The current EU budget runs at €150 billion per year (smaller than that of Belgium) and represents only 2% of the combined spending power of the national budgets of the 27 member states. Like the Union itself, the budget is a hybrid creature, part federal and part confederal. The EU’s capacity to spend and borrow is rigidly constrained by the ceiling of 1.23% GNI imposed in the ‘own resources’ decision of 2014.[5]

Revenue for the budget is mostly supplied on a confederal basis. The larger part of the EU’s income, about 70%, is provided by direct subscriptions from national treasuries based on the GNI of the member state. These fees are supplemented by transferring a tranche of national VAT receipts. The rest of the revenue, about 15%, comes from ‘genuine own resources’ – that is, customs duties, levies and penalty fines accruing directly to the Commission.

Discussions about budgetary reform are perennial. Many good proposals have been made to render the system more transparent, to focus on improving the added value of EU spending, and to skew the budget to meet contemporary political needs (such as scientific research, digitalisation and climate change mitigation) and away from traditional policies in need of reform (notably, agriculture). Worthy objectives of increased fairness, sufficiency and stability are agreed in principle ? then ignored in practice. Democratic accountability is impaired because the European Parliament is denied the right of co-decision over revenue.

No serious structural reform of EU finances has been implemented. Member states are obsessed with the practice of juste retour – what Margaret Thatcher once described, rather rudely, as “getting our money back”. In this situation, where the notion of common good is lost sight of, the debate divides net benefactor creditors from net recipient debtors. Finance ministers of the ‘frugal’ northern states trumpet their refusal to increase transfers to the spendthrift south and east. The principle of solidarity among states and citizens, which imbues the EU treaties, disappears.[6]

Recent efforts to broker agreement in the Council have come to nothing. The European Council has again passed the buck to the Commission, which has been asked to come up with new proposals for the next MFF for 2021-27 in the next weeks. Can they succeed?

Never miss a crisis

Paradoxically, it is fortuitous that the MFF is up for renegotiation bang in the middle of the wider political crisis caused by the pandemic. If the Union cannot rise to the level of this uniquely critical occasion, it will justifiably be treated with scorn.

Recovery from Europe’s economic collapse will require a massive fiscal stimulus over the medium term. In April the EU agreed a package of short-term, small-scale measures to increase credit lines to those states most distressed by the effect of the pandemic. However useful these initiatives prove to be, they are not the stuff of macroeconomic recovery. Indeed, hard-pressed states which accept bail-outs from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) or loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be saddling themselves with the burden of yet more national debt. Regional imbalances within the eurozone will be accentuated. Spreads are already widening despite the active purchase of Italian and Spanish government bonds by the ECB. It is difficult to see how the Union can avert another banking crisis once the full scale of the economic crash becomes clear.

When it makes its proposals, the Commission should take the opportunity to remind the Council of the federalist principle of subsidiarity. This guides the Union to take action at the Union level “if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States … but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level”.[7] Eurosceptics have long used subsidiarity as an argument against increasing the competences of the EU. Today, federalists must reclaim the principle to argue exactly the opposite.

Self-evidently, an effective response to the pandemic crisis requires a sharing of risk and a pooling of resources at the level of the Union. Where the EU institutions are made responsible for the management of shared risk, decision-making power should be federal and not confederal. Intergovernmental arrangements permit each state, especially the richer and larger states, to wield a veto. That is why confederations are even more difficult to run than federations, where decisions are taken by a democratic majority. The European Union, for its part, has had long experience of working well through the supranational Community method – and somewhat less well intergovernmentally.

The European Council has yet to think federally. At their meeting on 23 April, the leaders descended into a long and inconclusive argument about whether the very limited financial incentives so painfully agreed should take the form of loans or grants. When Commission President von der Leyen argued for the centrality of the EU budget in the rescue package, she implied that the Commission should be empowered to leverage money secured against the joint and several liability of all the member states. That proposal, too, was shot down because it failed to relieve the ‘frugals’ from the risk that the weaker states would default on their commitments.

Federal recovery bonds

Now is the time to oblige the European Council to discuss the merit of installing a level of competent government up above the level of the member states. Seizing the chance for a radical reform of EU finances, the Commission should propose the creation of a special purpose vehicle of a federal eurobond secured not by the member states but by the Union.[8]

The new funds created would not themselves be part of the EU budget, but interest to eurobond-holders would be paid exclusively from that part of the budget based on the genuine own resources. The new MFF would restructure and compartmentalise the budget into two ring-fenced parts. National GNI contributions would be unaffected by the development of the Union’s autonomous fiscal capacity. National treasuries would save money, and the EU’s important balanced budget rule would be maintained.[9]

For this scheme to work, two things have to happen. First, the portion of revenue raised from genuine own resources must be dramatically expanded. The Commission, supported by the European Parliament, has already proposed a number of new sources of revenue. These include a tax on non-recycled plastics, a digital tax, proceeds from the EU’s carbon emission trading scheme and a slice of corporation tax following agreement on a consolidated base. Other ideas, including a tax on financial transactions, are also available. A thorough reform of the VAT system, moreover, would allow a tranche of that tax to be hypothecated directly for EU purposes. Whatever new taxes are introduced, they should be linked to the strategic common policies of the Union. EU citizens must have confidence that their taxes are being spent in a productive and efficient manner.

The second necessary reform entails the lifting of the ceiling of own resources to allow a large-scale eurobond issuance without jeopardising the AAA credit rating of the Union. Ursula von der Leyen spoke of a temporary raising of the headroom to 2% of GNI. However, a permanent ceiling of 2.5% would allow the Union to borrow up to €400 billion per year (€2.8 trillion over the seven year period of the new MFF).[10] That is serious money at the disposal of the EU’s treasury facility.

As to the type of eurobonds, there are two options, the choice of which can be determined by the prevailing market conditions and economic forecasts at the time of their launch:

• bonds issued in perpetuity, or ‘consols’, with no date for the redemption of the principal, paying fixed term coupons;
• maturing bonds in the form of long-term annuities (up to 30 years), paying variable rates of interest.

Recovery eurobonds promise to be an attractive, low-risk investment for governments, central banks, institutional and private investors. Purchasers would be signalling commercial and political confidence in the stability of the euro and the durability of the Union itself.

How to spend the money

A large-scale EU economic recovery fund would have several objectives. Its central task would be productive investment, especially in projects with a European dimension that could not be financed through normal channels, such as the EIB. Mass vaccination against COVID-19 is the obvious priority. Building Europe’s capacity in 5G is another, before boosting the European R&D effort in 6G and artificial intelligence. Restructuring some business sectors where there will be excess supply, such as aviation, will require EU-wide coordination and support. A new sustainable and future-oriented industrial policy, part funded by the EU, will be a necessary component of keeping the single market up and running.

The Commission’s proposals for the European Green Deal provide a number of avenues for mixed public and private investment, such as energy grids, carbon capture and storage, and modern public transport infrastructure. The EU has important powers to coordinate and supplement member state efforts in education, social care and public health, all of which sectors will require an injection of public investment during the recovery phase. Beyond grants, the Commission should also use its new treasury facility to take equity in private sector firms as stock markets struggle to return to normal levels of activity.

The fund should also be used progressively to replenish the (reformed) ESM with federal money as the new reality of a fiscally-empowered Union takes shape. Macroeconomic stabilization is a federal function. The launch of a federal eurobond will put an end to the argument over creating a dedicated fiscal capacity for the eurozone. It will also settle the otherwise intractable MFF negotiations.

Future fiscal union

The initiatives we recommend here can be undertaken quickly and without EU treaty change. In the long run, however, fully mutualized debt security as a permanent fixture of an EU fiscal union will need the legal certainty that can only be provided by a formal shift of competence from the national to European level. Ultimately, a ‘sovereign’ Union means treaty change. The EU’s constitutional courts, led by the European Court of Justice, will tolerate nothing less.

In the meantime, however, and for the foreseeable future, the special purpose vehicle of the eurobond recovery fund is the simplest and most straightforward solution to Europe’s immediate and acute crisis. We urge the Union to act.

ANDREW DUFF

BRANDO BENIFEI

GABRIELE BISCHOFF

DAMIAN BOESELAGER

PASCAL DURAND

DANIEL FREUND

SVEN GIEGOLD

SANDRO GOZI

DIMITRIOS PAPADIMOULIS

DOMÈNEC RUIZ DEVESA

HELMUT SCHOLZ

GUY VERHOFSTADT

28 April 2020

Download here the Report "A Federal Europe: the way out of the crisis"

[1] Article 1 TEU.

[2] Article 2 TEU.

[3] Notably, Article 48(7) TEU.

[4] Article 312 TFEU.

[5] Article 311 TFEU.

[6] See particularly Article 2 TEU and Articles 122 and 222 TFEU.

[7] Article 5(3) TEU.

[8] On the legal basis of Article 352 TFEU, the ‘flexibility clause’.

[9] Article 310(1) TFEU.

[10] In 1929, the US federal budget was raised to 3% of GNP. By 1944 it had reached 40%.

Write your Schuman 2.0 Declaration Contest:

REINVENT AND ENJOY EUROPE!

2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration that paved the way for the first European Community. On May 9, 1950, Robert Schuman, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, inspired by Jean Monnet, in his speech in the Salon de l'Horloge of the Quai d'Orsay presented a plan for building the first supranational European community. It proposes to pool the French and German coal and steel production under an international authority, which led in 1951 to the formation of the Economic Communities for the Coal and Steel (ECSC).

This ambitious declaration has remained in European history as the speech that has launched European integration. Europe Day is thus symbolically celebrated on May 9th.

Seventy years later, Europe is again looking for solution for its future. A Conference on the Future of Europe will start soon to discuss proposals to reshape the European Union. The Schuman 2.0 contest gives you the possibility to propose your own statement just like the one launched by Robert Schuman on how to transform Europe to make it close to your dreams.

Do you want to reshape European integration and give the Union a new face?

To do so, we invite you to draft your own Schuman 2.0 Declaration in format of speech of maximum 800 words addressing the challenges of modern Europe. Be bold and imaginative. Submitted declarations will be show-cased on the Schuman 2.0 website and will be presented and discussed in a final event, a Citizens Summit on 9th of May.

Rules & Procedures

Participation in the contest is open from January till 9th of May latest. The participating Declarations should be submitted: 

• Sent by e-mail to following address, schuman2.0@federalists.eu or
• Uploading it in the below section.

Declaration can be written and submitted individually or in groups of up to three people on 1-2 pages document of maximum 800 words. The declaration should be signed by the author or all the members of the creative group and the authors should comply with the terms of UEF use and publication of the presented declarations in the frame of the Schuman 2.0 project.

Each participant can present only one declaration to the contest.

The declaration should be written in English or in one of the European Union member state language.

Selection process and criteria

All the declarations submitted to the contest will be published on the Schuman 2.0 website and available to citizens’ for voting. The top ranking Schuman declarations will be presented at the final Citizens Summit on 9th of May.

The jury composed of Sandro GOZI, MEP and President of UEF, Andrew DUFF, President of the Spinelli Group, and Leonie MARTIN, President of JEF, will select and award the most successful declaration of the contest. Selection procedure will be done according to the criteria:

• Respect of the format and timeline
• Relevance of the declaration
• Drafting quality
• Innovative aspect
• Respect the spirit of Schuman by proposing bold but constructive measures that make progress in the European integration, and embrace the challenges of today.

Schuman 2.0 Declaration award

The successful declaration author will be informed via e-mail. The prize to the awarded declaration author will consist of a week-end trip (flight and 2 nights in a nice hotel) to the capital city of a member state of the European Union as chosen by the winner, for two persons (the winner and a person of his/her choice). The price must be used by 30 June 2020.

Write your own Declaration and help us in reshaping Europe!

Ready to participate to the contest?

By submitting the declaration you declare to be the author and free owner of the declaration submitted and  you grant Union of European Federalists the right and permission to use and publicly disclose my declaration submitted to the Schuman 2.0 contest.

Please submit your Schuman 2.0 Declaration in a PDF file, containing your name, your contact information and the declaration, by uploading it!

You can also send your Schuman 2.0 Declaration in PDF file by mail to secretariat@federalists.eu

Ahead of the European elections starting on Thursday, 256 candidates to the European Parliament have committed to support the European Federalists' demands for the next European Parliament. Supporters come from a range of political parties and countries.

You find the list per country and an on-line picture gallery here.

The European Federalists invite citizens to go and vote and support only candidates who have committed to support a stronger, more democratic, federal Europe.

Key demands of the European Federalists supported by candidates include a stronger Economic and Monetary Union (with a Eurozone own budget), a single European foreign, security and defense policy (with stronger European defense capabilities), a European migration system (including the management of external EU borders through European forces and EU channels for legal migration), make Europe a global leader in combating climate change and promoting the transition to a fully environment-friendly economy, and an increased European budget based on own resources. Candidates have also pledged to engage the next European Parliament in reforming EU treaties towards a stronger, more democratic, more social, more effective, federal Europe.

Here the "Appeal and pledge for candidates and citizens"

EDITOR'S NOTE

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) is a pan-European, non-governmental political organisation dedicated to the promotion of European political unity. For more than 70 years UEF has been a leading voice in the promotion of European unity and an early campaigner for key milestones in the development of the European Communities and then the European Union. With 25 national sections and over 400 local groups across Europe, UEF promotes a federal Europe among citizens and political representatives at all levels of government.

The Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) is a non-partisan youth NGO with 13.000 members active in more than 30 countries. The organisation strives towards a federal Europe based on the principles of democracy and subsidiarity as well as respect for human rights. JEF promotes true European Citizenship, and works towards more active participation of young people in democratic life.

PRESS CONTACT:
Valentina Presa
+32 (0) 2 508 3030
news@federalists.eu

With two weeks to go until the European Parliament elections, today the continent dwells in celebrating the achievements of the EU, on the 69th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, preferring to look back at what has been achieved instead of looking forward into our future. 2019 looked like it was going to be a promising year with a window of opportunity opened for institutional reform and further EU integration – finally, a year of the Future of Europe debates, a year of bold, common solutions to European challenges. But today, on the 9th of May 2019, we see European leaders yet again defending the status quo, or worse backsliding towards nationalistic and authoritarian tendencies.

Simply celebrating the EU and its achievements is not enough anymore. Our continent is in need of common solutions driven by European democracy: we are still a long way from the federal Europe our Founding Fathers and Mothers envisioned and fought for.

“Today we decide to not only celebrate Europe, but to Choose Europe: wholeheartedly and without reservations! Unlike European leaders today, we decide to look into the future, our common future and work to change Europe for the better. A future where we see the EU transformed into a real political Union, one where the EU is capable of solving European-wide problems - one where even more citizens choose Europe”, states Emma Farrugia, Executive Board Member of the Young European Federalists (JEF) Europe.

“How can we celebrate the successes of the EU in the last 70 years or so, without an even modest attempt at providing a clear vision of where we want to go in the next decade? How can we expect people to go vote and increase the 2014’s European election youth turnout when the problems that we will have to deal with in our lifetime are not even being properly tackled on European level? A project for radical change towards a more united, democratic and federal Europe is today more necessary than ever to keep the promises of the Schuman declaration and rally again the support of European citizens”, comments Paolo Vacca, Secretary General of the Union of European Federalists (UEF).

“Our time is now! It is time to Choose Europe! We must act to ensure our common European future. Only by taking courageous steps towards a real political Union, will we be able to respond to the needs and concerns of us European citizens, thus fulfilling the vision of our founding parents”, confirm both Farrugia and Vacca.

Thousands of UEF and JEF members and activists across the continent will be choosing Europe and connecting with each other via political debates, dinner table discussions, street actions and other Europe-wide festivities to support a much needed, comprehensive, and democratic reform of the EU. Take part in our pan-European campaign by sending a special ‘I Choose Europe’ postcard to your friends in other cities and regions of Europe, calling on them to join the European Federalists in fighting for real European democracy! #IChooseAFederalEurope

9th of May: Background

On the 9th of May, 1950, Robert Schuman held a speech in Paris where he foresaw the pooling of French and German coal and steel production, as a first step toward the political unity of the Continent. This idea became the European Coal and Steel Community, which later evolved into the European Union. Today Europe Day celebrates sixty-nine years from the Declaration, paying tribute to a significant landmark in the history European integration.

I choose Europe is JEF Europe campaign for the European Parliament elections, designed to encourage and strengthen European-oriented youth participation for the European Parliament Elections 2019 and in the longer term for the future of Europe.

The Union of European Federalists launches today the last stage of their campaign for the 2019 European elections by releasing a Manifesto for the European elections (For a Federal Europe : Sovereign, Democratic, Social), a pledge for candidates to the European Parliament, and a pledge for citizens to express their support to federalist proposals.

"We invite candidates to the European Parliament and citizens across Europe to express their support to a Federal Europe, a sovereign, democratic and social Europe. We want citizens to say strongly «I choose Europe» and go and vote at the European elections next 23-26 May, against the project of nationalists and populists to dismantle our Europe, but also against a European status quo that is not sustainable any longer. We call citizens to vote for candidates who clearly express their support for a bold European relaunch and reforms towards a federal Europe" says Sandro Gozi, President of the Union of European Federalists.

UEF sections all over Europe are organizing street actions, debates, stands to mobilize citizens to go and vote for a Federal Europe.

All documents are available on the UEF website, where visibility will be given to candidates to the European Parliament who sign the federalist pledge, and where citizens have the possibility to sign directly online to support the campaign/to express their support to federalist proposals.

• Here the Manifesto For a Federal Europe : Sovereign, Democratic, Social - available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
• Here the pledge for candidates to the European Parliament - available in English, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish
• Here the pledge for citizens to support the campaign - available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish

EDITOR'S NOTE

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) is a pan-European, non-governmental political organisation dedicated to the promotion of European political unity. For more than 70 years UEF has been a leading voice in the promotion of European unity and an early campaigner for key milestones in the development of the European Communities and then the European Union. With 25 national sections and over 400 local groups across Europe, UEF promotes a federal Europe among citizens and political representatives at all levels of government.

Sandro GOZI is the President of Union of European Federalists, he was the Secretary of State for European Affairs in the Renzi and Gentiloni Governments (2014-2018) and Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies (2006-2018). Prior to that, he was a diplomat and then spent more than a decade in the European institutions notably as a European Commission official (1996-2000) and then as member of the Cabinet of European Commission President Romano Prodi (2000-2004) and advisor to European Commission President Jose Barroso.

Press contacts:

Bruxelles: Valentina Presa, valentina.presa@federalists.eu, +32.2.5083030

Rome: Lorena Vetro, vetrolorena@gmail.com, +39.338.7800683