Press Release - Union of European Federalists

70 years ago, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet gave birth to what was to become the European Union. Their proposal, to unite the coal and steel industries of France and Germany, was radical. Their timing was right. Their method was clever. Their project was deliverable. And their mission was federal.

“In this way, there will be realized simply and speedily that fusion of interest which is indispensable to the establishment of a common economic system. It may be the leaven from which may grow a wider and deeper community between countries long opposed to one another by bloody divisions."

“By pooling basic production and by instituting a new High Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and other member countries, this proposal will lead to the realization of the first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace.”

Schuman warned that “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity”. As Monnet advised, only supranational governance would make a reality of the spirit of solidarity between the six member states and their citizens.
Over the years, Monnet’s method has evolved, new institutions have developed and many more states have joined the Union. But while the EU’s achievements must not be underestimated, it has struggled to maintain the pace of integration and live up to the ambitions of its founding fathers. Too many European politicians are lured back into nationalism, and some member states even question the rule of EU law. In these circumstances, it has proved impossible for the Union to realise its full potential.
Today, the coronavirus pandemic is leading to huge social and economic problems, aggravating financial instability, regional imbalances and political divisions, exposing the constitutional frailty of the Union. In the challenging international environment, European integration needs fresh impetus consistent with the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.

CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF EUROPE

It is agreed in principle to convene a major Conference on the Future of Europe involving the representative institutions, consultative bodies, civil society organisations and citizens. We hope that this can be convened in September 2020. We urge that discussions are accelerated between the three institutions on the preparation and organisation of the Conference on the basis of the proposal made by the European Parliament. We call on the European Council speedily to define its position – but its failure to do so should not prevent the Conference from beginning its work.
The Spinelli Group recommends that the scope of the Conference is broad and that its mandate is reform. The overall purpose of the Conference is to equip the Union to deal better with contemporary and foreseeable future challenges, and to speak and act with one voice when necessary.
The Conference agenda must include both a critical assessment of the balance of competences between the EU and member states as well as a thorough reconsideration of the balance of powers between the institutions. Some of the reform proposals can be achieved within the existing compass of the Treaty of Lisbon; others will lead to treaty change.

THE BALANCE OF COMPETENCES

The Union needs to be competent to address effectively all those issues which now outstrip the capability of its member states to resolve alone. The federalist principle of subsidiarity needs to be applied fully across the spectrum of both internal and external policy. The goal should be to build a vibrant liberal democracy, a fair and resilient European society, and a sustainable economy.
The Union cannot afford to be permanently divided between net contributors and beneficiaries to the budget. This requires the federal element of the budget – ‘genuine own resources’ – to be progressively expanded as a proportion of the whole. The EU should use its greater fiscal capacity to invest in public goods of common value to all its citizens, including education, scientific research, new technology, cyber security and the European Green Deal.
The share-out of competences between the member states and the Union level of government should be reviewed especially in the fields of public health, energy supply, and asylum and immigration. Supervision of the European financial services industry should be strengthened at the federal level. The single market needs consolidation in the areas of services and taxation policy.

THE BALANCE OF POWERS

Enhancing the competence of the Union requires strengthening its governance. Executive authority needs to be concentrated on a streamlined Commission, made fully accountable to the bicameral legislature of Parliament and Council.
Reliance on unanimity in the Council must be replaced by greater use of majority voting, particularly in fiscal and social policies. Where necessary, there must be enhanced cooperation among a group of integration-minded member states. The European Parliament must gain the right of co-decision with the Council over the raising of revenue.
Reform is needed, in time for the 2024 elections, to ensure that a portion of MEPs is elected in a pan-EU constituency from transnational lists, contested by federal political parties.

RELAUNCH

The Conference on the Future of Europe is the chance to relaunch the process of European unification along the federal lines first envisaged in the Schuman Declaration. 21st century Europeans deserve to live in a well-governed, adequately resourced and united democratic polity. And the world needs a strong European Union that projects abroad the values and principles which it upholds at home.
The Spinelli Group stands ready to elaborate its proposals for a European federation as its contribution to the work of the Conference.

Brussels, 9 May 2020

Download here the Statement by The Spinelli Group on the Seventieth anniversary of the Schuman Declaration.

A report of The Spinelli Group 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.

You can read the report here

You can read the complete article here

The size of the crisis triggered by the pandemic forces our country and Europe to rethink themselves in order to try to understand how to strengthen their political capacity so that it can be commensurate with the current challenge.

It will not only be the mourning, the many deaths and too much pain that will mark our public and private lives; nor will the problem be restricted to the economy, bent by exceptional circumstances, and to its social consequences. The very mentality of the Western world will have to change in order to confront the tragic aspect of history, which has once again become evident in all its harshness.

How the new Western vision of the future will be built is a game that will be played first and foremost in Europe. It is here that the start of a new, true supranational policy can be built, forging the alternative to the false answers offered by nationalism that would bring back the clock of history to the dynamics of totalitarianism in the 20th century. The political, social, cultural and moral values of our civilization are at stake.

Italy must face with this spirit and this sense of responsibility next European appointments and commitments, starting from the European Council of 23 April.

At the plenary session of the European Parliament on 16 April, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wanted to quote the Ventotene Manifesto to underline the exceptional nature of the moment and the ambition of the response that the European Union must be able to give. Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi are Italy's heritage, and that is also why it is up to Italy, if it so wishes, to indicate how to turn the words of the Manifesto into concrete actions.

The European Union in these weeks is discussing – and finding – immediate and exceptional responses to support the Member States facing the health, economic and social emergency. The European Council, on 23 April, will have to finalise the package of measures and instruments agreed by the Eurogroup for this purpose, and Italy must be aware that it has achieved a great victory, pushing the EU to change its mentality and approach, in particular with regard to the European Stability Mechanism.

Within this framework, the debate on the Recovery Fund, on which the European Council must agree to make it operational as early as the next few months, must distinguish between the need for its launch as an emergency instrument to provide immediate liquidity to States, and its development as the backbone of the European reconstruction strategy, which is intertwined with the launch of the European Green Deal.

Emergency can be tackled by simply making the best use of the possibilities offered by existing instruments. Reconstruction, conversely, requires the boldness of innovation.

A major European reconstruction plan that also responds to the need to affirm a revolutionary new economic model, strong in technologically advanced and ecologically innovative sectors, cannot be achieved with the instruments provided for today by the Treaties. It requires:

– a new capacity for European political action, no longer limited to the coordination of national policies, but based on the principle of subsidiarity, to be able to act directly at supranational level where political action needs this dimension;

– substantial resources and a new approach.

In this sense, while we welcome the proposals for a substantial increase in the ceiling and resources to be allocated to the new Multiannual Financial Framework, we cannot fail to note the limits of this approach, which ultimately leaves national budgets and parliaments, together with governments, responsible for collecting resources and implementing policies. Not only is the decision-making system cumbersome and bent on the need to always find a compromise between the different demands and visions of the Member States; not only is EU action itself severely limited; but above all, ambitions are diminished by this approach, starting from the inadequacy of the resources that (with such difficulty) can be allocated to the European budget, even if it will be doubled.

The need, in this new phase, to think as well about the creation of a common European debt clearly highlights the limits of the current system. We recall, among many on this point, the remarks by Lorenzo Bini Smaghi: "There are no European activities today nor European capacity to generate autonomous fiscal revenues that can be used to guarantee European public debt…. To issue Eurobonds, the EU must be able to generate new tax revenues… (i.e. have) a direct tax authority over the European economy and European citizens".

The Multiannual Financial Framework, with the current institutional limitations that determine its decision-making mechanisms, can never become an adequate European guarantee for a common debt; nor will it be able to give the European Parliament and the Commission the possibility to increase their revenues, indispensable in the face of the political ambitions that should be put in place. Nor will it ever be possible to go beyond the current governance model, which is based on the coordination of national policies and which does not provide for a European political level capable of acting autonomously and therefore effectively.

The size of the challenge we are facing today – if we really want to give an adequate common response, while at the same time creating the conditions to make Europe a leading player on the world stage in the coming decades – really forces us to return to the spirit of Ventotene evoked in Strasbourg by President von der Leyen, and “to think the unthinkable”, as French President Macron reminded us from the pages of the Financial Times: “Today is the moment of truth. We must decide whether the European Union is a political project or just a market”.

The real choice for Europe today, therefore, is whether to really become a community of destiny. It is a choice that involves the federal shift to a decisive point left unresolved for decades. Italy should propose that a targeted revision of the Treaties be immediately put in place in order to create fiscal competence at European level. Rally the other countries that share the ambition of a Europe capable of acting in the new world and seek the support of the Community institutions, starting from the European Parliament, which should feel called upon to take up the legacy of Altiero Spinelli.

If there were the political will, a few months would be enough to carry out the reform and get to the start of the new Financial Framework, having created the conditions for a federal budget line, fuelled by European taxes decided by the European Parliament instead of 27 divided Member States, which would represent the necessary basis for issuing debt with a federal guarantee. A revolution that would pave the way for a real constitutional transition, relaunching on a solid basis the process of confrontation on the future of Europe.

Italy has the interest and the vision to promote this change of pace. Only in this way can the sterile polemics be wiped out in one fell swoop and a new phase can be opened to give our country back the historical role it deserves.

Milan, 17th April 2020

Luisa Trumellini, National Secretary of MFE

Bruno Tabacci, Camera dei Deputati

Tommaso Nannicini, Senato della Repubblica

Download the Memorandum of Movimento Federalista Europeo (UEF section in Italy)

Read the original version in Italian.

"Further joint initiatives are essential, overcoming old schemes that way."

Sergio Mattarella

In the darkest hour the European Union should regain the spirit of the Founding Fathers.

The exceptional circumstances that Europe is going through require rapid, effective but also forward-looking responses proportionate to the dangers that threaten us: not only the pandemic, but also the return of nationalism. If we cannot defeat both these dangers, the European project will be lost.

Despite the efforts of the European Union institutions - which have put in place exceptional measures and substantial resources, and are preparing other important initiatives - the events of the past few days show that the European Union is still held in a weak position by the Member States, which keep the monopoly on political decisions in their hands. This is why the EU does not have the instruments to give a unified response in the health emergency and does not have the indispensable instruments of solidarity between citizens that characterise every real political community. This is how the virus of nationalism spreads.

This weakness can be lethal. It can only be overcome by putting the federal project back at the centre of the debate, recognising that Europe is a community of destiny. The solution is to overturn the relationship between the Member States and the Union, taking away from the former the monopoly on political action, first and foremost in the sphere of solidarity; and giving the European Union the task and instruments to act directly, including in this field.

Today, Europe needs to deploy all its resources to provide a common response to the crisis by launching a major European recovery plan. With this in mind, the question of launching common debt issuance (Eurobonds) as soon as possible becomes impossible to avoid. There is, however, no European institution capable of fully guaranteeing such issuance. Today, the common debt could only ultimately be guaranteed by national budgets. That is also why, within the Union, talking about European debt provokes conflicting reactions; that is why we cannot talk about solidarity between citizens, but only between states.

In order to create the solidarity between citizens that is needed to meet common challenges, it is then necessary to address the problem of a European federal fiscal power. That is to say, we need to create an autonomous EU fiscal capacity which can be enforced directly (without the mediation of the Member States) on the European economy and European citizens, to feed a federal budget and provide European public goods. Obviously, this implies raising the issue of a revision of the Treaties, as this would be a question of giving the European Union fiscal competence. The European Parliament, with the Commission, should be given the power to decide autonomously how to raise own resources and also to manage European debt issuance autonomously, offering a European guarantee to free themselves from national budgets.

Fiscal competence should also go hand in hand with the extension of competences and the allocation of new, exclusive or shared competences in areas and policies that require a European framework (respecting the correct application of the subsidiarity principle), such as certain aspects of health and welfare policies, or industrial policy, research and innovation, immigration and the environment, together with defence. In this way, the European Union would effectively become capable of putting in place a major recovery plan by reinforcing those policy areas that cannot be fully developed at national level alone and would thus provide concrete responses to citizens' needs and expectations.

Including in the current debate the relaunch of the European unification process, with a clear and concrete federalist proposal aimed at providing structural responses to the problem that seems most urgent at the moment, is also an indispensable contribution to support and guide the negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework, in which we see too often the wall against wall of national governments because the proposals are weighed on the basis not of collective benefit, but of the cost to their own country. Instead, the negotiations must be relaunched with urgency and ambition, in order to increase their capacity even beyond the 1.3% requested by the European Parliament, exploiting all possible options under existing treaties.

In addition, open the process to create a first nucleus of federal political power, already while the emergency is being tackled, is also the only possibility to resume as soon as possible the path outlined by the Conference on the future of Europe, and to transform it into a real constituent process leading to a federal constitutional pact.

We therefore appeal to all democratic forces convinced that there is no future for any Member State outside the European Union; to the leaders of governments who are trying to find the best means of acting together as Europeans, at this dramatic time; to the European Parliament, as the only institution directly elected by the citizens of Europe, and to every MEP, to support this proposal, the only one that can give the European Union the basis for a stronger start after this crisis.

As the President of the Italian Republic Mattarella said, "Further joint initiatives are essential, overcoming old patterns that are now outside the reality of the dramatic conditions in which our continent finds itself". The future of the very idea of Europe is at stake. The next choices will irreversibly determine our destiny. Today, or never, is the time to resume the path indicated by the Founding Fathers to make all citizens feel that we are a community of destiny.

Statement by the National Board of the Movimento Federalista Europeo (UEF section in Italy): read the original version in Italian.

10 proposals by the European Federalists

The last weeks have seen the Coronavirus crisis spreading throughout Europe, which has become the world epicentre of the pandemic. Europeans are facing, together, the most severe crisis since the Second World War.

The Union of European Federalists welcomes the measures taken by the European Commission establishing a coronavirus response team and an investment fund as well as expanding the scope of the solidarity fund to support some immediate actions for the crisis. We welcome also the decision of the European Central Bank to set up a new Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program to protect the integrity of the Eurozone and support member states in need to increase their indebtedness to face the crisis. The solidarity shown across European regions to share the care of some severely ill patients is also welcome sign of European cohesion.

At the same time, the Coronavirus crisis made clear that the European Union has no competence on health care, while it has only a support competence in public health, and that it is neither equipped with the necessary instruments to ensure an effective coordination for such typically transnational emergencies. Therefore, Member States remain exclusively competent for the management of their health care systems as well as for the management of the economic and social consequences of the epidemic. Without surprise, the Coronavirus crisis management by the national governments confirms once more the ineffectiveness and the limits of the inter-governmentalism. Lacking a European government with adequate European instruments, national governments are left to protect their own citizens and interests as they can. The result is that today our countries are overwhelmed.

The Union of European Federalists regrets that this prevents, in particular, the Union from giving an effective and coordinated response to the Coronavirus threat and replying to the EU Charter obligation of providing a high level of Human health protection to all EU citizens and people living in the EU. The Union of European Federalists regrets moreover the lack of solidarity amongst Member States as called for by Robert Schuman 70 years ago in his declaration of 9 May 1950.

For these reasons, the Union of European Federalists calls for the following urgent and longer term measures:

It is essential to ensure the unity of the European Union and its internal market. We should reverse, as soon as possible, all decisions to reintroduce internal border restrictions between Schengen countries, which do not help stopping the virus since outbreaks are regional rather than national but risk jeopardizing the smooth functioning of services, such as food provision and health care, that are all the more essential in this moment. The unity of the internal market, as well as the free movement of people and goods, especially relevant in cross-border regions, must be ensured. That’s why only the necessary and well proportional measures shall be taken for the temporary restrictions of people and goods mobility at the EU external borders;
The European Commission should also be given the power to issue rules applicable across the EU on measures to be applied by member states to combat the virus;
A European research consortium should be set to work together as a team to find a vaccine as quickly as possible. EU funding allocated to different research projects is a welcome move, but there is significant added-value in developing joint EU efforts rather than national parallel ones;
The Eurozone should immediately adopt a series of extraordinary and coordinated fiscal measures to mitigate the effects of the current crisis and its consequences on the European economy. The ECB’s government bond buying programme is an essential move but it will not be enough to keep borrowing costs for the most affected member states within tolerable levels. If there has ever been a time for a European response to avoid another long recession, this is it;
The Eurozone must now quickly advance to introduce real European bonds, raising affordable new capital to address the immediate spending need of the European Union and member states to contract the crisis. This could take the form of European Recovery Bonds to be issued by the European Union itself to finance an EU-wide plan to promote EU economic recovery and social cohesion during and after the emergency;
The scope of the European Stability Mechanism should be enlarged to finance the immediate strengthening of the European and national health systems to cope with the health and environmental crisis, which threaten the lives of European citizens, and thus also the economic and financial stability of the EU. The Eurogroup must activate ESM’s support for all affected member states without attaching additional conditionality to it;
The Council should immediately approve a sufficient Multi-annual Financial Framework increasing the budget to at least 1,3% of the EU GDP, as requested by the European Parliament, plus any resources raised through the European Recovery Bonds, and allowing more flexibility, in particular to make it possible to launch a comprehensive European anti-crisis spending plan;

In the longer term

The EU should be provided with fiscal autonomy at European level based on the right to directly raise and spend its own resources – such as the carbon tax, the digital tax or the financial transaction tax. Such fiscal capacity will allow to finance a proper EU budget and efficient European policies starting with the research, industrial and environmental policies, which are proving even more necessary in the context of this crisis. It would also enable the issuance of real European bonds without need of national guarantees by member states;
The EU should be entrusted with real competences in the field of public health which should be a shared competence between the EU and its Member States. As a matter of priority, the EU should start setting the basic rules of a EU policy in the areas of public health, and even possibly health care delivery, so as to provide the Commission with powers to coordinate the response to future epidemics among others and develop strong mechanisms for responding to public health emergencies, as any federal government should do;
The planned Conference on the future of Europe should be turned into a fully-fledged European Convention to draft a new Constitutional Pact to answer current and future European challenges.

We should acknowledge that the world after COVID-19 will not be the same as before. Europeans need to pursue a true eco-social market economy, that makes our society more resilient, strengthening the link between the environment and economic growth, as well as acknowledging the importance that a greener and sustainable economy could have in future crisis of the same nature. Without a systematic integration of ecological factors, neither economic competitiveness nor social justice can be achieved in the long run.

The EU and its member states are going through a decisive test, of effectiveness and solidarity, which will profoundly affect the perception that citizens have of our Union for a long time to come.

This crisis is showing that we need strong and resilient local communities. However, some challenges we are facing today – as this crisis demonstrates – can neither be met at local nor at regional or national level. They require a European response, following the principle of subsidiarity. Federalism is the only institutional system that can provide both subsidiarity and substitution.

All at once, the Coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to address the shortcomings of the Union. We must urgently leverage on the lessons learned during the management of the Great Recession of 2008-2018, when the citizens paid dearly for the lack of solidarity at European level, and develop a European answer to the Coronavirus threat and its economic and social impact to transform the European Union into a federal Union that is a community of solidarity with a shared destiny.

In the darkest hour the European Union can only save itself recovering the spirit of the Founding Fathers

The current crisis, generated by the most serious pandemic the world has seen since the beginning of the 20th century, puts the European Union to the test in an unexpected way. The whole world will be ravaged and every political community will have to show that it has the moral and material resources to start again. We know that the challenge will directly affect the heart of our democracies and the very idea of building a new global solidarity.

As in the aftermath of the Second World War, political responses must be proportional to the dangers that threaten our values, our model of a free, democratic, solidarity-based society, our very future. No state alone in Europe will be able to meet this challenge. Everyone will have to play their part, but only together we can save our civilisation.

The distance between the reality of the European Union today and the community of cohesive destiny that we sorely need is plain for all to see. National selfishness remains dominant; even if the crisis is hitting all the countries hard – and should therefore push towards the search for common answers – the old contrasts, particularly between the blocs of the countries of the North and the countries of the South, remain deep, because selfishness wins out.

Yesterday’s meeting of the European Council, which culminated – after eliciting a number of strong, even bothered reactions, such as that expressed by the Italian Prime Minister – with the "non-decision" (on the crucial issue of financial support to States) to ask the Eurogroup to draw up a proposal, provided yet another example of this situation.

In this occasion, too, many governments have not managed to break away from the short-sighted view of their own very short-term interests, despite the fact that the other European institutions have now understood the need for a common and cohesive reaction. The ECB, the European Commission and the European Parliament itself have made extraordinary interventions in the last two weeks, with the will to use all the room for action granted to them by the Treaties. The obvious crux of the malfunctioning of the EU therefore lies in the monopoly of decisions by the Member States, symbolized by the overwhelming power of the European Council and its inability to find agreements to make the European Union work.

In all this, on the one hand, it is difficult to see at this point what path the Union can take in order to deploy sufficient resources to really support the economies and social policies of the Member States. All assumptions made are either insufficient, or have contraindications for one or the other; but above all, it is difficult to understand how to get out of this dead end due to the fact that solidarity takes place exclusively between States, because the European Union does not have the fiscal competence that would allow a shift to solidarity between European citizens. On the other hand, one of the facts that must be strongly highlighted is that if Europeans urgently need to become a community of united and cohesive destiny, the solution will not be found in the clash between opposing types of national interests, but only by moving to the qualitatively different terrain of the common interest.

The letter of the nine Heads of State and Government sent on 25 March to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel (he too, it has to be said, committed to trying to make governments think more in terms of the common interest), contains, for example, many right points, including the question of "working on a common debt instrument issued by a European institution to raise funds on the market on the same basis and for the benefit of all Member States". This is certainly a necessary proposal, all the more so at this emergency stage. At the same time, under the current conditions, this European institution, which in the proposal of the nine governments should issue debt (and therefore guarantee it), will not avoid to rely on a fund fed by contributions from the States. In this way it is difficult to break out of the vicious circle.

A European debt, in order not to become a divisive issue, should not fall within the scope of simple solidarity between States (which makes the more solid countries feel authorized to speak of conditionality towards those whose debt is more exposed) but should be based on the European guarantee of a federal budget. This is why the strength of the proposal to work on a common debt instrument would be infinitely greater if it were accompanied by that of relaunching federal political union. In this way, it would shift the terrain of confrontation from the current clash of divergent interests to a vision of Europe’s future.

Many people believe that raising the issue of relaunching political union in this emergency phase is unrealistic; but if the deadly risk facing the European Union today is that it will drag itself through the crisis and finally find itself increasingly torn apart, thereby destroying the heritage of 70 years of integration, is it really unthinkable at this time to pose the problem of taking real steps in the federal direction? It is a fact that, in order to save the European Union, there is no alternative to reversing the prevailing logic that drives everyone to seek their own advantage at the expense of the common interest.

Seventy years ago, in this spirit, Jean Monnet conceived the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community. The parallelism with the situation today is very clear. Indeed, the experience of the ECSC teaches us that the solution to the acute crisis can only be found in a project with a strong political value that is capable of reversing the relationship between the Member States and the Union, making the latter autonomous and capable of acting within its sphere of competence.

Today, as shown by the impasse in the negotiations on the Union budget and the possibility of a common debt instrument, the problem that can no longer be postponed is that of giving the Union fiscal competence – even limited initially to a few resources – entrusting it to the political institutions of the Union. One hypothesis is to link resources to “European public goods”, such as the environment; they could therefore initially consist of taxes such as the border carbon tax, with a view to allocating new resources in the future. In any case, this step would create the basis for an autonomous power of government at European level, which would break the current political logic that concentrates power in the hands of the European Council, and could evolve further within the limits set by the democratic control to which the European Commission would be subject.

It is a solution that obviously cannot be based on the existing treaties, which do not confer fiscal capacity on the Union, and which would therefore involve amending the treaties. It is therefore pointless to hide the fact that this is a difficult step, not least because it implies a substantial attribution of sovereignty to the European level. But at this dramatic time, which forces previously unthinkable openings, the European Parliament and the States calling for a Europe that is more united and more capable of action would have every chance of taking up this battle and winning it. It would also be the only way to safeguard and relaunch the prospect of the Conference on the future of Europe, which remains an essential event and which would otherwise be overwhelmed by the crisis.

As Ursula von der Leyen reminded us yesterday in front of the European Parliament, challenging the European Council: We need to focus as soon as possible on “how can we use this storm to ensure that we can weather the next one better”. “History is watching us”, she concluded: “we do the right thing together: with one big heart, not 27 small hearts”.

Pavia, 27 March 2020

"Europe at the test of war against the coronavirus", Movimento Federalista Europeo, Italian section of UEF - Statement in PDF here (In English).

The original version of this statement was published in the official website of MEF (27/03/2020) - Check the original version here (In Italian).

We understand that Covid-19 is a common threat that may hurt one country sooner than another, but will eventually hurt us all, and can impact our daily life and economy almost like a war.

We consider that this current challenge, the most difficult one Europe and the world are facing since 1945, comes just a few weeks before the 70th Anniversary of the Schuman Declaration; like then, our ambition should be commensurate to the scale of the public health and economic crisis we are facing;

We warn of the further negative effects that un-coordinated national responses would have onEuropeans’ health and on the EU’s economy.

We recall that the interdependence between EU societies requires a single European answer with strict containment measures of the pandemics, and an EU-wide plan to support the Member States’efforts in the short term as well as to relaunch its economic growth afterwards.

We regret that the EU is currently ill equipped to face this challenge, with little competences and powers to ensure an efficient answer to the sanitary crisis.

We welcome the timely decision by the Commission to provide 37 billion euro and financial flexibility to cope with this threat. Maybe it is the most it can do, but it is not enough.

We welcome the decisions of the European Central Bank of 12 and 18th March, particularly as it regards the combined 850 billion euro package of purchases of government and corporate bonds;

We call on the European Commission and Parliament to propose, and on the national governments to adopt (starting with the extraordinary European Council on March 26th) the following urgent measures:

HEALTH UNION

Decide to enhance the EU's coordination and support role in matters of public health, particularly in terms of ability to fight against pandemics – possibly making public health a shared EU competence, eventually through a revision of the Treaties – and to exploit art. 168 TFEU, which already foresees (art. 168§5 TFEU) that certain matters of public health (such as the fight against and prevention of great scourges, which are transnational in nature) be decided upon through the ordinary legislative procedure, and art. 222 TFEU, which foresees for the principle of mutual assistance in case of natural or man-made disaster, to the full.
Entrust the Commission with all necessary powers to effectively coordinate the response to the pandemic, including common European rules to limit and overcome the crisis, organize and manage the most effective use of the necessary pharmaceutical resources and health equipment, and any decision relating to the restriction of the free movement of persons within the European Union, while safeguarding the possibility of articulating specific measures for the various countries on the basis of the different situations.
Extend the aims of the European Stability Mechanism in order to allow its use without conditionality to finance the immediate strengthening of European and national health systems to deal with the pandemic, which is a threat to public health and also to the economic and financial stability of the EU.
Creation of European Health Bonds, issued by the Commission specifically targeting the member states’ efforts in addressing the health emergency, using the ESM capital as a guarantee.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Issue by the Union of an EU RECOVERY BOND in the form of a mutualized European Safe Asset managed by the Commission and guaranteed by the EU budget, that could be used initially to finance a pan-European plan for the promotion of economic recovery and social cohesion in the face of the pandemic, as well as to finance the Green Deal, which involves huge investments to radically transform European society and production.
Rapidly adopt the Multiannual Financial Framework, by increasing the EU budget to at least 1.3% of European GDP, as requested by the European Parliament, based on the current structure of budget financing; and with the forecast to reach 2% with new own resources, in order to ensure the provision of crucial European public goods, such as the fight against the pandemic, economic recovery and social cohesion, the Green Deal, management of migration flows and security and defense.
Establish genuine, new own resources - such as taxes (and tariffs) on carbon emissions at the EU border and the revenue from the EU Emission Trading Scheme and its extension, taxes on the income of companies in the digital economy, taxes on speculative financial transactions, profits of the ECB - accrue directly to the European budget, as they are transnational in nature and cannot readily be assigned to any Member State; that, alternatively, these taxes accrue to the budgetary instrument of the euro area, if the decision could be adopted only at euro area level, on the basis of the provisions of art. 136 TFEU.
Proceed without delay to the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union, starting from the proposals contained in the Reports of the 4 Presidents of 2012 and the 5 Presidents of 2015; in the Commission Blueprint of 2011, in the various Commission Communications of 6/12/2017 and 15/1/2019; in the Resolutions of the European Parliament on improving the functioning of the European Union by exploiting the potential of the Lisbon Treaty of 16/2/2017, on the Possible evolution and adaptation of the current institutional structure of the European Union of 16/2/2017, Budgetary capacity of the Eurozone of 16/2/2017, on the State of the debate on the future of Europe of 13/2/2019, particularly as it regards the common European Deposit Insurance and the Euro area budget.
Consider further actions by the ECB, including direct monetary transfers to Euro area households.
Approve the European Unemployment Insurance Scheme.

INSTITUTIONAL

Approve through the general passerelle clause (art. 48 §7 TEU) the transition of fiscal and tax issues to the ordinary legislative procedure, as already proposed also by the European Commission in 2019, with the aim of creating new taxes harmonized at EU level;
Agree on a Joint Inter-Institutional Declaration by 9 May for the launching of the Conference on the Future of Europe, in order to pave the way for a European Convention to draw up a new Constitutional Pact between European citizens and the Member States for a stronger and more cohesive political union, in the light of the proposals expressed and recalled here, to ensure full democratic accountability.

Brussels, Wednesday 25 March 2020

PRESS RELEASE: here

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.

PRESS CONTACT
Valentina Presa
valentina.presa@federalists.eu
+32.2.5083030

In a joint statement issued today (Wednesday 25 March), the Spinelli Group and the Union of European Federalists (UEF) urge the European Council to take exceptional action in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Spinelli Group and the European Federalists call on EU Institutions and national governments to take the leap towards the creation of EU Recovery Bonds backed by the EU budget and Europe-wide taxes to finance a strong answer able to address the pandemic and its financial impact on the EU’s economy proactively. It urges for the creation of a European Health Union, that would give the necessary powers to the EU to ensure coordination of emergency measures to address health crises in the future.
ANDREW DUFF, President of the Spinelli Group, said: “Yesterday’s lacklustre Eurogroup passed the buck to the heads of government. The European Council tomorrow must shoulder its constitutional responsibility to secure the cohesion of the EU as a whole, and in particular take decisive action to consolidate the euro. Dealing with the pandemic triggers an enormous increase in public expenditure which will exacerbate the structural imbalance between richer and poorer member states. The EU has for years evaded the issuance of a mutualised safe asset in the form of eurobonds. So the eurozone has survived courtesy of the monetary policy of the European Central Bank but without the support of a common fiscal policy. The coronavirus crisis is time to rectify this flaw in economic and monetary union. The plague risks the lives of all EU citizens equally, and the social and economic impact will be much worse than the asymmetric shock of the financial crash in 2008. The European Council must give practical expression to the theoretical injunction for solidarity between its states and citizens. This is the time for European leaders to push forward the politics of the Union in the federal direction.” Duff added: “Bleating about ‘moral hazard’ was yesterday’s response to the last crisis. Today Europe expects a decisive demonstration of generosity and mutual concern from its leaders, without which the values and principles of our Union are fraudulent.”
"We can't yet measure the impact of COVID-19 on the European economy, but it will certainly be very important," says SANDRO GOZI, Member of the European Parliament and President of the UEF. "We need to prepare now for the worst-case scenario and put in place without delay a strong and bold response to revive the economies of EU countries. Nothing will be the same after containment. We will be entering a new world, we will have to build new Europe. The suspension of the tax rules and the intervention of the ECB will not be enough. The Eurogroup's decision to provide limited and conditioned credits through the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to the most affected states will only cover immediate needs to keep our hospitals afloat. If we don't start issuing European Recovery Bonds immediately, guaranteed by the EU budget, Europe will face an unprecedented financial, social and political crisis. I therefore congratulate President Emmanuel Macron and other national leaders for the proposals made this morning to the Presidents of the Commission and the European Council," concludes Mr Gozi.

The full text of the statement with the proposals of the Spinelli Group and the European Federalists on a European response to the COVID19 crisis can be found below

PRESS CONTACT:
Valentina Presa
valentina.presa@federalists.eu

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) warmly congratulates its President, Sandro Gozi, on his election as a Member of the European Parliament in the May 2019 European elections.

Sandro Gozi, elected President of the UEF in 2018, has long been a tireless advocate for a more united, democratic, and federal Europe. His election to the European Parliament is not only a personal achievement but also a significant recognition of the values and goals that the UEF promotes.

As an MEP, Sandro Gozi brings to the European Parliament a deep commitment to European integration and a clear vision for a stronger Union capable of delivering on the expectations of its citizens. His new role will provide a powerful platform to advance the federalist agenda and ensure that the voice of committed pro-Europeans is heard at the highest level of EU decision-making.

The UEF looks forward to continuing its close collaboration with President Gozi as he takes on this important new responsibility. We are confident that his presence in the European Parliament will strengthen the fight for a sovereign, democratic, and federal Europe.

Congratulations, Sandro!

“We are pleased to see the European Parliament take the lead in setting the agenda for the Conference on the Future of Europe, finally opening the door for long-needed Treaty changes with yesterday 's vote. Europe cannot win back the trust of its citizens with another so-called "listening exercise". Instead we need to be courageous and give citizens a real say over the future of the European project. Only a Conference on the Future of Europe that puts all options of deep policy and institutional change on the table can now deliver on citizens' expectations. If Commission President von der Leyen and the European Council are genuine about bringing Europe closer to the people, we invite the Commission and the Council to support the proposals and the level of ambition indicated by the European Parliament", says Sandro Gozi, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF).

The Union of European Federalists (UEF) and the Young European Federalists (JEF Europe) welcome the resolution adopted yesterday by the European Parliament stating its position regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe. Both UEF and JEF have long advocated for the renewal of our European Union and put forward detailed proposals for the setup of the Conference. The Conference is a golden opportunity for European citizens to walk the path towards an “ever closer union”, as stated in the Treaties. The Conference should not shy away from proposing to expand the Union’s powers and resources and renew its institution to make Europe really sovereign, including through an overhaul of the current Treaties.

The Conference on the Future of Europe must send a clear message to the Union's citizens that their voices will be heard. For this reasons, the European federalists call on the European Commission and the Council, to engage fully and genuinely with this exercise in participatory democracy. The Conference on the Future of Europe shall not be a new dialogue exercise as seen in the past, but a democratic and participative process where citizens have a real say on the Future of the Union. Therefore, in line with the proposal of the Parliament, UEF and JEF welcome an inclusive model that allows citizens to discuss the most pressing policies and institutional reforms, both necessary to rebuild trust in the European project. UEF and JEF are however concerned that there is no credible feedback loop between the decisions ultimately taken by political representatives and the proposals put forward by the citizen agora.

“We couldn’t agree more with the European Parliament: the increase in voter turnout at the 2019 European elections showed that citizens engage with Europe when they are offered the opportunity. For too long we, European citizens, have been sidelined or only cosmetically “consulted” in discussions over the future of European integration. Those times are over. Citizens and civil society are determined to continue pushing for change. The EU’s 60-years-long record of ensuring peace on the continent is at risk if it keeps muddling through the current intergovernmental status quo. The Conference on the Future of Europe is the opportunity to address the concerns of citizens about the future of European democracy and to provide the EU with the tools - institutional and financial - to deliver on its promise”, concludes Leonie Martin, President of JEF Europe.

END

UEF PRESS CONTACT:
Valentina Presa
valentina.presa@federalists.eu
+32.2.5083030

JEF PRESS CONTACT:
Leonie Martin
leonie.martin@jef.eu
+32.2.5120053