Podcasts with Nana Walzer and Sandro Gozi, Antonio Argenziano and Dirk van den Boom

Watch those two podcasts about the Ukraine war.

UNDERSTANDING AND ACTIONS

Interview of 28/02/2022 with the JEF President Antonio Argenziano and Dirk van den Boom on the war in Ukraine and the EU challenges at this crucial time.

Antonio Argenziano argues : "We must be really strong and motivated in supporting the Ukrainian people, all organizations and demonstrations committed to solidarity. At the same time, however, for a long-term solution and perspective we must not give up campaigning for a political European Union, capable of making decisions on significant policies. We cannot expect, for example, that other countries, such as the United States or China, intervening in international affairs almost by reaction, will fix things by bringing them back to the side of freedom, democracy and peace."

Here the podcast "UNDERSTANDING AND ACTIONS"

EU SANCTIONS AGAINST EU

Interview of 28/02/2022 with the UEF President Sandro Gozi on the last measures adopted by European Union in supporting Ukraine. Sandro Gozi argues: "We can isolate Russia with an economic and financial war, create an European unity with a strong capacity to act not only politically and diplomatically, but also in defense and energy."

Here the podcast "EU SANCTIONS AGAINST EU"

Today is a dark day for Europe.

We all condemn in the strongest possible terms the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a free and sovereign country in the heart of Europe.

This is not only an attack on Ukraine, but also on the security of Europe, the international order, peace and democracy. Therefore, we need:

Let's deliver together, with one European voice.

Sandro GOZI

UEF President

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia are at their highest in years, with a Russian troop build-up near the two nations' borders spurring fears that Moscow could launch an invasion. The current crisis has been provoked by an ongoing Russian military build-up in and around Ukraine, as well as the destabilising use of hybrid attacks, including disinformation and cyber-attacks, on Ukrainian government institutions.

This week, EU Member States have given their political agreement for a new package of sanctions against Russia, after Putin’s decision to recognise the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and sending troops to these areas. This decision violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is not respecting its international obligations, and it is violating core principles of international law.

UEF welcomes the EU’s package of sanctions. We stand with Ukraine and its citizens and reaffirm unequivocal support to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Ukraine is a free and sovereign country and the EU must continue to stand by its side.

We must act on a double track: the first one, the one related to the urgency, to respond with sanctions to Putin and pursue the diplomatic option. If the EU pursues and increases the sanctions, a compensation mechanism must be created in favour of the affected EU firms.

At the same time, in parallel, we must take steps forward on the military and energy autonomy of Europe. A federal EU whose foreign policy was not subject to individual veto threats would be more effective. This new crisis is an opportunity for the EU to become more mature, sovereign and an independent global actor, who act rapidly and robustly whenever a crisis erupts, with partners if possible and alone when necessary. We are eagerly awaiting the EU’s new Strategic Compass document – now needed more urgently than ever - and a follow up on the Conference on the Future of Europe conclusions that might lead to a more democratic, sovereign and stronger EU in the world.

Sandro GOZI

UEF President

Dear federalist friends,

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has entered its hot political phase and I want to express my appreciation for your dedication and commitment. 

Being present in a structured and effective way, as well as being recognisable on the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform with our proposals, became a necessary condition both for conveying its political message and for enhancing meetings on the ground at all levels. The aim was to be influential in order to condition future decision-making processes, to bring out the drive for reform of the European Treaties, unavoidable if it emerged from the debate and the requests of citizens, on the platform - the only tool at our disposal to convey ideas and political message. From there, we, federalists, conveyed both to the European citizens' panels and, above all, to the plenary session.

With a view to a debate aiming at advancing federalist demands, we encouraged our Sections and Members to organise debates linked to our political proposals on the platform. For nearly a year, you have been boosting your efforts to raise awareness about this positive momentum, with a view to engage citizens directly, and to gain wider support for our ideas, projects, and proposals. Therefore, I wish to thank you  for crowding the squares of your cities and towns, for organising conferences and workshops in schools, universities, and inside your sections.

During this past year, we have seen enormous growth in the support and visibility of federalist ideas, especially those aimed at strengthening European Democracy. You have been integral to the important advances we have made, particularly promoting a 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. Moreover, we have also called for the need for a political and fiscal Union that can tackle the great transnational challenges of our time, acting decisively on a wide range of policy areas, from climate change, growing social inequalities, health and migration to foreign affairs and defense. 

Our collective efforts together with JEF and the Spinelli Group, yielded a great outcome for the federalist ideas in the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform. This was only possible through your commitment of time and effort, which was especially notable during this final rush campaigning together for a more sovereign, democratic and federal Europe.

Again, I would like to thank you for all your invaluable contributions and your continued commitment to the federalist values and mission of our organisation.

Yours faithfully,

Sandro GOZI

UEF President

Dear federalist friends,

The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) has entered its hot political phase and I want to express my appreciation for your dedication and commitment.

Being present in a structured and effective way, as well as being recognisable on the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform with our proposals, became a necessary condition both for conveying its political message and for enhancing meetings on the ground at all levels. The aim was to be influential in order to condition future decision-making processes, to bring out the drive for reform of the European Treaties, unavoidable if it emerged from the debate and the requests of citizens, on the platform - the only tool at our disposal to convey ideas and political message. From there, we, federalists, conveyed both to the European citizens' panels and, above all, to the plenary session.

With a view to a debate aiming at advancing federalist demands, we encouraged our Sections and Members to organise debates linked to our political proposals on the platform. For nearly a year, you have been boosting your efforts to raise awareness about this positive momentum, with a view to engage citizens directly, and to gain wider support for our ideas, projects, and proposals. Therefore, I wish to thank you for crowding the squares of your cities and towns, for organising conferences and workshops in schools, universities, and inside your sections.

During this past year, we have seen enormous growth in the support and visibility of federalist ideas, especially those aimed at strengthening European Democracy. You have been integral to the important advances we have made, particularly promoting a 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. Moreover, we have also called for the need for a political and fiscal Union that can tackle the great transnational challenges of our time, acting decisively on a wide range of policy areas, from climate change, growing social inequalities, health and migration to foreign affairs and defense.

Our collective efforts together with JEF and the Spinelli Group, yielded a great outcome for the federalist ideas in the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform. This was only possible through your commitment of time and effort, which was especially notable during this final rush campaigning together for a more sovereign, democratic and federal Europe.

Again, I would like to thank you for all your invaluable contributions and your continued commitment to the federalist values and mission of our organisation.

Yours faithfully,

Sandro GOZI

UEF President

From Euractiv | By Anna Echterhoff and Sandro Gozi

2022 will be “a turning point” for Europe. The winds of change blowing from some member states are bringing the EU into a new era, write Anna Echterhoff and Sandro Gozi.

Anna Echterhoff is Secretary General of the Union of European Federalists

Sandro Gozi is a Renew Europe MEP and President of the Union of European Federalists

2021 has been a year of transition in the European Union (EU) with decisions of federal scope such as the Recovery Plan and the Next Generation EU, the successful purchase and distribution of vaccines, the COVID-19 Certificate and the approval of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027.

Germany has just turned the page on Angela Merkel’s 16 years of leadership, France is bracing itself for an uncertain presidential election in the spring, and in Italy Draghi will continue as prime minister. Merkel’s departure leaves a vacuum that Macron, Scholz and Draghi are trying to fill.

GERMANY

In Germany there is now a chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who proposes a paradigm shift in his country to invest in social cohesion, who proposes “moving towards a federal Europe” and who is open to reforming the eurozone’s stability and growth pact.

The change of tone in the new German government is evident, they “want to increase Europe’s strategic sovereignty”, aiming at developing the EU’s own capacity to act in a global context and in important strategic areas such as, for example, energy supply, health, import of raw materials, technology… With the confirmation of the German position, we might see important advances towards a federal Union as they seem keen to facilitate reforms in this sense.

ITALY

Mario Draghi will remain as the country’s prime minister, securing an unprecedented influence on key European policies.

Significantly, Chancellor Scholz included Rome among the capitals he first visited shortly after succeeding Angela Merkel. With French President Emmanuel Macron, the harmony is exceptional. Together they signed the Quirinal Treaty in November, along the lines of the Elysée Treaty signed between Paris and Berlin in 1963 to increase cooperation in many strategic sectors such as defence.

Macron and Draghi have just co-signed an article in the Financial Times calling for a stronger, more sustainable and fairer Europe, a sign of a growing alliance between two of Europe’s most dynamic leaders.

FRANCE

French voters are heading to the polls in late April. President Emmanuel Macron is currently polling first among all candidates and his victory would mean that France would still have a pro-European leader looking to work with Germany and Italy to reform the Union.

The French presidency of the Council of the European Union will also mark this new chapter, in which Macron will defend a powerful and sovereign Europe, with the reform of the stability pact and the development of the Union’s strategic sovereignty as his political priorities.

Driven by COVID-19, this has made it possible to take historic steps forward in the integration project and to strengthen the role of this type of mandate, which has had fairly limited room for manoeuvre since the Treaty of Lisbon.

This was evidenced by its drive to develop a joint vaccination strategy that was a cornerstone of the European response to the pandemic by ensuring its equitable distribution to all EU citizens. But also the impetus he gave to put in place the most ambitious recovery plan in EU history, that could be the embryo of a European fiscal arm.

The stars are aligning for real EU reform, we believe that decisive steps will be taken in the federal logic as we understand that there is an agreement between the main political forces, especially between the virtuous triangle that would leave behind years of paralysis and hesitation.

We must now take advantage of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which was launched on 9 May 2021 in Strasbourg with civil society and citizens, in order to move forward a more sovereign, democratic and stronger EU.

The Citizens’ have spoken, they want to overcome the veto vote in the Council, to give the right of legislative initiative of the EP, re-launch the process for a real EU Constitution, directly vote European political parties through transnational lists and introduce new forms of direct democratic citizens participation.

The new pro-European alliance will support the citizens’ petitions, pushing to strengthen European democracy and facilitating the much needed reforms.

We expect, and as UEF are committed to, in particular, the start of a further deepening of the European Union and its transformation into a true European federation. Let’s revive the Ventotene legacy and its spirit, building a united Europe of freedom, equality and human rights in which each and every one of us can say “I belong”.”

As stated in the last line of the Ventotene Manifesto, the road won’t be easy, but UEF will keep striving to develop Spinelli’s ideas.

UEF President Sandro GOZI: “We must get inspired and revive the spirit of the Ventotene Manifesto to push for a new European democratic transformation.”

In 1941, while imprisoned on Ventotene island just off the coast of Italy, the intellectuals Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni penned ‘For a Free and United Europe’, a founding text urging for the creation of a united Europe built on federalist principles. This document, also known as the Ventotene Manifesto, was distributed among the European resistance thanks to Ursula Hirschmann, a German anti-fascist activist who managed to smuggle it from the island. In January 1944, a mimeographed clandestine edition of the Manifesto appeared in Rome.

All they had the courage, the imagination, and the irreverent genius to look up beyond the horizon of the present moment. They had the courage to imagine Europe and a future world in which civil rights and fraternity among all people would be at the center of social life and politics.

Back then, the authors of the Ventotene Manifesto called for “new people” to realise a free and united Europe, but, after 81 years, it is still an ongoing process to build a European identity united in shared values and solidarity through the founding of a political union of the 27 member states. Elements of this are visible, as in the unity that has been demonstrated during the COVID crisis.

We must now take advantage of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which was launched on 9 May 2021 in Strasbourg with civil society and citizens, in order to move forward a more sovereign, democratic and stronger EU. We expect, and as UEF are committed to, in particular, the start of a further deepening of the European Union and its transformation into a true European federation.

On the 81 Anniversary of the Ventotene Manifesto, we, the federalists, want to revive the Ventotene legacy and its spirit building a united Europe of freedom, equality and human rights in which each and every one of us can say "I belong”." As stated in the last line of the Ventotene Manifesto, the road won’t be easy, but UEF will keep striving to develop Spinelli’s ideas.

crossarrow-up