UEF is delighted to support also this year the Jean Monnet Prize for European Integration. This initiative aims at honoring Jean Monnet’s memory and life achievements. It does so by rewarding talented individuals or groups having contributed to supporting or strengthening European Integration through a project they designed and implemented. The winning project receives a €1,500 grant.
EuropeanConstitution.eu set up the Jean Monnet Prize for European Integration to honor Jean Monnet’s life and dedication to European integration by rewarding projects that support this ideal in a concrete and apolitical manner for European citizens. The Award is under the patronage of the European Parliament and is supported by the following partners in addition to the UEF: College of Europe, Democracy International, Alliance4Europe, Schwarzkopf Foundation, Friends of Europe, European Student’s Union, Spinelli Group, EU40, BBE, European University Association, European Democracy Lab, The Good Lobby and European Alternatives. Where other prizes may reward public figures of high standing, the Jean Monnet Prize focuses on citizens’ personal engagement for Europe and activities that impact the day-to-day life of Europeans.
The Jean Monnet Prize is an open competition. It can reward any project contributing to the strengthening of European integration and of the European spirit. The Jean Monnet Prize does not reward projects that have yet to be implemented or that seek funding in order to start their implementation, this is to meant to improve the assessment of the project’s concrete impact for citizens.
There are no criteria imposed on the applicants and UEF encourages all to apply, in particular young people, women and disenfranchised groups. The application process is entirely free, and no expenses are asked of participants at any point.
2021 edition of the Prize
The call for applications will be open from 9 September to 9 October, and the results unveiled on 9 November — the anniversary of Jean Monnet’s birth.
All applications must be made online here.
No paper or email applications will be considered. Given the promising mobilisation for the Conference on the Future of Europe, we are convinced that 2021 will be a tremendous year for citizens' engagement.
For any further information you can contact EuropeanConstitution.eu at this mail.
After the sudden withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan that calls into question its ability to assure the European defense, and that further increases instability on the EU's borders and accentuates the need for Europe to assume responsibility for its own security. Following the recent meeting between Mario Draghi, President of the Council of the Italian Republic, and Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, after which France and Italy have expressed their intention to promote an initiative to overcome the right of veto in the European defense sector.
The President of the Union of European Federalists and Member of the European Parliament, Sandro GOZI, urges for a determined improvement of the EU foreign, security and defense policy.
The intergovernmental method prevailing within the EU can’t produce a European defence and prevents any democratic control of a European force. Consequently, Sandro GOZI asks for qualified majority voting in foreign policy to be put on the EU agenda as soon as possible, as requested by the Meseberg declaration.
If there is no agreement at 27, the available countries should go ahead with the procedure of enhanced co-operation, open to the member States that want to join later. Accordingly, until defence eventually becomes a common policy of a Federal European Union, the European Council, in the format of the countries available for an enhanced co-operation on foreign policy, should meet as a European Security Council.
In order to enable the EU to perform the so-called Petersberg missions, the EU needs to establish a permanent military operational headquarters for planning, command and control of European missions. Moreover, UEF President calls for the establishment, in case an enhanced cooperation prevails, of a European intervention force in addition to the national armies or, as an alternative, the integration, in EU treaties, of the Eurocorps, putting it under the control of the European Parliament and of the EU military committee (EUMC). In this regard, the European Defense Fund - to be truly instrumental - needs a substantially increased budget through a EU own resource.
Sandro GOZI invites the Conference on the future of Europe to include the conclusions of the Strategic compass to be approved in the spring of next year, in the conclusions of the Conference, in order that the French presidency of the European semester takes the initiative to establish the European “first entry force” as proposed by 14 European member States and supported by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, to provide, if necessary, Treaty changes allowing qualified majority voting on foreign affairs and defense in the Council and allowing for the introduction of a European “first entry force”, controlled by the European Parliament and the Council.
Europe must use the opportunity of the Conference on the Future of Europe to change and become able to take responsibility
"The survival of the EU depends on its ability to adapt to external changes. In this respect, the tragedy in Afghanistan is a litmus test also for us", says Sandro GOZI, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and MEP for Renew Europe. "As Europeans", continues GOZI, "we have a duty to shoulder our responsibilities. We can choose whether to manage or suffer the migratory flows from Afghanistan, which in any case exist and will exist. If we choose to suffer them, without an effective policy to manage them, it will be a political and moral disaster. This is why we cannot afford to wait until all the countries agree to accept the refugees; we would only waste time, there will always be a few governments against. The time has come to take responsibility for deciding by majority vote, involving a group of countries and using EU funds. If we decide together it will be easy to manage the phenomenon, there will be no invasion. If we wait for unanimity we will remain prisoners of our impotence".
"In this moment the EU", continues GOZI, "is committed to the process of the Conference on the future of Europe, to discuss without taboos the changes needed to adapt Europe's capacity to act to the challenges of the present day. It is clear that what is happening in Afghanistan should also make us reflect. The United States has been criticised, but NATO's indecision and improvisation are also blatant. This means that we Europeans must become autonomous and acquire the ability to fight to protect our values and interests. The goal we must set ourselves is to build a European sovereignty, through a federal political union, proceeding with the states that believe in this project. Concretely, this means to share at European level some key competences in the economic and political fields, to create a federal budget, to build a real common foreign policy - starting from the ever-closer cooperation to prepare also in this field the federal transition - and to create an army of the European Union, to achieve a proper strategic autonomy in defense and security."
"The Conference on the future of Europe", GOZI concludes, "is an opportunity that we cannot risk missing, all the more so when a tragedy like this one of the Afghan people shows us the urgency to change in order to act and take control of the political processes. Our political future and our very civilization are really at stake".
An art-project organised by the Union of European Federalists and co-funded by the European Parliament
Abstract
MAKE EUROPE BLOOM: the Time is Now! (project website here) is a project organised by the Union of European Federalists and co-funded by the European Parliament.
This project is being carried out in the context of a political campaign at both European and national levels to raise awareness on the importance of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), as a framework in which to advance the reforms that can create the conditions and changes that citizens are demanding.
Officially launched on Europe Day 2021 together with our Appeal "Our Federal Europe: sovereign and democratic", MAKE EUROPE BLOOM: the Time is Now! is carrying out activities in different European cities. Murals are being created until June 2022 all across Europe.
Building on President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s 2020 State of the Union speech, this project is also contributing to setting up the New European Bauhaus by mirroring citizens’ feelings on Europe through art.
In order to meet our innovative approach, we count on renown urban artists that accompany us to the locations helping us to make Europe bloom with their art. Our idea is based on replicating a series of the large-scale “The Future is Europe” mural on Rue de la Loi in the European neighborhood of Brussels. This time, the murals are being drawn in places where EU-related conversations do not normally happen.
From Creation to Dissemination
- PRE-PRODUCTION: an online survey is distributed to local and intergenerational participants, local artists and those who wish to participate in this activity through our national sections and partners. Artists then create something from the results of the survey;
- PRODUCTION: the mural is finalised with the participation of locals. UEF liaises with local authorities, EP (liaison) offices, chambers of commerce and local private entities in order to place the murals in the most effective and visible places.
Venues that host the murals are visited by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), national decision makers and representatives from civil society. A cross-party group of MEPs, especially members of UEF Europe and The Spinelli Group in the European Parliament, and those from the country or region concerned are encouraged to participate in each local event.
A final report will be written and translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and the local languages of the events. The final content will be shared and disseminated in our network. Likewise, we plan to organize an exhibition in the European Parliament with the graphic content from this project, making into a virtual exhibition on our website.
Doing so will not we only bring Conference on the Future of Europe (#CoFoE) debates to locations where they do not normally take place, it will also serve our organisation, huge networks of our own sections, our partner CSOs, and the European Parliament to identify citizens’ political needs and how to communicate them better in the EU bubble.
The murals
The four murals are painted in:
- Valencia, Spain by Antonio Marest: for this we had an exceptional location - one of the façades of the Museo Faller. The mural is perfectly visible from the City of Arts and Sciences, as it is located just 500 meters from this emblematic enclave for Valencia and it will be inaugurated during the UEF Congress in Valencia.
- Strasburg, France by Antonio Marest: in the heart of the Esplanade campus of the University of Strasbourg and it will be inaugurated to the public on 9 May 2022, Europe Day and end of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
- Tartu, Estonia by Anastasiia Lemberg-Lvova in cooperation with Tartu-based start-up Robot Muralist, and it will painted at the school's façade and presented to the public on May 2022.
- Lublin, Poland by Volodymyr Manzhos, in the “Krakowskie Przedmieście” street (ulica Jasna 3) and it will be inaugurated to the public on June 2022.
Like the Schuman Declaration in 1950, the Conference on the Future of Europe could pave the way for a reform of the EU, the Spinelli Group – which gathers federalist MEPs and national parliamentarians – with the Union of European Federalists and the European Movement International has said.
In its appeal “Our federal, sovereign, democratic Europe”, the group demands a federal Europe. While the demand itself is not new, the document has catapulted it into the mainstream after it was signed by hundreds of political and cultural personalities from all over Europe and from different political forces.
According to Social Democrat MEP Brando Benifei (S&D), president of the Spinelli Group, the initiative stems from the group’s conviction that the EU needs to change, and that action is needed now.
“Mobilisation, organisation, participation, will be the key words of the next years if we actually want to produce the change that the European Union needs,” Benifei said.
Renew Europe MEP Sandro Gozi, president of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), stressed the need “to exploit the full political potential of this unprecedented Conference”, and the appeal would kickstart a permanent dialogue with all the citizens attending the conference and with national and European parliamentarians.
“The speeches by Costa and Von der Leyen were very cautious, especially on the possible objectives to be taken as a follow-up to the conference, for example on the revision of the treaties. We need to create a strong pressure from below. We will ask to participate in the conference as NGOs: it’s a tough battle, but we have all the requirements to ask for it,” Gozi said.
Such broad support shows that after the EU’s strong response to the pandemic, the Conference on the Future of Europe has raised high expectations in European society.
A recent Eurobarometer showed that citizens understand that the EU can be an instrument for solving fundamental problems, but should be strengthened in crucial areas – such as health, security and defence, social policy – where the EU has little competences and powers.
This would require EU treaty reform, something that “shall not be taboo”, according to European Parliament President David Sassoli.
Proponents believe the appeal may at least give the European Parliament the option to use for the first time its power of initiative on treaty reform as a follow up to the conference.
“We have taken the first step in the creation of the federalist caucus of national and European parliamentarians who share the view that the Conference on the Future of Europe is an opportunity to transform the EU”, said MEP Brando BENIFEI, President of the Spinelli Group, summing up the more than two hours of open and fruitful debate that took place last Friday with colleagues from Member States. "This was a successful kick-off. I am delighted by the great interest from national parliaments".
"We have fought hard to get the Conference. Now we have to make the most of it. This means also no taboos on its outcome. That is also why we need to mobilize federalist and pro-European forces across Europe," said MEP Sandro GOZI, President of the UEF and Board Member of the Spinelli Group. In this perspective, he also stressed "the dialogue between the European Parliament and the national parliaments is crucial, both to exert political pressure on governments and to bring the debate to the local and regional level”.
The meeting was organized by the Spinelli Group, in cooperation with the Union of European Federalists (UEF), who invited the federalist and pro-European members of the parliaments of the Member States to its Plenary Session on 16 April 2021. The meeting was attended by a large group of national MPs from many EU countries, as for instance from Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Romania and Spain. The Plenary Session was also attended by the Presidents and Secretary Generals of the UEF Member Sections.
MEP Guy VERHOFSTADT, Co-Chair of the Executive Board from the European Parliament's side, also attended the meeting, stressing the need for the EU to grow stronger – not only to cope with the pandemic or the economic crisis, but because otherwise we could not do it in front of today’s superpower. He also called on all federalist and pro-European forces and activists to engage actively in the newly launched online platform, which he presented yesterday, 19 April 2021 in a live press conference, encouraging them to submit their events, their positions and comments, thus feeding into the discussion process, up to the Conference Plenary Assembly.
The many interventions in the debate confirmed the common will to work in order to make the process of the Conference a political game changer for Europe. As MEP Domènec RUIZ DEVESA, Vice-President of UEF and Board Member of the Spinelli Group, summarized it “Our goal is to build the federal economic and political Union that will make the current fiscal union established with the decision on the Next Generation EU permanent and fully democratic”.
The next meeting of this newly launched network will be organised soon and will be focused on identifying the political priorities to be put at the forefront of its battle.
Let us restart from the essence of its message to build our Europe of tomorrow
The Treaty of Paris was signed seventy years ago, on 18 April 1951. This epoch-making document, by establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), laid down the key foundations for the greatest project of integration of peoples and nations in European history, making Europe one of the most peaceful, prosperous and stable regions of the world.
The 70th Anniversary of the Treaty of Paris reminds us of the original goals of European integration and the achievements the idea of a united Europe has brought to our continent over the past seven decades. “The Paris Treaty is both legacy and mandate, and as a consequence obliges us to develop further the European integration process. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves what the “coal and steel” of our time are”, says Sandro GOZI, President of UEF and MEP. “What are the problems that we have to face today united as Europeans? This should be the first question discussed with citizens at the Conference on the Future of Europe”, underlines the UEF-President, Sandro GOZI.
Today, Europeans enjoy the highest standard of living ever. However, despite all the achievements and benefits since 1951, the survival of the European project is at stake nowadays. A number of severe problems such as the current public health crisis due to the Covid-19 global pandemic as well as the subsequent difficulties that European national economies are facing, the rise of populism, Brexit, and uncontrolled migration flows have led the EU to experience the most serious crisis of legitimacy in its existence.
As the decision taken in July on the Next Generation EU showed, the EU will only be truly capable of overcoming current and future crises if it is united in solidarity and in sharing the democratic values and the rule of law on which its project is based. In the Conference on the Future of Europe, the UEF strongly calls on the EU's political representatives to find the courage that the Founding Mothers and Fathers had in 1951 and lead the EU to become more united: federal, sovereign and democratic
"The COVID pandemic has offered us an opportunity to respond to the demands of EU citizens for more solidarity, decisive action towards a Health Union, an ambitious climate policy, and a fair digital transition. The legacy of the Treaty of Paris for the present and the future of our continent is to turn this opportunity into a reality by implementing the goal set by the ECSC: a federal Europe. Let us discuss this at the Conference on the Future of Europe!" Sandro GOZI concludes.
Background information
The Treaty of Paris of 1951 founded the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), through which six states (France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) pooled the production of coal and steel, which were essential for industrial recovery and a prerequisite for possible rearmament. In this way, war between them became not only morally unthinkable, but first and foremost materially impossible. The treaty created a 'High Authority' with the power to make autonomous decisions on the steel sector. The Treaty also provided for a Parliamentary Assembly, a Council of Ministers, a Court of Justice and a Consultative Committee.
END
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
Download the English 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
Gender equality is a core principle of the European Union; a lot has been done to put it in practice but we are certainly not there yet. In business, politics and society as a whole, the Union must eliminate inequalities and to promote equality. This year’s theme for International Women’s Day, "Founding Mothers of Europe", commemorates all the visionary female leaders who inspired the creation of the European Union.
On this day, we want to show a new way of being European by illustrating and enhancing the role of the EU female pioneers, a diverse group of people who worked tirelessly and inspired the European project with shared ideals: a peaceful, fair, united and prosperous Europe.
Today, we commemorate figures such as Louise Weiss, the journalist who fought tenaciously for women's right to vote, the reconciliation and disarmament of Germany and France and whose ideas contributed to the construction of Europe. Simon Veil, the first president of the European Parliament (1979-1982) who developed the institution’s external relations by taking positions on major international issues, and even by engaging with third countries. Or Ursula Hirschmann, who organised the first meeting of the European Federalist Movement and "Femmes pour l'Europe'' believing that the European project needed a wider participation of women to achieve a true democracy in Europe.
Women and men are not equally represented across the European institutions and national governments. Women are most often in charge of ministries, delegations and permanent or parliamentary committees relating to social, educational, cultural, or rights-related matters, but are rare in the prestigious and regalian domains of economic affairs, foreign affairs and defense. Ursula von der Leyen, first female president of the European Commission is still an exception.
Significant strides in policies and programs cemented our dedication to improving the status of women and girls worldwide, and we must uphold our commitment to protect their rights. We need to keep addressing gender-based violence, gender stereotypes, gender gaps in the labour market, give equal participation across different sectors of the economy and achieving gender balance in decision-making using different tools like the EU Action Plan 2020-2025.
We appeal to all Member States to turn the current momentum into action, also using the opportunity of the resources of Next Generation EU to invest in reforms that make women's empowerment in our society truly possible. We can achieve sustainable development only by continuing to place gender equality and women's empowerment at the heart of our work and the EU economy. We want to encourage a new way of conceiving Europe by recounting these women’s lives and by looking for the soul and the sense of responsibility that Europe seems to have lost.
News from our sections on International Women's Day
Our newborn section of UEF Greece organised interviews with the main Greek women Politicians from different political families (Former Ministers and MEP Marietta Giannakou , Anna Diamantopoulou, Louka Katseli and Professor of Medicine Xara Spyliopoulou). It was a unique event. During the 4 hours long online event the main topics addressed were: “Mothers of Europe”, “Conference on the Future of Europe” and the role of federalists as well as other key issues for the post COVID-19 period.
More information-video : https://uef-greece.gr/category/news/