The simple fact is: If you ask to join a club, you respect the rules that all members have given themselves. If you don't like those rules, either you leave the club, or you try to change them with the support of the majority of the members.
Among the rules that the European Union has set itself since its inception is respect for fundamental rights, democratic freedoms, independence of information and the judiciary, and the fight against corruption.
Poland and Hungary have joined the EU club, claiming mainly economic benefits of membership, but they do no longer want to comply with the rules laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty.
In practice, they pretend to be European when it comes to receiving European billions of euros, and they are nationalists when it comes to respecting the rules and values they signed. This is too easy.
This inadmissible position also finds the support of sovereignsts in the rest of Europe, starting with Italy: at best, useful idiots of Orbán or PiS, who go against the interests of our country. Italian first, they say! Their only and true objective, often even declared, is to destroy the European Union. Salvini exalts Orbán, Tajani's European ally, while Orbán goes against Italy on the Recovery plan and immigration; Meloni chairs the European party with the Poles of the PiS who deny women the right to choose abortion.
They will not prevail. In a recent survey 77% of European citizens said they are in favour of denying EU funds to those who violate rule of law. The majority: also in Italy, Poland and Hungary. As always, citizens are much more sensitive to the respect for freedoms than various governments that remain silent and that justify and defend the serious violations perpetrated by some governments allied to them.
The European Union was created to guarantee to our peoples freedom, peace and democracy. Those who do not respect and recognise all of this are out of history and lead themselves out of Europe.
All of this is a bluff: Poles, Hungarians and their nationalist allies were there. And if they do not give in, we will go ahead with governments and peoples who want to protect rights and democracy.
This Article was firstly published on HuffPost Italia, 19 November 2020, with the title "II grande bluff di Ungheria e Polonia" (written by Sandro Gozi).
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) calls on the European Commission to take a step forward by requesting for a Health Union on the basis of Art. 168.5 TFEU in its next proposal for a regulation on severe cross-border health threats:
“Since the beginning of this unprecedented pandemic crisis, Europe has become its global epicentre. The second wave of the COVID-19 is ferociously sweeping the continent, while at the same time drastically reshaping the lives of our European citizens and our European way of life. It is time to act together, with common guidelines and a single regulation in the fight against the virus, to avoid discrepancies that weaken our capacity of reaction”, UEF President and Member of the European Parliament Sandro GOZI says.
"We federalists have been convening, with particular emphasis in these last months, on the urgency to launch a Health Union, necessary to strengthen the mandate of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Art. 168. 5 TFEU provides the legal framework to establish it, on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, which means that each problem must be tackled at the level where it can be better solved. Since pandemics know no borders, the key to a lasting solution lies with the Health Union as part of a stronger social and political integration at European level”, continues GOZI.
“And the truth is that we are not the only ones who believe this. The Health Union was presented as a key reform by the Commission's President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union Speech in September 2020”, emphasizes GOZI.
President von der Leyen said: “For me, it is crystal clear - we need to build a stronger European Health Union. And to start making this a reality, we must now draw the first lessons from the health crisis”.
UEF reiterates the call on the European institutions to agree on an interinstitutional declaration on the Conference on the Future of Europe.
“It is therefore we demand and expect to see the European Commission's lead on this urgent matter to advance health guarantees for European citizens. In this sense, we call again on the German Presidency of the Council to call for the Conference on the Future of Europe to be launched as soon as possible, to involve citizens in the debate on how to build a stronger European Union”, GOZI concludes.
Background information
The Federal Committee of UEF adopted on the 4th of July its resolution “Europe, think the unthinkable!”, in which UEF calls for the launch of a Health Union, among other important and urgent proposals.
Earlier in spring, UEF together with The Spinelli Group called on the European institutions and the national governments to adopt a series of urgent measures.
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) welcomes the positive outcome of the Multiannual Financial Framework's political agreement for 2021-2027 and new Own Resources.
Following ten weeks of intensive talks, the Parliament's budget negotiators' decision with the Presidency of the Council regarding the confirmation for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027), represents a significant win for Europe and its citizens:
"Today, Europe has historically won with this agreement. After weeks of negotiations, we finally have a political compromise that can live up to the European citizens' expectations and challenges our current times,” says GOZI. “Thanks to the European Parliament’s commitment, this package is bigger than the one presented by national governments in the summer; for that, I warmly congratulate the EP budget negotiators to make possible this historic step for a federal Europe together with the Council Presidency,” continues GOZI.
“Ambitious ideas on common debt and new own resources to get out of the crisis, solidarity, and digital and ecological transformation are exactly what we as federalists have been convening,” states UEF President and Member of the European Parliament Sandro GOZI. "Recalling on new resources, we as federalists are very pleased to see that the agreement ensures and increases the budget allocated to the major top-ups of EU flagship programes like Horizon, Erasmus+ which were about to pay the price for the health crisis we are currently facing, jeopardizing our current and future generations of Europeans,” stresses GOZI. “Moreover, we have a clear timetable for the introduction of fiscal justice and ecological transition. UEF will be closely following and advocating to make sure that the Commission and the Council will fully respect the calendar to implement them."
“The next clear step forward to consolidate this path is the need to give the European Parliament the power to share decisions on own resources. UEF fully backs the European Parliament’s legislative resolution that implies a Treaty reform on this regard,” says GOZI. “We reiterate our call on the German Presidency of the Council to launch the Conference on the Future of Europe with celerity, to involve citizens and the civil society in the debate on how to build a stronger European Union”, concludes GOZI.
The UEF urges the European Parliament, as a matter of necessity and urgency, to fight for genuine European own resources that are designed, collected, and managed at the European level. An urgent need is even more pressing in the event of establishing the Recovery Fund in the form proposed by the Commission – thus launching the debate for the creation of an autonomous fiscal capacity of the EU.
The board of the Spinelli Group, network of federalist and pro-reform Members of the European Parliament, gathered on Wednesday 21 October, in videoconference, to set up its programme of activities until the end of the Parliamentary mandate. The meeting was the opportunity to discuss recent EU developments, including democracy, the negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework, Next Generation EU, the system of own resources, the Rule of Law mechanism, the Electoral Law and transnational lists, as well as the Conference on the Future of Europe, within which the Group aims to play a central role and lead the discussions in the European Parliament, coordinating with the like-minded elected Members in national parliaments and at local level.
The Spinellist MEPs have agreed to assign the Presidency of the Group to a representative of the main political Groups in the EP in a rotating system of a period of 9 months. The S&D Group will take the Chair for the first phase, formally starting on November 2nd. Brando Benifei (IT) was endorsed by the colleagues to take the place of former liberal MEP and EPC Visiting Fellow, Andrew Duff, as Chair of the Spinelli Group. Members have also agreed to entrust the Secretariat of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) with organisational and logistical support, considering to also enlarge the internal structure to support the many projects to be pursued for next years.
The following MEPs that are part of the board of the Spinelli Group were present at the meeting: Danuta Huebner, Sven Simon, Radek Sikorsi (EPP); Gaby Bischoff, Domènec Ruiz Devesa, Brando Benifei (S&D); Guy Verhofstadt, Sandro Gozi, (Renew); Sven Giegold, Daniel Freund, Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA); Dimitris Papadimoulis, Helmut Scholz (GUE). Former Chair Andrew Duff also attended.
THE SPINELLI GROUP AND THE UNION OF EUROPEAN FEDERALISTS LAUNCH A JOINT STATEMENT ON THE STATE OF THE UNION AND NEXT GENERATION EU 2020
The Spinelli Group and UEF welcome the “more than ever before” ambitious State of the Union speech on 16 September 2020 by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s. The speech took place 500 days after the European elections and in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Together with the adoption of the “Hamiltonian” recovery instrument Next Generation EU by the European Council, an economic stimulus of € 750 billion on top of the MFF for 2021-2027 that we strongly believe is a clear step towards a Federal Europe, we would like to draw attention to a number of worthy proposals stated by President von der Leyen during this year’s Debate on the State of the Union. We would also like to highlight that many of them had already been proposed by The Spinelli Group:
- The establishment of a European Health Union
- The transformation of the European economy through the recovery plan to meet climate objectives
- The adoption of a European Directive on fair minimum wages
- Aiming at an increased emissions reduction target for 2030 to at least 60%, instead of 40% as planned.
- The strengthening of the European cultural dimension through the creation of a new European Bauhaus.
- The need for the completion of a New Pact on Migration in 2021 along with a Strategy on the future of Schengen evaluation mechanism as well as concrete proposals aimed at creating safe and legal channels for migrants.
- Boosting initiatives against racism, “LGBT-free zones” and anti-Semitism
- The activation of a qualified majority in the Council, at least, for the adoption of common rules on sanctions for Human Rights violations (Navalny Act)
- The introduction of new guidelines for the strengthening of the Union’s multilateral system, showing firmness towards Russia and a sustainable solution with Turkey
“Whereas these proposals are of the utmost importance for the democratic life and values of our Union, they have to be implemented in time to be properly called reforms which push towards a federal Europe”, says MEP Sandro Gozi, President of Union of European Federalists (UEF) and member of The Spinelli Group “The EU needs a stronger 2021-2027 MFF supporting strategic EU Programmes and must launch the Conference on the Future of Europe as soon as possible”, continues Gozi. “In addition, among other things, NextGenerationEU needs to be approved with a legally binding calendar for the introduction of new own resources.”
“Von der Leyen's speech conveyed the need to increase Europe's unity of action. The President's message was clear: Together we are stronger. The anti-crisis response should be an opportunity to boosting the EU’s ecological and digital transitions, but also to complete the nascent financial Union with a stronger political Union. This can only be done through the reflection and debate on treaty changes, that can finally lead to the construction of a federal Europe”, says MEP Doménec Ruiz Devesa, member of The Spinelli Group and UEF.
“Europe cannot afford to waste any more time. Any time missed jeopardizes our European project. Imminent problems needs common European solutions, discussed in an open and constructive way in a new and innovative exchange with EU citizens: we must start the Conference on the Future of Europe. We call on the German Presidency of the Council to ensure that the Conference is launched this autumn with an interinstitutional declaration in autumn 2020”, concludes Gozi.
The Joint Statement can be downloaded here.
Below the PDF version of this article.
Since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Libyan GNA and Turkey, Ankara has increased its provocative moves in the Eastern Mediterranean. It has sent drilling ships in Greek and Cypriot waters, often accompanied by navy vessels. Such provocations to two European Member States have been rightly condemned across the EU but few substantive actions have been taken at an EU level. Furthermore, despite the efforts of Member States such as France or Germany, Turkey has not given up its aggressive stance in the Mediterranean. Turkish behavior in the Eastern Mediterranean does not only constitute a challenge for Greece and Cyprus but has wider ramifications over a range of different issues and has implications for the Union as a whole. As such, the current tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean urgently requires a coordinated EU response.
Firstly, the European Commission has presented a detailed legal analysis on issues linked to the conflict, which are of exclusive EU competence and covered by EU law in the area of common fishery policy. As a reminder, what is challenged herein are the rights given to islands under UNCLOS, a UN Convention that the EU has signed and ratified as a full party.
Secondly, the Council should at least define a well-balanced, strong common response that goes beyond a strongly worded statement. As such initiatives have not only proven unsuccessful in persuading Turkey in the past but have angered it further. It is important therefore, to have a coordinated response, which will allow EU Council Members to trust each other, communicate, and share relevant information between them.
Thirdly, the European Parliament should call for a wider evaluation of the EU relations with Turkey concerning its candidacy to the Union: the respect of human rights, the rules of law and values, the management of the migration flow transiting Turkey towards Europe and the reworking of economic ties between the two sides. This evaluation, needs to take into account the drift of Erdoğan’s Turkey, away from meeting the minimum required to be considered an EU candidate country, a status it still possesses.
Finally, it is necessary to recall that this situation can and should be solved through existing international law. Laws, as well as dispute-settlement mechanisms, exist for these sorts of matters and their use need to be promoted. If the European Union is able to coordinate a cohesive and effective response it will be possible to convince Turkey to settle this matter in court, as this remains the only peaceful and rightful conclusion to the problem.
The Conference on the Future of Europe is the right framework to start discussing these topics and set the permanent common structures needed for a strong European sovereignty.
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
Alejandra O. Almarcha
alejandra.almarcha@federalists.eu
Member of the European Parliament, Gozi, quotes Gandhi: "We are the changes we want to see in the world".
"Excellent, Ursula von der Leyen, mission accomplished: we Europeans are ready for change, our reaction as the European Union to the crisis caused by the Coronavirus shows that mutual trust and shared sovereignty are the only real way to the common good. Now is the time to move forward: let us launch the Conference on the future of Europe and make this change happen without taboos" - Sandro Gozi, President of the Union of European Federalists, comments on the first speech by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the State of the Union.
"We must guarantee - Gozi continues – protection for all European citizens from economic, health and social risks; continue on the path of ecological and digital transformation; defend our vital interests, our values and the fundamental principles on which our community is based on, first and foremost against rival countries such as China. We must also strengthen transnational democracy, of which the EU is in need today more than ever to counter the internal and external enemies and achieve its own ambitions".
"If the Commission keeps its promises” - he concludes - "it will always find us at its side to accomplish all these goals together. Gandhi teaching is valid for us Europeans, today more than ever: we must be the change we want to see in the world".
Brussels, 16 September 2020
END
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
Alejandra O. Almarcha
alejandra.almarcha@federalists.eu
EuropeanConstitution.eu, a non-profit association dedicated to promoting the adoption of a European constitution, European federalism as the means for democracy, and European integration in general, 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 winning project receives a €1,500 grant.
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. Our prize is a small-scale initiative, and we are proud of this grassroots aspect.
The Jean Monnet Prize is an open competition. It can reward any project contributing the strengthening of European integration and of the European spirit. This object is purposefully kept broad, in order to increase the diversity of competitors.
Projects need to be either implemented or under implementation; 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 we encourage 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.
2020 edition of the Prize
The 2020 edition is organised under the patronage of the European Parliament and in partnership with pro-European partners. As for the previous editions, the call for applications will be open from 9 August to 9 October, and the results unveiled on 9 November — anniversary of Jean Monnet’s birth.
Given the current sanitary restrictions, it is unlikely that this edition will feature a prize ceremony. However, this option is open and, in any case, will strive to organize such an event for future editions of the Prize.
All applications must be made online referring to the website: https://europeanconstitution.eu/
No paper or email applications will be considered. Between the mobilization related to the current COVID-19 crisis and the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe, we are convinced that 2020 will be a year of tremendous citizens' engagement.
For any further information you can contact EuropeanConstitution.eu at this link.
"On 6 August, we remember the demonstration of 300 students from different European countries at the German-French border in St. Germanshof/Wissembourg 70 years ago. The young people sawed the border trees there and called for the opening of the borders and a united Europe," says Sandro Gozi, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and Member of the European Parliament. “For young people, open borders are now normality. But the Corona pandemic this spring has briefly upset this normality, which the Schengen area has offered us since 25 years.”
“The border regions have suffered particularly badly during this period. Nowhere else can Europe be experienced and felt on a daily basis and has already grown together as much as in the border regions. Border closures have not only led to considerable economic damage, to considerably impair of the mobility of hundreds of thousands of border commuters, but also to separation of whole families. Good neighbourly trust has been damaged. This must not happen again and it will not happen again," Sandro Gozi is convinced. "The corona virus knows no borders and cannot be contained by closing internal borders.”
“Open borders have always been a core concern for us, European federalists”, stresses Sandro Gozi. “I therefore welcome and strongly endorse the Press Release of the UEF sections from the Greater Region and the Upper Rhine Region, namely the regional UEF sections Europa-Union Baden-Württemberg, UEF Grand-Est, Europa-Union Luxembourg, Europa-Union Rheinland-Pfalz, Europa-Union Saar and the UEF sections UEF Belgium, UEF France and UEF Luxembourg on the occasion of 6 August students demonstrations 70 years ago.”
“The pandemic has become a stress test for Europe," continues Sandro Gozi. "The crisis can only be overcome by joint European action. As the Press Release states there can no longer be any national go-it-alone initiatives by the Member States and if limited restrictions on rights and freedoms can be considered temporarily necessary to protect against the epidemic, they must be implemented in the form of coordinated European measures. Priority must be given to cross-border initiatives to prevent or contain the pandemic“.
"The crisis can only be overcome by joint European action” concludes Sandro Gozi. “Against this background, the UEF welcomed the agreement of the European Council on 21 July 2020 to introduce the new Next Generation EU fund proposed by the European Commission as one expression of European solidarity. However, the crisis also shows us the urgent need for reform of the European Union. It is therefore time to reopen the construction site of the Treaties and to give strong support to the political-institutional reforms which will make it possible, first of all, to give the European Union a fiscal competence and to move towards political union through a profound reform of the European Union, without being held up by those for whom the new vision of Europe is not yet mature, but to organise the Conference on the Future of Europe along these lines. This is where also the border regions have an important role to play.”
Brussels, 5th August 2020
*The Saarland section of the European Federalists re-enacted scenes from that historical day for the European unification at the main French-German border crossing point "Brême d'Or / Goldene Bremm" between Saarbruecken and Forbach. (photo: Werner Hillen/Europa-Union Saar).
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
Anna Echterhoff
anna.echterhoff@federalists.eu