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
On the 25th of May 2020, the European Federalists sent an open letter to MEPs calling on the European Parliament to propose the required amendment to the Treaties and asking the other EU institutions to commence the related process of treaty revision. We received today the reply by David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament. After thanking UEF for the commitment to the European project, he stresses on the need to have a successful Conference on the Future of Europe and on the key role that the Parliament will have.
Therefore, the support and inputs of CSOs like UEF are essential to make the Conference on the Future of Europe a success, meeting the expectations of the citizens. We need, now more than ever, a stronger Union.
Brussels, Monday 27th July 2020
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) welcomes the fact that after four days of very tough negotiations, national governments in the European Council have agreed on measures to launch the new Fund proposed by the European Commission, Next Generation EU.
"The Fund maintains its ambitious scope, with innovative financing through common debt and a dimension capable of providing concrete responses to this very serious crisis, strongly orienting the recovery towards the plan for the ecological transformation of the economy; the crucial issue of own resources is now also on the table, though as UEF we urge for a clearer and tighter calendar to implement them.” Sandro Gozi, President of the UEF and Member of the European Parliament, stresses. "However, there are some shadows in this agreement that need to be highlighted. The Multiannual Financial Framework has been significantly scaled down compared to the indications of the European Parliament and the Commission's proposals, especially for the cut in the programmes for health, research, external action and migration policy, all strategic policies sacrificed on the altar of the "rigor" of "frugal" countries. Instead, they maintain the privilege of their "rebates", so dear to Margaret Thatcher, which is an indicative practice of the intergovernmental and selfish approach that characterizes them. We rely now on the EP to strengthen the agreement on MFF in order to ensure that EU can act effectively in the long run, beyond the urgency of the crisis. Finally, the softening of conditionality on the rule of law is a partial vulnus that should be noted. Here we urge the Commission and the German Presidency to present and discuss very quickly a specific and effective proposal".
"The real knot," continues Sandro Gozi, "is that the critical issues that emerged in the negotiations are yet another demonstration that the decision-making system on which the European Union is based is totally inadequate. If the EU wants to be a community of destiny and if it wants to have an authoritative presence in the world, it cannot remain a prisoner of intergovernmental mechanisms that try to reduce it to a sum of nation states. Until the EU is endowed with fiscal autonomy and the possibility to take action directly, both the right of veto of each member state and the priority for each government to negotiate in the name of the interest of its own country before the common one will never be eliminated, de facto before de jure".
"The time has come, therefore, to reopen the construction site of the Treaties and to strongly support the political-institutional reforms that will allow, first of all, to endow the European Union with fiscal competence, and to start the path towards political union through a far-reaching reform of the European Union, without being stopped by those who have not yet matured the new vision of Europe, but focusing in this direction the Conference on the future of Europe that we hope can begin as soon as possible".
Brussels, Tuesday 21st July 2020
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
secretariat@federalists.eu
+32.2.5083030
The European Federalists call on the European Parliament to propose a limited but radical Treaty revision: a reform of the system of EU own resources to abolish unanimity and agreement of national parliaments on the establishment of new EU resources to back new EU debt issuance.
The ongoing discussion on the creation of new financial instruments to address the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis, and in particular the recent joint proposals by the French and German governments for a EUR 500 billion Recovery Fund funded by the issuance of European debt calls for a radical change in the European Union’s budget.
Sandro GOZI, MEP, President of the Union of European Federalists, stated today “The most urgent issue is certainly the creation of European resources so that the European Union can issued debt without asking higher contributions from Member States but establishing new financial resources at European level, in particular focusing on digital and financial giants and on polluters. This is the only way to ensure that any debt issued by the European Union can be guaranteed by and eventually repaid by the EU budget and does not have to rely on direct or indirect guarantees by Member States and their ability to repay such debt”.
To this end, however, it is essential to reform the Treaties, and in particular the decision-making on the establishment of new European sources of revenues amending only a few specific articles of the Treaties to ensure that the European Parliament and the Council by majority vote can establish Union's own resources and at the same time eliminating the need for agreement by the national parliament of the Member States.
Such a reform would establish an autonomous fiscal capacity of the European Union as indispensable contribution to the long-term sustainability of the new financial instruments currently under negotiation as well as to a qualitative and quantitative transformation of the European budget.
In an open letter to MEPs today, the European Federalists call on the European Parliament to propose the required amendment to the Treaties and ask the other EU institutions to commence the related process of treaty revision.
The rapid implementation of fiscal union is also the premise and the basis for the opening of the institutional work in view of the Conference on the future of Europe, that can then focus on achieving a true political union. The European Parliament has the democratic legitimacy and the institutional vocation to impose such an agenda on the Conference, and to elaborate and propose to the other European institutions and the Conference a project for a European Federal Constitution - similarly to what it did in the first legislature under the leadership of Altiero Spinelli.
Brussels, Monday 25th May 2020
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
Yesterday’s proposal by France and Germany for a €500 billion Recovery Fund to address the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis is finally opening the doors for a real European response to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and can be the beginning of a real fiscal Union.
"A Recovery Fund, financed through the issuance of EU debt, backed by the possible introduction of new EU taxes on digital giants, big firms and polluters, and used for a direct European economic response to the crisis through the EU budget, has the potential to transform our Union fundamentally” - says SANDRO GOZI, President of the Union of European Federalists - "Europe is finally getting serious with a fund of the considerable size of €500bn, real “new money”, nor recycled funds or financial engineering. Issuing European debt in such a proportion recognizes the principle that European public goods require European financing and European actions. It is a real revolution that Germany has recognized the advantage of common European borrowing. It implies rebuilding common trust and bet on a common future. It is also crucial that the money will be provided as spending under the EU budget and grants, not loans to member states that would only cripple national finances. This is European solidarity which in the long run will benefit every European citizen. The Fund will change fundamentally the way the European Union finances itself. It will be a precedent for the future and can pave the way to further and deeper EU reforms".
“Focusing the use of the Recovery Fund to finance the green and digital transition everywhere in Europe and make it a permanent and not a temporary instrument would further increase its potential to make the Union stronger than before. The European Green Deal and Digital Pact can be our new 'Coal and Steel' of this century, almost 70 years from the Treaty of Paris” concluded Sandro GOZI. “We encourage the other EU institutions and member states to endorse the proposals submitted by France and Germany and move to a fast implementation of the Fund in 2020” .
Brussels, Tuesday 19th May 2020
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
Three members of the Federalists movement share they thoughts about how to relaunch the project of European Integration. Check out their three articles of Sandro Gozi, MEP and President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF); Domènec Ruiz Deveza, MEP and Member of the Union of European Federalists and Ophelie Omnes and President of the Union of European Federalists - France.
Betting together on Europe's common destiny pays off
Sandro Gozi, MEP, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF)
The 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration falls at a particularly difficult time for Europe. What is the state of health of the Union?
The European Union has made great strides. In 70 years we have done things that were unimaginable, if we think that Declaration was made five years after the end of the Second World War. The world today is moving much faster and therefore it is a European Union that still has a great deal to change in order to keep its promise and to respond to Schuman's ambitions.
The feeling is that the Community institutions are as alive and essential as ever. What is lacking is solidarity between nations. That is why I believe that the concrete and important responses that Europe is giving, has given and will give to the coronavirus crisis will be a major problem for the neo-nationalist forces. The Europe that exists is the supranational Europe, which decides by a majority when Parliament and the Council meet, which respects the autonomy of supranational institutions such as the Commission and the European Central Bank. I refer to the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact, flexibility on state aid, the European integration fund, the European Stability Mechanism for Healthcare, the European Investment Bank.
What about the one that is not there?
The Europe that disappoints and is worrying today is the Europe that the nationalists would like, the Europe of national vetoes, which decides unanimously, it is the Europe of meetings between governments that escape democratic control. Let us think only of the meetings of the Eurogroup, a body that must be overcome and rethought because it does not exist except as a protocol annexed to the Treaties. In the new Europe, the Eurogroup must be incorporated into the Treaties, work and decide by majority vote, in a transparent manner, with more democratic control. Today, the Europe that is worrying is the Europe that puts borders between countries, the Europe that is preventing the free movement of people because of the crisis, the Europe that is struggling to put financial solidarity on the table immediately because the German or Dutch taxpayer is afraid to pay the Italian or French debt, something that nobody is asking him to do. This blocked Europe, which always takes too long to decide, is the "Europe of nations" that nationalists would like: a Europe without Schengen, with national borders, where everyone has the power of veto: the Italians first, the French first, the Dutch first. And so we all lose… Today the citizens are disappointed in Europe. We must explain to them that they are disappointed by the Europe that does not exist.
President Prodi invites us to move away from the logic of the treaties and transform our Europe into a federal and supranational democracy. How can we achieve this?
I think that never before has European federalism become as topical as it is today. It must be, however, with solutions and a new approach. We must show that a federal Europe is the most effective at resolving major transnational issues that are beyond the control of national politics. We see this with the coronavirus, which is a transnational health catastrophe, but even more so in the fight against climate change, in the need to govern digital, in the ability to put technology and artificial intelligence at the service of collective well-being, in the urgency of having more integrated action as Europe to guarantee security and stability in geopolitical areas that are vital to us. This Europe, sovereign and democratic, can help to improve the world, can help to assert our values and interests on the world stage, which would otherwise remain a duopoly between China and the United States.
Do we need transnational parties in a federal Europe?
Prodi speaks of supranational democracy around the European Parliament. This objective can be achieved if politics also moves away from strictly national logics. Even today, many pro-Europeans, even in our country, still miss the transnational dimension of politics. We can only have a European federal democracy accomplished when we have a truly European dimension of parties and politics, with real transnational political movements. Otherwise, there will never be a democratic political space in which citizens will feel that they can count for something in their relationship with politics. That is why I have chosen to be elected with Macron to the Renaissance lists and to be part of Renew Europe.
The impression is that Macron has lost its vigour since his debut.
I see two problems for Macron three years after his election on 7 May 2017. The first is the lack of European vision of Angela Merkel and Germany. In 2017 Macron gave a very visionary speech at the Sorbonne to which Angela Merkel responded a year late and in a very lukewarm and very cautious manner. This was a historical mistake by Angela Merkel and CDU, her party. The other aspect is Macron's impatience. He would like to see things change much more quickly in Europe. He would have already wanted to start the Conference for the reform of the Treaties; he would have already wanted to have a Eurozone budget; he would have already wanted to have transnational lists in 2019 to elect half of the MEPs. This impatience of his often makes him go a long way without bringing enough allies with him. I still prefer Emmanuel Macron's impatience, sometimes irritating at times, to Angela Merkel's always exhausting, exasperating prudence.
How many leaders do you see in Europe right now?
My impression is that the only real leader in Europe at the moment is Emmanuel Macron. All the others are too little European or too weak. He is the only one who continues to point to Europe as the great project of his political action. He is the only one who even during the crisis has not questioned membership of the European Union. In Italy, Counte himself has threatened that Italy would go its own way alone. Macron is the only one coherently committed to a deep European reform.
But can Europe do without the axis between Paris and Berlin?
This crisis has determined a very important political turning point: for the first time France has not stopped, Macron has not killed the European political debate by accepting the downward political solution on the coronavirus proposed by Berlin in order to maintain a privileged relationship with Germany. He asked to continue the political confrontation, he wanted to bring together a group of countries without limiting himself to putting together the southern front - Italy, France and Spain - but he involved Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg. He wanted to indicate that he did not accept a minimalist, equilibrist, status quo solution, which is the one proposed by Angela Merkel, the great lady of the status quo, of unanimism, of the equilibriums of 27 to change the minimum possible and do the maximum possible for the interests of Germany in the short term.
What is Macron's objective instead?
Macron will continue to build new alliances, based on projects, on sharing political battles, going beyond the traditional Paris-Berlin axis which is now just rhetoric. Macron, if he wants to win in Europe, must continue this work of building new alliances, dialoguing with Germany but in an open political confrontation and without accepting minimalist solutions. I do not see any other leader with this political strength and intellectual capacity. The coronavirus crisis, together with the resistance to change in France, have complicated his political action, but I believe that his fundamental approach will enable him to undertake a major reform of the Union.
Can the Recovery Fund be the basis from which to build a new Europe?
I think so. That is why I was very insistent from the outset that this name be adopted. It was not for nothing. It has proved to be the instrument for finding a political compromise. By continuing to talk about Eurobonds, one was left prisoner of a debate linked to yesterday's world, to the financial crisis of 2010. Eurobonds, for the Dutch and Germans, meant mutualising an existing debt. That is why we proposed to work on new instruments. The Recovery Funds can certainly outline the beginning of a new political phase because they represent a commitment to a massive European recovery plan, so new and promising that we are ready to issue a common debt. By indebting ourselves together, we return to trust each other. The lack of mutual trust between the peoples and states of Europe has in fact been the great weakness of these years.
Sharing the debt as proof of trust?
If the issue of a common European debt enables us to emerge earlier and better from the crisis, this idea becomes the basis for a new European political integration. It means recovering that mutual trust, that solidarity which, remembering Schuman, lies at the origin of the European project. These are essential elements for a profound reform of the European project, which must arrive in this parliamentary term, and for which we must launch the Conference on the future of the Union as early as September. All this will be possible if we succeed in meeting the challenge of the Recovery Fund and the Recovery Bond, showing that betting on our common destiny together is worthwhile. This is the political dimension of the current debate, which Macron has fully grasped.
Let us make an appeal to the younger generation on the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration.
Young people want a real fight against climate change, they want fewer inequalities, they are digital natives. In order to give these answers, it is necessary today to resume at European level that capacity to solve the problems that national policy has now lost. It will be particularly difficult in Italy, a country that is currently at the forefront of the battle between neo-nationalism, sovereignty and Europeanism. However, in my opinion, this is the best way to make young people understand that Europe is their best ally, it is their future, it is at their side. Using Schuman's approach and showing why we need more Europe, a new Europe, to solve concrete problems. I am convinced that we will win the challenge. It is time to show determination and courage. It is time to think the unthinkable.
Find here the original (longer) version in Italian in il Caffe Online
Seventy years of Union: the federation was the goal from the beginning
Domènec Ruiz Deveza, MEP, Member of the Union of European Federalists
Seventy years ago today, on 9 May 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman read a Declaration that would make history, when he proposed the European Coal and Steel Community as the "first stage of a European Federation", after reminding that “if Europe would not be built, there would war". It is worth reminding the Eurosceptics and the Eurocinics, but also the political representatives of the Nordic countries, including those of a progressive nature, who often get hives when they hear either the federal adjective applied to European construction or its canonical formulation in the Treaties as an "ever-closer union".
In any case, in these seven decades Europe has experienced the longest period of peace and prosperity in its history, providing itself with the largest and most integrated internal market in the world, with a single currency, and with a series of collective spending and investment policies in fields such as agriculture, innovation, or education (Erasmus programme). Our continent is undoubtedly the part of the world where political freedom, economic progress and social welfare are best combined.
Beyond the fact that, in a way, the federation is a political objective included in the seminal text that gave rise to the current European Union, the truth is that completing the political union is today an imperative. Our ambition, as in that distant post-war spring, must be equal to the internal and external challenges that we face as Europeans, including, but not only, the most recent of the coronavirus pandemic.
On the whole, almost twenty years have passed since the start of the last reform process of the Union, with the launch at the Nice Summit (December 2000) of the Debate on the Future of Europe, which was to take shape in the Laeken Declaration of 2011, promoted by the then Prime Minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, and above all in the European Convention (which began in 2002).
This exercise, in which MEPs, national MPs and government representatives took part, resulted in the draft European Constitution adopted in 2004, the main innovations of which were subsequently included in the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, signed by chance the same year as the start of the subprime crisis in the United States, which would lead to a global financial and economic collapse from 2008, and the euro crisis that began just ten years ago, in May 2010. This Treaty would enter into force on 1 December 2009.
The progress made by the Lisbon Treaty cannot be underestimated, as it increases the powers of the Union, strengthens the powers of the European Parliament, generalises qualified majority voting in the Council (where the governments sit), and establishes the figure of the High Representative for Foreign Policy, at the head of a real diplomatic service of his own. A Social Protocol was missing from the outset, even after the referendum on the Constitutional Treaty was lost in France.
That being said, the world has changed radically since 2010, not to mention since 2000. The crisis of the euro itself has highlighted the shortcomings of the Treaty, in particular the absence of a fiscal pillar for the euro, and the deflationary bias of the Stability and Growth Pact's provisions, in terms of limits on public deficit and debt. These shortcomings were partially offset by the creation of the European Stability Mechanism, and the (incomplete) draft of the Banking Union. But Europe still does not have a real counter-cyclical fiscal instrument, while the European Central Bank has to operate within the limits of its mandate, which prohibits it from directly financing the expenditures of governments or of the Union itself, even in extraordinary circumstances such as the present ones (which is not the case of its peers in the United States or the United Kingdom), and while it is frequently harassed by the German Constitutional Court (its disrespectful ruling with the primacy of European law, of 5 May 2020, being the most recent case).
To this half-built monetary union must be added the acceleration of the climate crisis and digitalization, which are barely mentioned in the Lisbon Treaty, the difficult management of refugee flows, the Brexit, and changing geopolitics, with the tensions in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, the imperialist tendencies of Russia and China, and the relative rupture of the transatlantic axis, and which can hardly be managed from a European Union that subjects its foreign policy to the strictest of unanimities. From a democratic point of view, it should also be noted that the European Parliament does not have decision-making power in the setting of the Union's revenue or tax harmonisation.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted other weaknesses in the current Treaties, such as the lack of competences in the field of public health and emergency management, and others already known, such as the slowness of decision-making in the Council and the difficulty of mobilising quickly and in sufficient quantities financial resources to deal with exogenous and symmetrical economic shocks. This is why the European Recovery Plan has not yet been agreed (the Commission has postponed sine die the public presentation of its proposal).
It is true that much can be done with political will, even within the framework of the Treaty of Lisbon, and that the real problem is that the fundamental differences between the so-called creditor and debtor countries persist to some extent in the coronavirus crisis, in a kind of sequel to the debates at the time of the euro crisis, which ultimately have to do with the amount of solidarity in the form of transfers that the richer Member States are prepared to assume.
At the same time, however, we must open up the debate on revising the monetarist and outdated Maastricht paradigm, and undertake to update our constitutional framework, which must contain new policies and be decidedly federal, so that when there is no unanimous agreement, even on such fundamental matters as taxes or the budget, a decision can be taken on the basis of large majorities. The journey that began on 9 May seventy years ago is therefore not over. Now is the time, two decades after Nice and Laeken, to take the next step in the political construction of Europe.
Finde here the original version in Spanish in Diario Información.
70 years later, let's read Schuman again and get out of the crisis together
Ophelie Omnes, President of the Union of European Federalists - France
This 9th of May marks the 70th anniversary of Robert Schuman's founding declaration of European integration. .
On 9 May 1950, in the aftermath of the deadliest war in history, Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, caused a political thunderbolt: Europe must be built by pooling the coal and steel production of yesterday's enemies, France and Germany. For Schuman, inspired by Jean Monnet, this "community" should be the "first step towards a European federation".
The federal leap is not an ideological choice
Seventy years later, in the grip of a pandemic that is shaking its structure and questioning its fundamentals, the EU and its national leaders are unable to implement the profound institutional reforms that are needed. The federal leap is not an ideological choice, it is the only pragmatic solution that will make it possible to reform a Union that is currently at an impasse, risking otherwise being sacrificed on the altar of national egoism and disintegration. In a 21st century marked by the predominance of the Chinese, Russian and American giants, the EU has no choice but to be strong, at the risk of its Member States becoming dwarfs on the international stage. Rather than begging the 27 for the right to exist and to express itself, it must have genuine political, economic, industrial, diplomatic and military autonomy. It is not a question of creating a super-state centralised in Brussels, but of allowing those states that wish to do so to set up a federal European system, the only model that allows democratic decision-making to take place as close as possible to the most relevant level: local, regional, national, European or even global.
Assuming the federal nature of European construction
The health crisis shows us that a Europe without competence in the field of health and safety proves powerless at a time when a virus strikes all States, regardless of nationality or borders. This crisis also reminds us how the ridiculous budget that the Member States are giving the EU is not up to the expectations of the citizens and how urgently it urgently needs own resources to effectively finance common goods such as hospitals, research, education, defence or ecological transition. In these difficult times, we cannot make the simplistic choice of nationalistic withdrawal, which is ineffective in protecting us. We have to follow through on the only desirable choice for the good governance of our continent, by finally assuming the federal nature of European construction.
A Europe capable of protecting its citizens
Despite the crisis, the Conference on the Future of Europe is still on the table. Let us rise to the occasion and allow it to be a moment of debate between the citizens and their representatives, where no issue will be excluded, even if this means changing the Treaty and creating a Constitution. The time has come to give substance to the de facto solidarity and concrete achievements desired by Robert Schuman 70 years ago. Completing European integration, which he had envisaged in a visionary manner, will enable the citizens to regain control in this world shaken by crises and new geopolitical balances. A federal Europe is a Europe capable of protecting its citizens.
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- 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