On Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 May, the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and its partners in France and Alsace (Mouvement Européen and Les Jeunes Européen) organised two important events for the democratic future of Europe.

On the evening of the 8th, more than one hundred federalists gathered for a public debate on the Future of Europe at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art with the participation of Sandro Gozi, President of the UEF and Member of the European Parliament. Guy Verhofstadt presented the European Parliament’s Institutional Affairs Committee report on Treaty change and what European representatives have in mind for the future of Europe. All other panellists from the European and Strasbourg’s civil society, Citizen Ambassadors of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), touched on the reform of European Treaties and the positive changes it will bring to European citizens.

Among them were UEF Vice-Presidents and MEPs Markus Ferber and Domènec Ruiz Devesa, Prof. Frédérique Berrod, a member of the UEF France Scientific Committee, and Véronique Bertholle, deputy-major for the city of Strasbourg.

On the morning of Europe Day, activists of the Federalist network offered coffee and croissants to passersby and Members of the European Parliament, reminding them of the urgency to reform the European treaties and ensure a proper follow-up of the CoFoE.

Both these events are linked to the UEF’s petition Respect the Will of the Citizens and the Conference on the Future of Europe calling the Council of the EU to answer to the European Parliament’s resolution of June 2022 asking for treaty reform. The petition now gathers more than 1300 signatures from elected officials, civil servants, academics, and citizens.

“It is time for a strong political message. We must mobilise for treaty reform” said Sandro Gozi, President of the UEF. “The debate organised by the UEF in Strasbourg on 8 and 9 May is this occasion.”

Background
The Conference on the Future of Europe, which ended in May 2022, highlighted the necessity, shared by its Citizen Ambassadors, for the reform of the European treaties. The European Parliament endorsed this call as soon as June 2022, by voting on a resolution calling for a Convention to draft new treaties.
The Council of the European Union, in clear breach of its legal obligations and its engagements during the CoFoE, refused to answer to the European Parliament’s resolution and to give the Conference a proper follow-up.
The UEF campaigns for the recognition of the recommendations of the CoFoE Citizens and the necessity for Treaty change for a federal, democratic and sovereign Europe.