Ventotene Declaration reaches the European public debate on european newspapers.
The declaration “It is time to build the United States of Europe”, launched in Ventotene on 30 August, has entered the public debate in Spain and Belgium through op-eds published by two leading European newspapers: El País and Le Soir.
The call for a United States of Europe, promoted by the Third Jean Monnet Action Committee and supported by prominent European political and intellectual figures, is gaining increasing visibility across Europe.
On 15 September, El País published the declaration in its Opinion section under the title “Es hora de construir los Estados Unidos de Europa”, signed by Romano Prodi and Josep Borrell. The article argues that the European Union must acquire the political capacity to act rather than remain trapped in permanent crisis management, and calls for deeper political and institutional integration.
A few days earlier, on 11 September, the Belgian daily Le Soir brought the same message to the Belgian and wider Francophone public debate with the op-ed “Il est temps de bâtir les États-Unis d’Europe”.
These publications follow the launch of the declaration in Ventotene, the island where Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi drafted one of the foundational texts of European federalism. The new declaration draws on that legacy and on the political method of Jean Monnet, calling for Europe to overcome unanimity in strategic areas, strengthen its common foreign, security and defence policies, reinforce democratic decision-making and move decisively towards a federal political union.
Among those supporting the initiative are Josep Borrell, Romano Prodi, Guy Verhofstadt, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Rosen Plevneliev, Nicolas Schmit and Slavoj Žižek.
The appearance of the declaration in major national newspapers represents an important step in taking the federalist proposal beyond institutional and political circles and into the wider European public debate.
Further publications are expected in the coming days.
Read the op-eds
El País — 15 September 2026
Es hora de construir los Estados Unidos de Europa
https://elpais.com/opinion/2026-09-15/es-hora-de-construir-los-estados-unidos-de-europa.html
Le Soir — 11 September 2026
Il est temps de bâtir les États-Unis d’Europe
https://www.lesoir.be/770285/article/2026-09-11/il-est-temps-de-batir-les-etats-unis-deurope
Read the declaration
Ventotene launches a new call to build the United States of Europe
https://federalists.eu/ventotene-launches-a-new-call-to-build-the-united-states-of-europe/