From left to right: Christian De Bruyne (Trésorier), Michele Ciavarini Azzi (Président), Domenico Rossetti di Valdalbero (Secrétaire Général), Lucian Alexandru Onisei (Administrateur Délégué)
Après avoir approuvé les comptes pour 2023, élu le nouveau conseil d’administration et fait rapport des activités de l’ASBL, nous avons pu écouter et débattre avec le Ministre d’État et ancien Député européen Gérard Deprez.
En introduction G. Deprez suggère ne de pas faire une guerre de nominalisme et d’estampille sur le ‘fédéralisme européen’. Ce qui est important, ce sont les procédures et les mécanismes qui permettent d’avancer vers le fédéralisme européen, direction indispensable pour éviter un enlisement de l’Europe communautaire.
Il relève ensuite l’environnement extérieur de l’UE qui est imprévisible et dangereux (cf. guerre de la Russie en Ukraine et situation au Moyen-Orient). Cela a aussi des conséquences internes, notamment les Fake News et ingérences de pays tiers qui visent à déstabiliser l’Union européenne.
Gérard Deprez évoque ensuite les autres grands risques pour l’UE :
Le décrochage économique de l’UE vis-à-vis des États-Unis et de la Chine ;
La transition énergétique qui doit être rendue acceptable, en particulier pour le monde agricole et une partie de la classe ouvrière précarisée ;
La poussée de l’extrême droite dans plusieurs pays dont la France (à près de 40%), l’Allemagne, l’Italie, les Pays-Bas et en Flandre ;
La réalité de l’immigration et de l’élargissement avec un corollaire délicat quant à l’acceptation ou non de l’Ukraine et/ou de la Turquie dans l’UE ;
Les agressions physiques du personnel politique (cf. en Slovaquie, au Danemark et ailleurs).
G. Deprez suggère deux pistes d’action vers le fédéralisme européen:
D’abord, il faut en finir avec l’unanimité qui paralyse l’intégration. Pourquoi, à l’instar des « Pouvoirs spéciaux » qui existent en Belgique, ne pas permettre à l’Exécutif européen (la Commission), de prendre des dispositions en cas d’urgence (cf. pandémie), pour une période déterminée et adoptées à la majorité qualifiée ?
Ensuite, comme l’élargissement aura lieu (attention à ceux qui veulent exacerber les frustrations liées aux lenteurs des adhésions), les Fédéralistes européens doivent se battre pour des ressources propres. Il faut revenir à la légitimité originelle des Traités mais en utilisant les outils modernes : part de la TVA, taxe carbone, taxe sur les transactions financières, emprunt européen, assiette commune sur l’impôt des sociétés (ACCIS), etc.
Enfin, G. Deprez insiste sur le besoin d’autonomie stratégique européenne dans les domaines de la santé, la défense et l’énergie.
Les membres de l’UEF.be interviennent ensuite, questionnent et débattent avec G. Deprez sur l’état de droit dans l’UE (cf. Présidence hongroise), sur le rôle des migrants pour l’économie européenne, sur la légitimité démocratique de la Commission, et sur le rôle et impacts démocratiques des médias sociaux.
Dear FC-Members, Dear Presidents and Secretary Generals of the Sections,
The return of the war in Europe, with Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine, forces us as Europeans to speed up the process of building a true European sovereignty and a strong and democratic European power, directly legitimised by the European citizens. This is necessary in order to build a true European defence, an energy union, a true foreign policy, a migration policy, etc…
As federalists, our best contribution at this stage could be to focus on the Conference on the Future of Europe, so that it includes in its conclusions the need to open a Convention to amend the Treaties, on the basis of the demands that have clearly emerged from the national and European citizens’ panels and from the digital platform. As you know, federalist indications (including our indications as federalist organisations) were predominant; all the more so in such a dramatic moment marked by the return of war, the Conference cannot ignore them.
This is why I propose you an exceptional effort over the next few weeks to collect signatures on this petition below.
It is published on Change.org (LINK), and addressed to the Board of the CoFoE.
Our goal must be to collect between 15.000 and 30.000 signaturesby 20 April. They will be instrumental in putting pressure on the Council (where some governments are trying to block the results of the Conference) and in supporting the European Parliament, which, on the contrary, is trying to fight for the opening of a convention.
Change.org is a platform on which gathering support is very easy. We can upload several language versions, which remain linked, so the signatures add up; it encourages the circulation of the link to the petition, connects well to social networks, highlights partial results, important signatures, and it is really friendly.
I strongly invite you to sign and share the link of the petition. Below, in the communication from the Secretariat, you will find information on how to use social networks as well to spread the link and the invitation to sign. Further info and meetings will follow, to coordinate our engagement on this common action. I would also like to kindly ask you to consider translating the text into your own languages, to further enhance its circulation.
The time to make a federal Europe, sovereign and democratic is now: let us all engage in this battle, trying to live up to our historical responsibilities.
With federalist regards,
Sandro GOZI President
Information about the petition
WHO IS THE PETITION ADDRESSED TO?
Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe
Guy Verhofstadt, Co-chair of the CoFoE, Member of the European Parliament
Dubravka Šuica, Co-chair of the CoFoE, Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography
Clément Beaune, Co-chair of the CoFoE, State Secretary for European Affairs for the French Council Presidency
WHAT WE WANT
To respect the will of the citizens as expressed in the Conference on the Future of Europe, the various citizens’ panels and the future.europa.eu platform.
We ask to highlight in the conclusions of the Conference
the need for concrete institutional reforms to create a federal political union;
the call for a Convention to reform the Treaties.
FOR POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, CULTURAL AND ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVES
You can use to disseminate the petition and the various instrument in an easy way.
Share the petition – (ii) Social hashtag
Show your support for the petition! 1. Download the hashtag (VERTICAL or HORIZONTAL) and print it out. 2. Take a selfie. 3. Upload it to your favourite social media and use the hashtag #moreEUROPEnow.
Share the petition – (iii) Message for Whatsapp
Copy and paste this message and send it to your contacts
#𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗘𝗨𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗻𝗼𝘄! – 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲, 𝘀𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 As war returns to Europe, the Conference on the Future of Europe becomes an opportunity to call for the treaty reforms needed to create a federal Union. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 1) Download the hashtag #moreEUROPEnowhttps://bit.ly/hashtagMOREEUROPENOWeng 2) Take a selfie 3) Upload it to the social network of your choice and ️ use the hashtag #moreEUROPEnow 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼 Go to the link https://bit.ly/ moreEUROPEnowENG 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀. 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨!
Share the petition – (iv) Multilingual versions
Thanks to Change.org we can add a translation of the petition at any time and an image adapted to that language. If you want to distribute the petition in a language other than those proposed, send to secretariat@federalists.eu the translation of the petition and the Secretariat will upload it on Change.org.
Join the Appeal “Our federal Europe: sovereign and democratic”
At the start of CoFoE on 9 May 2021, UEF, together with the Spinelli Group and supported by the European Movement International, launched the Appeal “Our federal Europe: sovereign and democratic”, in which we summarised our ideas for the future of Europe. The appeal is still available on the UEF website. We invite you to circulate it also at local level (mayors, regional presidents, members of the regional and national parliaments) to further disseminate it.
The initial signatories were: Sandro GOZI, Brando BENIFEI, Eva MAYDELL, Esteban GONZÁLEZ PONS, Domènec RUIZ DEVESA, Gabriele BISCHOFF, Pascal DURAND, Daniel FREUND, Damian BOESELAGER, Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS, Fabio Massimo CASTALDO.
By the time of the official launch of the CoFoE, more than 450 high-level personalities had joined the appeal. Among them we would like to mention Mario Vargas Llosa, Javier Cercas and Daniel Cohn-Bendit; four former presidents of the European Parliament as José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado (1997-1999), Enrique Barón Crespo (1989-1992), Martin Schulz (2012-2017) and Hans-Gert Pöttering (2007-2009). The long list also includes: the former European Commission President Romano Prodi, the first EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Javier Solana de Madariaga, the former Commissioners Joaquín Almunia Amann, Pedro Solbes Mira and Marcelino Oreja y Aguirre; as well as sixteen former prime ministers, including Spain’s Felipe González Màrquez and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; Italy’s Mario Monti, Matteo Renzi, Enrico Letta and Giuseppe Conte; Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt, co-chair of the CoFoE’s executive committee. An overview of the list is available here.
Job Vacancies: Policy Officer and Communications Officer in the UEF Secretariat
Deadline for application: 11 March 2022
The European Federalists… …is a non-governmental pan-European organisation, dedicated to the promotion of closer European integration and a democratic and federal Europe. The UEF was founded in 1946 and today is active in many European countries. We organise campaigns, debates, seminars, actions and other events across Europe on key European issues and federalism. We dialogue with European institutions and national policy-makers to promote a united and federal Europe. The current main focus of work is the Conference on the Future of Europe, in which UEF is represented as the part of civil society in the delegation of the European Movement International. We are looking for… … an above-average committed and flexible personality with a successfully completed Bachelor’s or Master’s degree preferably in the fields of European law, political science, communication, to work in the following areas:
Communications Officer
Drafting of the monthly newsletter “UEF Insider” and the fortnightly newsletter on CoFoE “The Time is Now”.
Supporting the implementation of communication strategy and activities;
Supporting the UEF Secretariat in internal and external communication activities (including on social media);
Supporting the organisation of statutory and other internal and external meetings, etc., e.g. Congress, Federal Committee, Political Commissions, Conferences & Debates, Receptions;
Contributing to the management of day-to-day administrative tasks ;
Policy Officer
Supporting the organisation of statutory and other internal and external meetings, etc., e.g. Congress, Federal Committee, Political Commissions, Conferences & Debates, Receptions;
Supporting the conception and implementation of different projects;
Supporting the conception and implementation of the UEF-Network Academy;
Administrative support to the Political Commissions of the UEF;
Assisting the preparation of opinions, statements and working papers of the organization;
Contributing to the management of day-to-day administrative tasks.
We expect
Professional experience in the aforementioned areas;
The ability to grasp complex issues precisely and to process and abstract processes independently;
The ability to structure and organise oneself independently;
Readiness to work, resilience and flexibility;
Willingness to travel on business;
Loyalty;
A confident handling of IT media ;
Persuasiveness and assertiveness;
A very good ability to express oneself in English and another official language of the EU
Ability to work in a team.
We offer
Fixed term contract of 12 months under Belgian law – possibility to prolong the contract
Monthly ticket for public transport in Brussels (part of salary) + food voucher + travel reimbursements when travelling for UEF
How to apply?
Please send your curriculum vitae and motivation letter to the Secretary General of UEF, Anna Echterhoff: anna.echterhoff@federalists.eu
Deadline for applications: 11 March 2022
Selection process: Successful candidates will be invited for an online interview.
The selected candidate would start at the earliest convenient date possible
As you already know, this project is contributing to raising awareness on the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) and 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 artist Antonyo Marest. With your contributions we will be painting murals in different cities across Europe.
In our next stop in Piraeus, Greece, we will be painting a mural based on the idea of “Climate change and the environment”, one of the topics of the CoFoE.
We would like to ask you to answer the questions below so that we can paint the future Europe together! #MakeEuropeBloom
MAKE SURE FEDERALIST VOICES ARE HEARD BY 20 FEBRUARY!
Brussels, 8 February 2022
Dear federalist friends,
About to conclude, the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) enters its hot political phase.
Three interim reports on the multilingual digital platform have been prepared so far, since the Platform kicked off in April 2021, and have fed into the work of the European and national Citizens’ Panels and the Conference Plenaries.
Only contributions made on the platform by 20 February will be taken into account in the report which will be published on 17 March.
We must make sure federalist voices are heard, and the time to act is now. We kindly ask you to boost our efforts to raise awareness about this positive momentum, with a view to engage citizens directly, and to gain wider support for our ideas, projects, and proposals.
We therefore, invite you to refer to our ideas published on the Conference platform, that you can support and disseminate:
We must now take advantage of the Conference on the Future of Europe to move forward a more sovereign, democratic and stronger EU. As stated in the last line of the Ventotene Manifesto, the road won’t be easy, but we must strive to develop Spinelli’s ideas.
Find here a handbook on the CoFoE Multilingual Digital Platform.
In addition to that, if you wish to upload – last minute – your own positions or events and if you need support, please let us know!
“We should support those citizens who want to move forward and that are openly discussing in the CoFoE with no taboos. We should reform the treaties to ensure a new sovereign, democratic and federal Europe.” – MEP Brando Benifei, outgoing President of the Spinelli Group.
THE TIME IS NOW, UEF’s fortnightly newsletter on the Conference on the Future of Europe! Issue 10/2021
Learn more about the Conference’s latest news and activities related to rebuilding the EU!
This past weekend, the
Conference Plenary discussed reports from the European Citizens’ Panels,
national panels and events, the EYE and the Platform.
This Conference Plenary
meeting represented two major milestones in the context of the Conference. On
the one hand, the 80 representatives of the European Citizens’ Panels that have
been selected from the pool of 800 that convened in Strasbourg in September and
October took their seats. On the other hand, for the first time, the Plenary discussed
citizens’ contributions stemming from the different components of the
Conference as they currently stand, while deliberations, events, and online
debate continue.
The Plenary comprises
representatives from the European Parliament (108), the Council (54, or two per
member state) and the European Commission (3), as well as from all national
Parliaments (108) on an equal footing, and citizens (108). As part of the
citizens’ component, representatives from the European Citizens’ Panels (80),
representatives of national events or national citizens’ panels (27, or one per
member state) and the President of the European Youth Forum take part in the
deliberations. In addition, representatives from the Committee of the Regions
and the European Economic and Social Committee (18 from each), elected
representatives from regional and local authorities (6 from each), and
representatives of the social partners (12) and civil society (8) participate
as members. For the first time, representatives from the Western Balkans
participated as key partners.
On Friday, the Plenary
working groups, composed of representatives from all components of the
Conference Plenary (incl. MEPs, national parliamentarians, government
representatives, the Commission, social partners, civil society, and citizens)
met for a constitutive meeting. On Saturday, the Plenary meeting was opened by
the Co-Chairs of the Conference’s Executive Board, Guy Verhofstadt (European
Parliament), State Secretary Gašper Dovžan on behalf of the Slovenian Presidency
of the Council of the EU and European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica.
The discussions revolved around:
a presentation with first impressions from the European Citizens’ Panels by representatives from each Panel and by the Co-Chairs;
a report by the representatives from national panels and events;
a presentation by the Co-Chairs of the interim reports and state of play on the Multilingual Digital Platform.
The
Co-Chairs of the Conference made the following statements from Strasbourg:
Guy Verhofstadt (European
Parliament), said: “The enthusiasm in the Citizens’ Panels is great,
expectations are high, the formula is working. Now the Plenary has to find
answers to the issues raised, in the form of a shared vision of Europe’s future
and concrete deliverables on how we reform the European Union. EU politics have
to rise to the occasion.”
Gašper Dovžan (Presidency of
the Council) commented that: “Tens of thousands of citizens continue to discuss
the future of Europe in the European and national panels and events, as well as
on the Platform. The Plenary will debate and bring forward their
recommendations in the areas that matter most to them, without a predetermined outcome.
This is the first Plenary under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council and we
were very pleased to welcome representatives from our Western Balkans partners
as key stakeholders with whom we share responsibility for the future of the
EU.”
Dubravka Šuica
(Vice-President of the European Commission) stated: “This is a historic
moment where, for the first time, citizens deliberate on a par with their
elected representatives at all levels. Bringing citizens to the core of
European policymaking will reinforce our representative democracies, as we set
sail towards our common future.”
A little less positive was
the balance drawn by the citizens who participated in the plenary, who
complained about the lack of concreteness of the working groups – with the
exception of the one on health, chaired by European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič
and judged very positive – and to have known only the previous day what the
order of business would be.
The plenary itself was the
subject of criticism, due to the shorter time allowed for speeches by citizens
compared to those of politicians – many of whom, moreover, did not participate
in the afternoon session – and the generic nature of many of the speeches heard
in the classroom. The complaints were expressed directly in the hemicycle
through the words of a Dutch delegate, who asked for more space to speak and
received the applause of all present.
A position that Verhofstadt seems to have taken into account. In the press conference at the end of the assembly, the representative of the EU Parliament said that “the central role of citizens will become even more evident in the next plenaries, when they present their recommendations and proposals and others will be able to react on the proposals”. Verhofstadt added that “the most important novelty of the Conference is the active part of citizens in decision-making processes”, and that the mechanism used could “become permanent”, as a demonstration “of the fact that participatory and representative democracy can work together”.
2. UEF IN THE PLENARY
UEF was represented in the
Plenary of the CoFoE with our President and MEP Sandro GOZI, Vice-President and
MEP Doménec RUIZ DEVESA and Secretary General Anna ECHTERHOFF.
“Citizens are asking for a
more federal and social Europe. They are calling to remove the veto in theEU
Council, to strengthenEP
powers, a Pan-European constituency, etc. Let’s do not disappoint europeans.”
said UEF Vice-President and MEP Doménec RUIZ DEVESA in the Plenary.
“We must strengthen European
democracy by granting more powers to the EP. We need: a uniform electoral law,
the creation of transnational lists leading to the formation of real European
parties and legislative initiative for the EP.” highlighted UEF Secretary
General Anna ECHTERHOFF
“We should support those
citizens who want to move forward and that are openly discussing in the CoFoE
with no taboos. We should reform the treaties to ensure a new sovereign,
democratic and federal Europe.” added MEPBrando
Benifei, outgoing President of the Spinelli Group.
“We all share responsibility
for making the#CoFoE
its Platform known. We need to develop a common consciousness to have the
Conference awaken, focusing on a few concrete proposals to ensure greater
effectiveness for Europe & its values.” said European Union
Deutschland Secretary General Christian MOSS.
3. SPINELLI GROUP CAUCUS
The Spinelli Group (SG) caucus meeting took Place last Friday in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The caucus should serve to coordinate and defend the federalist and pan-European interests in a transversal way in all the WGs, and make them ambitious, with concrete proposals and conclusions. To this end, the SG distributed a Manifesto defending the main federalist ideas. As a cross-cutting group with different ideas, the SG will join forces to focus on the points in common and to ensure that the inclusiveness of the group is strengthened, without neglecting coordination between the political groups. This is the strength of the GS, the only cross-party, transnational and pan-European group. During the caucus meeting, the change of the Spinelli Group rotatory Presidency took place. We’re happy to announce that Daniel Freund will be the new President of the Spinelli Group on behalf of Greens/EFA. UEF thanks Brando Benifei for his amazing work this year as our first President for this mandate!
4. UEF LIVESTREAM INTERVIEW
Right after the 2nd CoFoE Plenary, a Live Stream analysis from a federalist perspective was scheduled with the President of UEF, MEP Sandro GOZI. The interview was conducted by Nana WALZER. The President shared his impression of the Plenary commented on the topics and working priorities the Federalists addressed in over the weekend session.
5. ANGELA MERKEL AND THE CoFoE
The Conference on the Future of
Europe, which now-outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested could be
the place to solve Poland’s rule of law issues, has been paid little attention.
But that does not mean those attending have not been busy.
“The Conference on the Future of
Europe is actually a good place to discuss,” said Merkel as she entered the
European Council on Thursday (21 October).
She also suggested that the CoFoE
is a good place to talk about “how the individual members envisage the European
Union”. Despite this, even though the conference had its second plenary on 23
October, it failed to make many waves.
6. NEXT STEPS
The next two meetings of the
Plenary will be held on 17-18 December and 21-22 January to discuss the
recommendations of the four European citizens’ panels that will wrap up their
work by then. Co-chair Verhofstadt underlined that these sessions will have a
different setup, with more time for the representatives of the panels to
present their conclusions and a debate with other Plenary members on the
concrete topics.
In the meantime, citizens’
contributions to the Conference will continue to flow in:
the European Citizens’ Panels will meet online in November, and the first two will finalise their recommendations and present them in Plenary in December;
the Multilingual Digital Platform remains available for citizens’ ideas and events, which will become part of the third report due for December, and which will feed into the last sessions of European Citizens’ Panels and the upcoming meetings of the Conference Plenary;
*Feel
free to contact UEF Secretariat if you may have any questions on the CoFoE or
the Digital Platform: secretariat@federalists.eu
For the Union of European Federalists, being present in a structured and effective way, as well as being recognisable on the platform with its proposals in the Conference on the Future of Europe, becomes a necessary condition both for conveying its political message and for enhancing meetings on the ground at all levels.
The aim is to be influential in order to condition future decision-making processes, to bring out the drive for federal reform of the European Treaties.
What was clearly explained during the presentation of the platform, answering specific questions in an explicit way, is that the topic of the revision of the Treaties, considered a taboo by many member states, will become unavoidable if it emerges from the debate and the requests of citizens, on the platform. From there, it can be conveyed both to the European citizens’ panels and, above all, to the plenary session. The Digital Platform will therefore be in the coming months, until the conclusion of the process of confrontation with the citizens, the only tool at our disposal to convey ideas and political messages to the Conference.
If we are to succeed in achieving our objectives, it will therefore be necessary to devise an effective strategy and to organise a careful national (and European) direction which will enable us not to disperse our messages, not to drown them in the sea of proposals which will soon fill the platform, but which, on the contrary, will enable us to dominate the debate on the future of the European Union by directing it in such a way as to bring out the consensus in support of a Europe which, in order to live up to the expectations of its citizens, must equip itself with the competences, the political decision-making mechanisms and the appropriate resources. In a word, become a federal political Union.
With a view to a debate as inclusive as possible and aimed at advancing federalist demands, we encourage the sections and regional centres to organise debates link to our political proposals on the platform, which can be attractive to a diverse audience and allow collaboration with local and regional actors. It will also be important to try to understand how the themes identified can be declined in a federalist sense.
The debate should have a format that seeks to make the participants protagonists of the discussion.
Attached you will find a summary of the indications in the user guides of the platform to help you organise your events in a federalist way.
The UEF Secreatariat (secretariat@federalists.eu) is at your disposal for information, help and collaboration.
Dear Members of the Federal Committee and of the National Sections,
Dear federalist Friends,
Following my last invitation to the Political Commission 1 (PC1), I am delighted to share with you the REGISTRATION link to attend the meeting. The deadline to register is Friday 11 December 2020, 12.00 (midday). On the same date you will receive the details to join the meeting.
The PC1 meeting will be held on Saturday, December 12, 2020, ONLINE, from 14.30 to 17.30 and represents a chance to further debate and discuss our resolutions and the amendments in view of the Federal Committee.
To be ready for the meeting please download below:
Call for applications are still open until 9 October 2020.
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.
