Brussels, 14/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - “Federalists are the only ones with a vision of European integration, and we have had for the last sixty years,” said MEP Jo Leinen, chairman of the European Parliament's constitution committee and former leader of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), at last week's presentation in Brussels of the book “L'Europe, notre Etat souverain en devenir. Avenir de l'Europe et Citoyenneté: actions et réflexion des Fédéralistes européens”, published by the French-speaking Belgian section of the UEF in memory of MEP Fernand Herman (see the review in European Library 9297/706 of 31 October 2006). He went on to say that “the great misfortune of the last fifteen years has been the lack of clarity on the European project”, which has caused “scepticism, frustration and abstentionism” among the public. Federalists “have a major task on their hands to press the political classes to clarify the European project and present a vision,” he said, noting that the opportunity will be offered by the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaties, in March 2007, with “the Berlin - and unfortunately not Rome - Declaration, but the Council Presidency is German”. At this time, the 27 Member States will “confirm that the original idea of a political union with a democratic basis is still valid,” stressed Mr Leinen. “All the challenges of our time are European challenges,” European citizens must be reminded and Europe “must have the competence and instruments to enable it to act, and not simply be a talking shop,” he continued, pointing out that, as chairman of the EP constitution committee, he “is fighting” for the Constitutional Treaty to be implemented, in spite of the difficulties.
I am “an ardent supporter of the Constitution,” said MEP Gérard Deprez (ALDE, Belgium), while qualifying this by saying that maybe today “a more prudent approach” was necessary, choosing a small Treaty on the institutional points. At any rate, Mr Deprez was “sure of one thing”: for progress to be made in the future, the system for ratifying treaties had to be changed. He said that Federalists' most important demand should be to move from the requirement for unanimity to ratification by a majority of States (why not by qualified majority?) representing a majority of the population. The collection being presented, Mr Deprez noted, confirmed that progress in European integration had leapt forward, every time things that the majority did not believe in, whether it be the election of MEPs by universal suffrage or the single currency (at the start, “no one dared speak about single currency”) came to be. That what was needed today, he felt, admitting, “The heart of old Europe concerns me”. Acknowledging in Jean-Claude Juncker, a contributor to the collection, “the courage to recognise that Europe is going through a serious crisis”, Mr Deprez said that every week he met groups of citizens, whether young people or not, to talk about Europe, and that these meetings had allowed him to “put his finger on three things which lie at the heart of the problem”. Firstly, “the euro zone has not lived up to expectations”: it is the area with the lowest growth in the whole OECD. This, he said, reinforced the arguments of Federalists “there cannot be monetary integration without economic integration, no economic integration without economic government, and no economic government without European government”. Secondly, “people cannot believe in a Europe that continues to enlarge in ways they are not prepared to accept,” hence the need for “a real pause in enlargement”. And thirdly, Europeans, “rightly or wrongly, have the impression that Europe doesn't do enough to protect them”, whether it be against globalisation, terrorism or immigration. When asked about these issues, Mr Deprez said he tells people, “If these are your worries, you must be Federalists”.
In his introduction, Jean-Jacques Schul, Vice-President of UEF-Belgium, said that “only a Federal-style government can pull Europe out of its contradictions”, quoting Belgian philosopher Alexis Curvers who wrote in Tempo di Roma in 1957, “Making national leaders responsible for European integration is like putting the sale of zip fasteners in the hands of button manufacturers”. (mg)