The Union of European Federalists from the Foundation to the Decision on Direct Election of the European Parliament (1946-1974)

The union of european federalists From the foundation to the decision on direct election of the european parliament (1946-1974) Sergio Pistone PREFACE The Union of European Federalists was founded in 1946 and is a supranational organisation of men and women who are committed to the struggle for a European federation, intended as the fundamental firststepalongtheroadtowardsworldfederation.Thiscommitment has so far continued for over sixty years and has always featured the common thread of mobilising the public in favour of popular participation in the construction of European unity. The context within which the UEF is currently carrying out its initiatives is that of trans- forming of the European Union in a fully federal sense by establishing a Federal European Constitution through entirely democratic methods and excluding all forms of national veto. Familiarity with the history of the UEF and therefore the deep roots and continuity of the struggle for European federation is essentialforthosewhoaredirectlyin- volved in the fight as well as for those who follow it with interest. I thus take great pleasure in acknowledging the release of this book and I hope that it will meet the favour of many readers. MERCEDES BRESSO President of the Union of European Federalists CONTENTS Preface ............................................................. v Introduction ......................................................... ix I FROM THE WORLD WARS TO THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNION OF EUROPEAN FEDERALISTS 1.1. The collapse of the European system of states, the birth of European uni- tymovementsandthefirstEuropeanistgovernmentinitiatives.......... 1 1.2. TheResistanceandEuropeanunity................................ 10 1.3. The foundation of the UEF . ................................. 21 II THE ACTION OF THE UEF UP UNTIL THE FALL OF THE EUROPEAN DEFENCE COMMUNITY (1947-1954) 2.1. ThebeginningofthecoldwarandtheCongressofMontreux......... 29 2.2. From the Hague Congress to the Council of Europe . ............... 42 2.3. From the European Defence Community to the European Political Com- munity........................................................ 57. III CRISIS AND SPLIT OF THE UEF IN THE YEARS OF THE BIRTH AND BEGINNINGS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (1954-1963) 3.1. TherelaunchingofEuropeanintegration........................... 81 3.2. ThenewcourseoffederalistactionlaunchedbySpinelli.............. 87 3.3. TheUEFSplit................................................. 100 3.4. TheCongressoftheEuropeanPeople............................. 109 3.5. The reapproaching between the supranational European Federalist Move- mentandtheEuropeanFederalistAction........................... 122 VIII Contents IV THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DEMOCRATISATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES AND THE REUNIFICATION OF THE FEDERALISTS (1964-1974) 4.1. The action of the federalists up until De Gaulle’s disappearance from the politicalscene.................................................. 147 4.2. The events marking European integration from the Hague Summit in 1969 to the Paris Summit in December 1974. ...................... 178 4.3. Thereunificationofthefederalists................................. 186 4.4. The federalists obtain the commitment of the governments for the direct electionoftheEuropeanParliament............................... 194 4.5. ConsiderationsontheroleandnatureoftheUEF................... 212 INTRODUCTION The Union of European Federalists (UEF) (1) was founded in Paris on December 15th 1946 and held its first congress in Montreux from August 27th-30th 1947. Since then, sixty years have passed and European federation, the objective which the UEF was created to achieve and which has shaped all of its activities, has not yet been ac- complished, although the European integration process has made sig- nificant progress in such a direction. Today, this process is dominated by a confrontation between those who pursue the transformation of the European Union (EU) into a full federation and those who wish to go no further than a confederal system in which national govern- mentsmaintaintheirrighttovetoonfundamentalissues. At the centre of the discussion and of the political fight in rela- tion to European unification is the project for the European Constitu- tion signed by the twenty-five governments of the member states of the EU (which became twenty-seven with the addition of Romania and Bulgaria on January 1st 2007) on October 29th 2004 in Rome, after being formulated on the basis of project proposed by a Conven- tion formed by representatives of the European Parliament, national parliaments, national governments and of the European Commission. The draft Treaty of Rome, which contained important steps for- ward in a federal direction, was ratified by eighteen of the twenty-sev- (1) It should be specified that at the moment of its foundation, the name ‘‘Union Europe´enne de Fe´de´ralistes’’ was used, as at the time, integral federalism was the dominant school of thought. The English title ‘‘Union of European Federalists’’, however, shifted the emphasis onto the objective of European unity on a federal basis rather than the integral federalist doctrine. When, as we will see, this doctrine became a minority element in the supranational organisation of European federalists, the name ‘‘Union des Fe´de´ralistes Europe´ens’’ was utilized, while maintaining the acronym UEF in all languages. X Introduction en countries of the EU, but was blocked by the negative results of the referendums in France and the Netherlands on May 29th and June 1st 2005 respectively. The governments therefore decided to approve a text which, while maintaining the majority of reforms contained in the Treaty of Rome, was stripped of any constitutional significance. The struggle currently in progress on the part of the federalists aims to re-launch the constitutional initiative based on a genuinely democratic method. The crux of the matter is to overcome the rule of una- nimity, and thus establish a federal constitution among those states willing to adhere to it, and willing to allow the subsequent adhesion of those states who initially do not intend to participate. The body called upon to formulate the constitution project must, on the other hand, be formed by representatives of the citizens of Europe — sur- passing therefore the method of intergovernmental conferences that decide according to unanimous voting — and the resulting proposal must be ratified by a majority through a European referendum. ThestruggleforEuropeanfederation (and therefore the process of European unification) is currently at a point which is both critical and decisive. It should also be underlined that 2007 was the year of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Altiero Spinelli — the founder of the European Federalist Movement in Italy — and of the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. In this evocative context, other than one of a particularly intense practical commitment, for the purposes of informed debate, it appears as necessary as ever to achieve widespread knowledge of the problems of European unification under all aspects, including the historical one. In the history of European unification, an essential component is constituted by the role of the movements for European unity and spe- cifically by one which is considered the most important, and whose very existence is justified by the aim of European federation and the participation of the European people in the entire process. Hence the usefulness of the reconstruction of the history of the UEF, to which this book intends to provide a contribution. This work is dedicated to the organisation’s foundation, which has its roots in the era of the world wars and particularly the European Resistance, and covers the first twenty-eight years of the UEF’s activities which culminated in Introduction XI the decision, adopted by the Conference of the Heads of States and Governments held in Paris on December 9th and 10th 1974, to begin the implementation of direct elections to the European Parliament. This is the first part of a project which will subsequently be completed by a second volume bringing the reader right up to the present day. The idea of choosing the decision made in Paris in De- cember 1974 as a moment of articulation between the two sections of the project is founded on the conviction that the opening of the way towards European elections represented a historical turning point in the development of the European unification process and, at the same time, a milestone for federalist actions, which contributed decisively, as I will strive to demonstrate, to the achievement of such a goal. That said, I believe that two points must be clarified. The work presented here is a reconstruction of the essential lines of UEF history. Other younger scholars will have the task of performing a decidedly more extensive and detailed analysis which, through a more systematic use of public and private archives, will be able to document more comprehensively the role of the federalists in the development of the European unification process. With respect to this prospective work, I hope that my contribution will be able to provide some useful guide- lines, not least because it comes from someone who has directly expe- riencedalargepartofthismovement’shistory,beingamilitantofthe UEF since 1954. With this, I come to my second clarification. The perspective from which I have reconstructed the essential points of the history of the UEF — historical reconstructions

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