President : Jacques DELORS THE FEDERAL APPROACH TO THE EUROPEAN UNION OR THE QUEST FOR AN UNPRECEDENTED EUROPEAN FEDERALISM Professor Dusan SIDJANSKI Translation to English by Mme Chamouni STONE Research and Policy Paper n° 14 July 2001 STUDY AVAILABLE IN FRENCH, ENGLISH AND GERMAN © Notre Europe, July 2001. Dusan SIDJANSKI Founder of the Department of Political Science at the University of Geneva, Dusan Sidjanski is professor emeritus at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and at the European Institute in Geneva. He has been the author of works on federalism and European integration, such as Fédéralisme amphictyonique, Eléments de système et tendance internationale, Paris and Lausanne, Pedone and Rouge & Cie, 1956; Dimensions européennes de la science politique, Paris, LGDJ, 1963; Europe Elections, de la démocratie européenne, Paris, Stanké, 1979; Union ou désunion de l'Europe? La Communauté européenne à l'épreuve de la crise yougoslave et des mutations en Europe de l'Est, Dossiers from the University Institute of European Studies (IUEE) Geneva, 1991; L'Avenir fédéraliste de l'Europe, La Communauté européenne des origines au traité de Maastricht, Paris, PUF, 1992, 1993 which has been translated into Italian, Serbo-croate, Portugese, Greek, Russian, Spanish and English. The revised English translation, The Federal Future of Europe was published by The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2000, http://www.eurofederalism.com Notre Europe Notre Europe is an independent research and policy unit whose objective is the study of Europe – its history and civilisations, integration process and future prospects. The association was founded by Jacques Delors in the autumn of 1996. It has a small team of six in-house researchers from various countries. Notre Europe participates in public debate in two ways. First, publishing internal research papers and second, collaborating with outside researchers and academics to contribute to the debate on European issues. These documents are made available to a limited number of decision-makers, politicians, socio-economists, academics and diplomats in the various EU Member States. The association also organises meetings and conferences in association with other institutions and publications. Under the organisation's articles of association, a European Steering Committee comprising leading figures from various European countries and political and professional origins meets at least three times a year. FORWARD Federalism has always been a point of reference and a source of inspiration for European construction. Many European politicians, from Robert Schuman to Joschka Fischer, have called for the development of a federal form of organisation for Europe. However, rarely has a concept been so little known: in old nation states like Great Britain or France, federalism often evokes the threat of extreme centralisation even though this form of political organisation is based on a desire to preserve the autonomy and the diversity of the federated entities. In order to fuel the debate on the future of Europe, following the provisions of the Treaty of Nice, it was deemed appropriate to clarify the contribution of federalist thinking on European construction. Dusan Sidjanski’s work has the great merit of bringing up to date the multiple facets of this concept. It justifiably highlights how numerous aspects of the European institutional edifice belong to federalist systems, whether through the adherence to community rules or via the quest for a balance between large and small states. It also highlights the range of these systems, which try to respond to relatively diverse functional necessities. At the risk of exaggeration, one is almost tempted to say that there are as many federalisms, as there are federal systems. It appears to me, that from this arises an important lesson for everyone who thinks or ponders about the future of Europe. A political undertaking without precedent, European construction calls for innovation: it cannot fit into any pre-existing mould, nor can it reproduce former ones. On the other hand, reflection can only benefit from a close analysis of the structures that have sought a synthesis between unity and diversity. At the time when the long awaited reunification of the European continent is on the horizon, the necessity of this reflection seems incontestable. May the pages that follow help to enrich the forthcoming debates. Jacques Delors CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 THE FEDERAL APPROACH TO THE EUROPEAN UNION 1 OR 1 THE QUEST FOR AN UNPRECEDENTED EUROPEAN FEDERALISM 1 PROFESSOR DUSAN SIDJANSKI 1 NOTRE EUROPE 3 The Commission, motor of European integration................................................................ 33 The reinforcement of the Commission and of its President ................................................. 34 The collective resignation of the Santer Commission.......................................................... 36 The Council: intergovernmental or Community institution? ............................................... 37 Democratisation and federalization of the European Community....................................... 40 The Growing Role of the European Council........................................................................ 42 The federating role of the Court of Justice........................................................................... 43 A federating core: the ECB and the euro ............................................................................. 44 The lessons of conflicts ........................................................................................................ 48 The process of becoming a Community............................................................................... 52 The Union at the crossroads ................................................................................................. 53 Informal participation........................................................................................................... 71 A fundamental charter or a constitution for the EU ............................................................. 72 Towards an unprecedented variant of the federal model ..................................................... 73 Proximity by participation.................................................................................................... 74 INTRODUCTION Federalism is again on the European agenda The European Union is divided between the two opposing tendencies that are developing at its heart: the community dynamic, which builds a union with a federal vocation, and intergovernmental cooperation in foreign and internal policies. This leads to the question of whether a durable cohabitation between the community system and intergovernmental dimensions is possible in the long run. Does the European Union not have an urgent need – on the eve of enlargement and faced with demanding challenges – to consolidate a structure which can provide common orientations and similar impulses in the integration sector and to cooperate with a multiplicity of public and private interests, and to affirm its European identity on the international front? Has the moment not come to think together on the consequences of the pragmatic step, which consists of juxtaposing disparate parts instead of integrating them into a harmonious unit? Have we tried to evaluate the effects of the intergovernmental method, which short of being transitory risk causing a loss of efficiency and capacity and a return to traditional means of organization? As a result, how do we avoid breaking up the institutional equilibrium and halting the democratization of the European Union? These concerns are reflected in the European debate, which centres on the immediate necessity for a core federator and, in the long run, a constitution. European federalism is on the agenda. Following the avant-garde idea of a federation of nation-states proposed by Jacques Delors, based on the thoughts of Johannes Rau, president of the FRG; Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Helmut Schmidt proposed the federal Euro-Europe approach at the heart of the European Union. In turn, Joschka Fischer outlined in his speech of May 12, 2000, the purpose of the Union under the shape of a true European Federation, whereas Romano Prodi proposed his reflections on the future of the Union, by insisting on the necessity to anticipate the possibility for a group of countries to surge ahead whilst affirming that he liked the word federal and the federal model. The call in favour of a strong heart for Europe is also the desire of Giuliano Amato. These convergent initiatives of French, German, and Italian leaders and of the President of the European Commission have the merit of proposing to the members of the 1 European Union and also to the candidates who adhere to a European Project aiming to pave the way towards a European federation. The return of federalism, long considered a taboo, even though practised in the European Union, coincided with the arrival of a European currency, as a consequence of proposals made by high-school students from the member countries of the Union: “unity in diversity” which is nothing other than the symbol of federalism. The emergence into the European public sphere of questions on the long-term survival of the Union has resurrected ideas from The Hague Congress (1948) as well as the proposals of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) is “the first step of European federation” (9 May 1950 Declaration).