EP election campaign “Stronger together for federal Europe” (2009)
On the eve of European Parliament election 2009, UEF started a campaign “Stronger together for federal Europe”. Trough this campaign we were putting forward innovative ideas for how Europe can be made more democratic and functional – both to the citizens about to vote as well as to the decision makers across Europe, and the new European Parliament in particular.
The political demands of UEF in light of the European Parliament Elections were summed up in the UEF Manifesto for the European Parliament 2009-14.
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This campaign fought for a transparently and democratically elected President of the European Commission.
The President of the European Commission should no longer be chosen behind closed doors in the European Council. Instead the President of the European Commission should be chosen by the European Parliament, and by implication us the voters, as hinted in articles 9A and 9D of the Lisbon Treaty.
Therefore, the political parties in the European Parliament were asked, in good time before the June 2009 parliament elections, answer the question: Who's Your Candidate?
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The Campaing "Speak up Europe! " 2007-2008
The main objective of the campaign “Speak up Europe!” was to stimulate and facilitate debates about the current work of the EU and about its future challenges. Through debates, voting, on-line forums and polling, the campaign also offered different entry points for the participation of a vast number of citizens and a stable environment where arguments were put forward and discussions emerged.
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The campaign was launched (official start: 17 March 2007 in Berlin) jointly by the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and the Young European Federalists (JEF).
The aim of the campaign was to show that there was widespread public support for the idea of a European referendum. In the text of the European constitution, there is a clause that sets a target of one million signatures for a new principle of direct democracy. While this clause is not of course in force, because the constitution itself is not yet in force, one million has become recognised as the appropriate number to demonstrate popular support.
Campaign for a European federal Constitution 1997 - 2006
The Campaign for the Federal European Constitution enjoyed a moment of particular strength with the demonstration of December 7th in Nice (in conjunction with the European Council) in which 10,000 people, including hundreds of local administrators, participated. Nice demonstration organized by UEF. The governments responded to the requests of the federalists and of the European Parliament by summoning a European Convention, chaired by Giscard d’Estaing. In this way, certain aspects of the democratic constituent model were acknowledged: the participation of both national and European members of parliament (already tested with the formulation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights passed in Nice); the transparency of meetings; consideration of the views of civil society.
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Campaign for direct elections to the European Parliament 1967 - 1972
The campaign for the European election – conducted by the UEF in close collaboration with the European Movement, whose president between 1968 and 1972 was the former president of the Commission of the EEC Walter Hallstein (1901-1982) – was carried out without interruption with the undertaking of various initiatives aiming to mobilise public opinion. The most notable of which include: the “Frontier” action, promoted by the German federalists; the European Democratic Front, promoted by the French federalists; the proposed bill of popular initiative (signed by 65,000 with authenticated signatures) for the direct election of Italian representatives in the European Parliament, presented to the Senate in 1969 by the Italian MFE led by Mario Alberini (1919-1997); the demonstrations of thousands of people, organised together with the JEF, and called counter summits, in Rome in June 1967, in the Hague in December 1969 and in Paris in October 1972, in conjunction with the conferences of heads of state and the governments of the community countries held in these cities.
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The Congress of the European People (1956-1962)
The Congress of the European People was a great popular campaign calling for a European constituent assembly to be directly elected by the citizens and mandated to draw up a draft federal constitution which would then be submitted for ratification by means of a European-wide referendum. During the Stresa convention in 1956 a plan was drafted. It implied organization of militant groups in several cities, presentation of the campaign in different social enviroments, publication of a single European newspaper in four languages; and therefore the calling of assemblies to designates to the first CEP, primary elections of the delegates and finally the session of the Congress. In november 1957, the first elections were held in eight European cities, gathering 240 delegates in Turin. New elections brought about the convocation of other four Congresses. The organisation of the elections of the delegates of the CEP began in the autumn of 1957. In total, 638,114 votes were collected in seven countries - Germany, Austria (where the elections continued until 1964), Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland. Although it had not achieved its goal, it nevertheless had great political significance for the European integration project and the need for popular participation.
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Campaign for the European Federal Pact 1949 - 1950
The proposal for a campaign for the federal union of Europe Pact was forwarded by the Italian MFE and accepted by the UEF the 31st October 1949, at its Extraordinary General Meeting in Paris, where (UEF) decided to launch a public campaign in support of the Federal Pact which it intended to submit to the Council of Europe. This approved the outline of a federal union pact, which was a schematic plan of a federal constitution.
The campaign consisted of an attempt to transform the Advisory Assembly of the Council of Europe (whose foundation had its origins in the Hague Congress) into the Constituent Assembly of the European Federation. The fundamental tool was a petition, signed by thousands of citizens of Europe and a large number of eminent persons in political, intellectual and scientific life, which asked the Advisory Assembly to draw up a text for a federal pact, and recommend its ratification to the member states of the Council of Europe.
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Supported by the