Dear Friends, The never ending story of the European sovereign debt crisis keeps the discussion about federal solutions for more sustainable European financial and economic governance alive. Guy Verhofstadt rightly insinuated, during our UEF Annual Reception, that the financial market was a good Federalist. The European Union has always been improving its young political system during and after crises. Let us not be afraid, but rather support hands on the work that is needed: To push our politicians and the public opinion towards a courageous step forward. The paper of our President Andrew Duff "Federal Union Now", the paper on Schengen of our Vice-President Andrey Kovatchev and other papers of our Federalists community will guide you through the odds of the debate. As I could personally witness this September on Ventotene Island, at occasion of the 70th anniversary of Spinelli's Ventotene Manifesto perfectly organized by the MFE, our Italian section: There are many possible ways to tackle the crisis, our least contribution is to be the platform where discussions and proposals for a stronger and better Europe will be provided. Sincerely yours,
Christian Wenning
UEF Secretary General

UEF Secretariat has re-activated a communication tool called Federalists Intervention Task Force (FIT), initially launched for the federalists' campaign in 2009. FIT-Brussels aims at increasing the visibility of federalists in the European level debate and bringing the federalist voice and visions to every relevant Brussels event. All kinds of organisations and institutions organise debates and conferences with a large audience - by simply being present as participants we can raise our hands and make a question or intervention with key federalist messages. With  very few human resources, thousands will receive our messages!

UEF Secretariat will coordinate an agenda with a selection of events and conferences in Brussels and send it out to the task force members fortnightly. If you are inspired, please contact us on campaign@federalists.eu before the event to say you plan to go and after the event to say you attended and briefly state what you intervened about. If you hear of good events do let us know on the same address!

If you want to take part in FIT-Bxl, contact secretariat(at)federalists.eu.

We are happy to welcome Carole Richard, our new intern, who joined us in September.

Carole is a 24-year-old girl from France. She has studied Political Science and International Relations in Lyon, France and in Lund, Sweden. She has worked one year in Paris, for the think tank Centre d’Etude et de Prospective Stratégique, and at the Office of the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force.

In the UEF, she will be responsible for actions, events and day-to-day communication with the UEF sections. Contact her via: carole.richard(at)federalists.eu  

On August 2 in Budva the Founding Assembly of the Initiative Board of the Union of European Federalist of Montenegro was held. Resolution  on the establishment of new chapter of European federalists movement – UEF Montenegro was made.

Behind UEF Montenegro stands a group of young professionals from different political affiliations, but they all share a common vision of UEF. Organization will be led by Bosko Kovacevic (President), Marija Blagojevic (Secretary-General), Ljubomir Filipovic (Vice-President), Boro Milovic (Secretary-International), Nemanja Tepavcevic (Board member) and Nevena Calic (Board member). Read the full article...

On September 7, UEF held its annual summer reception. UEF President Andrew Duff and Secretary-General Christian Wenning welcomed Members of the European Parliament, Administrators of Commission and Council, Representatives from Industry and NGOs. As a special guest, Guy Verhofstadt, Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe was present with a speech.

Andrew Duff welcomed guest with a short speech and presented his newly written pamphlet where he defines what he means by a federal Europe and points out the steps needed to transform the Lisbon treaty into a more durable constitutional settlement for the EU.

Guy Verhofstadt drew attention to the fact that due to the emerging crisis, federalism is popular again and more often is seen as a solution by many EU leaders. "We live in the time where "federalism" is a word we can use again. And we have to use the momentum to fight the crisis that EU is currently facing. Only with federal solutions we can create European solidarity. We need more solidarity and more discipline, an economic and monetary union can not operate without a federal state," said the leader of the Liberal MEPs.

See picture gallery from the event...

From 29th August – 3rd September the 30th edition of the annual international federalist training seminar was held on the island of Ventotene, in Italy, under the title "Federalism in Europe and worldwide."

The UEF was represented by UEF Secretary-General Christian Wenning, who took part in the panel “Strategies and actions of the federalist organisations to achieve local and global federalism” together with Federico Butti, president of JEF Italy, Fernando Iglesias (National Representative for the City of Buenos Aires for the Coaliciónà Cívica), Massimo Malcovati.

Alain Lamassoure, Honorary President of Group Europe of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Chairman of the Committee on Budgets, demonstrated at a conference July 12 in Brussels why you must be optimistic for a federal structure of the European Union, even if the European construction has nothing to do with the medias’ time or with the time of politics.

Organised by the Group Europe of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) for the staff of the institutions of the European Union, the conference could give comfort to pro-Europeans while discussions on the budget for the period 2013-2020 have just begun with the proposal from the European Commission. Chairman of the Budget Committee in the European Parliament, Alain Lamassoure had spoken in the week before the conference in many media to clarify issues in the coming budget talks. The conference allowed him to clarify these hopes and ambitions. Read the full event report...