Feature photo: 62nd Federal Congress | © Bernd Beuermann | EUD
The special thing about the 64th Federal Congress of the EUROPA-UNION Germany was that it took place virtually. Almost to be exact. Because it was “hosted” from Berlin, with the Secretary General, the federal office, the chair of the meeting, a few delegates from Berlin and the technical support staff of a company also being present.
This year's federal congress elected a new executive committee, decided on a main motion and other motions that came from the state and district associations as well as from federal working groups. So everything, as with the previous federal congresses.
Unfortunately also the fact that our party politicians have brought very unsightly “electoral practices” into the federal association, including happily having block elections carried out and this with the very unsightly peculiarity that the delegate votes only count if they choose a predetermined minimum number of candidates . For years I have criticized this custom; Unfortunately, my objection is only understood by very few.
This led this year to the fact that even the three positions of vice-presidents, with the three remaining candidates, had to be elected en blog, with the delegate votes only counting again if each delegate also elected at least two of the three candidates. It was only logical that there was no way to abstain or even to vote against the three candidates.
What was really special about this year's federal congress, however, was that the presidential critics, who have been well known for years, openly opposed the election of the president for the first time - perhaps also because they no longer had the intention of running for the presidency. However, this did not prevent the delegates from re-electing the President with a stable two-thirds majority.
However, I was very pleased that the applications from Baden-Württemberg found a large majority of the delegates during the application consultation and also that the Federal Congress approved my application to clearly identify with the European federal state in the main application.
I was also pleased that, despite the virtuality, we again had very good discussions and a fruitful exchange between the delegates.
I am already looking forward to the 65th Federal Congress, which is to take place in Augsburg in 2022. For us from Heilbronn — we had also offered to host it in advance — less work and the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Augsburg again.
A list of all previous national congresses can be found here: Federal Congresses of the EUROPA-UNION
A united Europe in a united world.
Motto of the Union of European Federalists & the EUROPA-UNION (since 1947)
