Nine plus five

Post photo: Heilbronn 1945 | Recording of the US Armed Forces | Scanned by Uwe Jacobi

When the European federalists reunited in a single association in 1973 after about 17 years of separation at European level, they agreed on three federal ideas and nine basic documents.

The sMEF/AEF reunification congress from April 13th to 15th, 1973 in Brussels, which met under the motto "The united European federalists fight for European democracy", decided that the European federalists from the body of thought Immanuel Kants, Alexander Hamiltons and Pierre Joseph Proudhons are inspired, and already included the common basic documents presented in this article in the preamble to the new statutes.

That Immanuel Kant and Alexander Hamilton belong to the thinkers is also undisputed to this day. The former lays down 1795 with his philosophical draft to eternal peace the basis for all federalists. Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and author of 51 of the 85 articles in the Federalist Papers (1788), thus essentially laying the foundations of modern, representative democracy. Pierre Joseph Proudhon is listed third because he is considered to be the source of ideas for communalism, which was already viewed by the majority in 1947, both by the world federalists and by the European federalists, as the view of federalism that should actually be striven for. Proudhon is still well known today for his statement "Property is theft", which is taken from his work "Qu'est ce que la propriété? Ou recherches sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement.' from 1840.

The nine fundamentals of federalism named by the European federalists are the Federal Union Guidelines (1939), the Principles for a new Europe of the Europa-Union Switzerland (February 1940), that Manifesto of Ventotene (July 1941), the Geneva declarations of the European resistance fighters (May 1944), that Hertenstein program (September 1946), the Declaration of the First Congress of Montreux (August 1947), the political resolution of the first congress of the EUROPA-UNION Germany (May 1949), adopted by the second congress in Montreux (April 1964). Federal Charter, and that adopted at the Nancy Congress in April 1972 historical policy statement.

Personally, I also add the following documents, most of which were created later, as important. For one, the political statement from the unification congress of the UEF itself, which was submitted on April 15, 1973, and on the other hand the twelve theses for Europe (April 14, 1964), the Kiel program for Europe (June 27, 1978), the Charter of European Identity (October 28, 1995) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (December 1, 2009).

With the 14 documents listed here, you can get a comprehensive overview not only of European federalism, but of federalism as a whole, since the world federalists differ from the European federalists only in that the World Federalists since 1947 want to achieve world union via a world parliament (constitutionalists) and the European federalists decided in 1947 to first create free Europe, then Europe as a whole as a federal state and blueprint for other world regions and a later world union. Right from the start, the "Europeans" were divided into constitutionalists and institutionalists, with the former creating the European federal state via a European Parliament and the latter wanting to encourage the member states to grow together through common institutions.

The communalists mentioned above arose, at least in my opinion, from the currents of the Ordre Nouveau and the acceptance of the Christian principle of subsidiarity and thus still offer the only viable federal solution for present and future societies. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't believe that Michael Wolffsohn (2015) to read.

The greatest opponents of the communal idea, of all communities growing up from the municipality, across the regions to a federal state, are those who have made themselves comfortable in the current and mostly outdated structures. From the very beginning, these, together with nationalists and centralists, put the brakes on any further federal development and ensure that the United States of Europe and also a future world union - i.e. eternal peace - is a dream of many but only a dream remains.

Finally, I would like to point out that the European idea is also not compatible with pan-European ideas, and therefore European federalists are undoubtedly not “superstate Europeans” (Kemal Dervis, 2005).