Feature photo: European Congress 1948 in The Hague | © National Archief / Snikkers / Anefo | Wikimedia Commons | CC BY SA 3.0
The European Movement International (EBI) is founded in Brussels on October 25, 1948 after months of negotiations following the European Congress; it is initially made up of the national representatives of the countries involved in the Marshall Plan.
Its organ, the 'International Council of the European Movement', meets for the first time from February 25th to 28th, 1949 in Brussels and votes Leon Jouhaux to the first chairman.
The German sub-organization of the EBI is founded on June 13, 1949 under the name 'German Council of the European Movement' in Wiesbaden. Eugene Kogon becomes chairman of the executive office, because on his initiative a corresponding founding committee meets on April 1, 1949. The founding president until 1954 was the former President of the Reichstag Paul Loebe.
On December 3, 1993, the name was changed to European Movement Germany (EBD); today it is based in Berlin.
The EBD is an association of legal entities and umbrella organization of most European associations, complementing the EUROPA-UNION Germany, which basically unites more natural persons.
Today, the EBD, with currently 249 member organizations from society and business, is the largest network for European politics in Germany.
With its political demands, the EBD wants to reflect the basic European political consensus of the social forces and, as a place of political dialogue, to combine the individual interests of its member organizations into an overall interest. In this way, the EBD promotes the further development and strengthening of European integration.
The organs of the EBD are the General Assembly, which is made up of delegates from the member organizations, the Executive Board, which is responsible for the association's business, and a full-time Secretary General, who manages the day-to-day business of the association with employees and interns.
One of the members of the EBD is the European movement Baden-Württemberg, which was founded in 1981 as the Baden-Württemberg state committee and is an amalgamation of the EUROPA-UNION Baden-Württemberg with the citizens' committees that were formed on the occasion of the first direct election to the European Parliament in 1979, and today 50 Baden-Württemberg associations as well as individuals as members counts.
As early as 1972, the state chairman of the EUROPA-UNION Baden-Württemberg Dieter Roser took the initiative and proposed that the formation of a "Baden-Württemberg Council of the European Movement" should take place as a subdivision of the German Council.
“Such an institution, which would include not only parliamentary representatives, but also the national organizations of the associations represented in the German Council, etc., could offer the members of parliament a more effective and more interesting platform than would be the case with a parliamentary advisory board for the Europa-Union. A subdivision of the German Council in Baden-Württemberg would not be an institution of the European Union; the merger of the subdivisions of the German Council and the national association of the Europa-Union would have to be carried out by the joint management. Possible effects of a subdivision of the German Council would include: sponsorship of events, maintenance of the connection with neighboring countries. The matter first needs to be discussed in the German Council.”
Dieter Roser (November 4, 1972)
At the meeting of the executive regional board of the EUROPA-UNION on November 10, 1973 in Leonberg Dieter Roser famous, "that the German Council of the European Movement has agreed to found a Baden-Württemberg Council of the European Movement."
Since February 2013, the EBD has been part of the Federal Network for Civic Engagement (BBE) as part of a reciprocal membership, an association of actors from civil society, the state and business. The overarching goal of the network is the sustainable promotion of civil society and civic engagement in all areas of society and politics.
Here, too, the essential aspect of all Europeans is expressed, namely, instead of excluding, integrating people and better networking with them for the benefit of society as a whole.
You can see this for yourself very well if you take advantage of the offers of the European Movement, which it offers to all members of its member organizations throughout the year.
Using the example of the European Movement Baden-Württemberg, I like to think of the regular fireside chats on European topics and the respective presidencies of the European Union, whereby it is very often the case that there is no corresponding fireside, but this is due to the warmth of the speakers and the other participants is more than compensated.
Another recommended format is the “European policy debriefing”, in which experts from the Baden-Württemberg State Representation based in Brussels report on the respective meetings of the European Council.
A special feature can be found in the countries in which the federalist associations are weak or no longer exist. There, the European Movement takes over the function of the UEF, but without incorporating its principles. I would like to cite France as an example, where the absence of La Fédération and the weakness of the UEF on the ground are compensated for by the European Movement France, with whose Alsatian subdivision the EUROPA-UNION Baden-Württemberg, as its direct neighbour, is working more closely.
"La grandeur d'un métier est peut-être, avant tout, d'unir les hommes: il n'est qu'un luxe véritable, et c'est celui des relations humaines."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1985: 199)
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