How might the EU Citizens impact the Conference course?

This is an extract from Tony Czarnecki’s book: ‘Democracy for a Human Federation’

Anyone, who is convinced that Europe needs to be federated because it will start the process of bringing about a planetary civilization, must be frustrated with the current scope and final objectives of the Future of Europe Conference. It has not yet been decided in detail how the Citizens’ Assemblies, called for the Future of Europe Conference, will work, for how long, and what exact rights they will have. What is, however, important is the implicit recognition that the European democracy has not been working properly. The way forward points clearly to what is the desired direction, at least this is how President Macron sees it. It is to increase the engagement and trust of the European citizens in the European project. Currently, the trust in the EU and its institutions is at such a low level that it has created deep disillusionment with how the EU works and puts in doubt whether the EU is necessary at all. Perhaps this has finally mobilised some leaders to make these proposals.

It is not yet known either, if this fresh attempt will fundamentally change how the EU works. Before the Covid-19 pandemic it was clear that a strong opposition would come from the usual suspects. These are the EU leaders – members of the European Council, because they would lose most, should the Conference end with a success, like the creation of the European Federation. However, what is encouraging, is a strong support coming from the members of the European Parliament.

Since the situation after the end of the current pandemic will be entirely different than just a few months ago, people supporting the European federalization, such as nearly a hundred federalist movements and other NGOs, should abandon the current minimalistic goals. Instead they should be bolder than ever, and demand that the Conference debates the shape of the future European Federation, preparing its Constitution and setting a concrete date for the transfer of those EU members that want it, to the European Federation. They should thus use the momentum and the infrastructure of the Conference (with some modifications) but reject the proposed objectives as far inadequate from what is required right now. Instead, they should take Presidents Macron’s call for giving more power to the EU Citizens literally and prepare three ‘demand lists’. After all, if a representational democracy has failed so badly to meet the expectations of the electorate, the electorate itself must insist on formulating their demands in a direct form, e.g. through a network of Citizens’ Assemblies, described earlier.

Such demands might be split into three lists as follows:

The EU Citizens’ demands on the changes to the objectives of the Conference

  1. Citizens’ representatives must be included in the Conference Plenary
  2. Citizens Assemblies must be set up in all EU countries and may also include other European countries such as Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, Georgia, the UK and the Balkan countries
  3. The Conference Plenary should invite other European countries as observers and proposers, since it should be the Conference on the future of the whole Europe and not just the EU
  4. The Conference Plenary’s decisions must be binding and become law
  5. The final product of the conference must be the EU Constitution, which would declare that on a certain date, e.g. 1.1.2025, the EU becomes the European Federation
  6. A new Constitution should be approved in two stages by Citizens’ Assemblies. In the first stage, each country’s Citizens’ Assembly would ratify or reject the Constitution and then elect by a simple majority the delegates for a Transnational European Citizens’ Assembly. If, say, 66% of the delegates in that Assembly approve the Constitution, it should become a legal document of the EU.

European citizens’ outline of the process of creating the European Federation

  1. Use the Future of Europe Conference as the beginning of the EU federalization
  2. Attempt to draft a new EU Constitution within the next 2-3 years
  3. Set a firm date for the EU federalization e.g. 1.1.2025
  4. Set up the European Federation (EF) State with subsidiary zones, such as:
  • European Federation Convergence Area (EFCA), which would include the current remaining member states of the EU
  • European Federation Single Market (EFSM)
  • European Federation Customs Union (EFCU)
  • European Federation Association Area (EFAA)

That would enable less prepared candidates to move up to the more advanced Zone over the years, to facilitate greater flexibility for EF expansion

  1. Offer to complete the transition by 2025 to all EU member states.
  2. Should that be impossible, start the transition to the EF state by initially creating it from the ‘Avantgarde’ EU member countries (at least 9 members), by enacting the Article 20 of the Lisbon Treaty. That would create a critical mass for other countries joining in shortly after that
  3. Set up the EF on the ‘Minimal State’ principle, where the nations will transfer to the EF state only minimal powers, which it must have to function as a state, i.e. Foreign Affairs, the European Army, Federal Finance, Federal Police and Federal Agencies (membership of which is voluntary)
  4. Apply 80/20 rule, acknowledging that many areas of the EF will not be initially working perfectly, but the urgency should override the ‘cleanness’ of the federalization process
  5. Enable a ‘Fast track federalization’ in the EF Constitution for the existing candidates and associate members, providing they would strictly abide by the rules of democracy of the EF Constitution 
  6. Ensure that the future EF Constitutional Court has supremacy over national laws in the EF nations and in the subsidiary zones (if applicable)
  7. Confirm English as the official language of the EF
  8. Accept the right to nationhood for regions of more than 5m citizens (smaller regions would need the agreement from the nation-state, to which they belong). Such regions will have the right to automatically become the nations on their own within the EF or separate from the EF and become an independent state, enabling the ‘Cantonization’ of Europe
  9. Confirm that the EF will take over all national debts of its members and introduce a substantial 20-year cohesion (wealth distribution) programme

However, an ‘average’ EU citizens may be interested in seeing positive changes in the areas, mainly economic, affecting him directly. Therefore, some additional proposals may be needed – see here.