Appeal to the European Civil Society

The war in Ukraine is showing to the world that the European states are not ready to defend a country that wants to be part of the European Union, as stated in art. 85 of Ukraine Constitution.

It is not only a question of the legitimate fear of a widening of the conflict, but also of a serious lack of preparation and vision. Europe does not have a common foreign policy and defense, therefore it is not in a position to play an adequate role on the world stage.

Once again, before Putin’s decision to invade, Europe demonstrated to be unable to speak and act as a single body, encouraging him to choose war, in the belief of a weak and disunited response from our countries. We cannot afford for this to happen again in the future. The fact that, almost exclusively thanks to its own forces and courage, Ukraine is limiting the Russian invasion, should not deceive us about the profound inadequacy of the European political system.

The hour of supreme danger has the merit of revealing how much the common interests of all European citizens are the same, for both the countries of the East and of the West, for the countries of the North and those of the Mediterranean. For all these countries at stake is the ability to develop social and economic well-being in peace and security, to combat climate change and deal with large scale crisis such as pandemics and migrations.

In order to achieve all of these capabilities, there is only one political and institutional solution. The creation today of a European Federation that promotes the common interests of all Europeans, safeguarding the sovereignty of individual states and all their citizens.

Europe must speak with one voice, through a President elected by its citizens and a two-chamber parliament: a House of the Citizens elected on transnational basis and a House of the States, representing each member country.

Such a federation can only be born and prosper through the adoption by European citizens of a Federal Constitution that overcomes the inefficiency and the democratic shortcomings of the treaty-based European Union.

That’s why, already in October last year, FAEF – Federal Alliance of European Federalists – launched a Citizens’ Convention, entirely made up of citizens who are writing the European Federal Constitution. Within a few weeks the work will be completed and the General Assembly of FAEF, formed by European civil society organizations, will promote the process of ratification of the Constitution directly by European citizens.

That is why we urgently appeal to the entire European civil society to strongly support this initiative in one or all of the following ways:

1. 1. by spreading this appeal as widely as possible both via mail and social media (shorten appeal
      version can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/faefalliance/posts/252057943784528 );
   2. by supporting the fundraising for the Citizens’ Convention;
   3. by getting as many organizations (pro Europe movements, trade unions, associations, think tanks,
      academies, institutions, etc) as possible to join the FAEF and promote the European Federal
      Constitution.

Only by gathering sufficient forces from the grassroots will it be possible to create a critical mass and demonstrate the will of Europeans to be truly united and to finally build a true European Federation based on a democratic Constitution!

Leo Klinkers, President FAEF
Mauro Casarotto, Secretary General

You can contact us here: citizensconvention@faef.eu

See also the article by Leo Klinkers ‘What caused EU’s irrelevance in the Ukrainian drama?’