A long road begins to meet citizens’ demands and build a more solid future of the EU.
The Union of European Federalists, who strongly supports these proposals of the European Parliament to amend the Treaties, launched a massive and successful outreach campaign encouraging citizen engagement and pressuring MEPs ahead of a crucial vote at the European Parliament.
On Wednesday 22 November, the European Parliament approved the Report on the proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties drafted by Spinelli Group members Guy Verhofstadt, Sven Simon, Gabriele Bischoff, Daniel Freund, and Helmut Scholz.
This was a historic vote, which sees the European Parliament once again playing a leading role after forty years, since the draft Treaty inspired by Altiero Spinelli, in an attempt to strengthen the political and decision-making architecture of Europe to make it a protagonist of the challenges of its time.
Today the vote falls at a time of serious international crisis and during a process of profound transformation of our societies that requires us to act united as Europeans, to strengthen our common house so that it is more effective and at the same time more capable of providing answers to the needs of citizens.
In support of this courageous initiative by the European Parliament, which is in line with the commitments made by the European institutions at the end of the Conference on the Future of Europe, the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and its sections all over Europe met citizens in more than 30 European cities and online to inform them about the crucial vote of Wednesday.
From 6 to 19 November 2023, Federalist activists organised demonstrations and debates, in the streets and on social media. To know more about our actions, visit the UEF website and watch the livestream of Monday 20 November, featuring the organisers of these local actions. See here also the photo action inside the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday 21 November.
UEF President Domènec Ruiz Devesa in view of the upcoming plenary sent a letter together with Spinelli Group Chair MEP Sandro Gozi to their colleagues of the European Parliament, stating: “An affirmative vote on Wednesday 22 November on the Report on proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties is exactly the answer that our Union and citizens need. I hope that together, as the European citizens’ representatives, we will show a wide majority in the Plenary vote, sending a clear message to the Council and urging its transmission to the European Council under the Spanish Presidency. Thus, we will have the opportunity to discuss the citizens’ priorities for a more effective European Union already in the European Council meeting of 15 December 2023”
The UEF urges the Spanish Presidency of the European Union to immediately transmit the file to the Council of the European Union and asks Charles Michel, in his capacity as President of the European Council to put the decision on the call for a Convention on the agenda of its 15 December meeting.
Brussels, 22 November 2023
Context
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) is a pan-European, non-governmental political organisation dedicated to the promotion of European political unity.
The draft report on the amendment of the treaties is the European Parliament’s answer to the Conference on the Future of Europe, an unprecedented democratic exercise that gathered 800 European citizens. These citizens gave out recommendations for institutional reforms of the European Union, and several of them found their way into the report voted today.
Today’s vote is the last step to formally call for a Convention to reform the treaty, but only the start of the reform process.