This
manifesto is designed to mobilize committed Europeans to campaign for an effective
and more democratic European Union and one that exercises its full potential in
world affairs. The European Union's past achievements The
European Union is a unique political structure, created in the 1950s by long-established
sovereign and independent nation states pooling some of their powers to be exercised
in common by the European institutions. The Union's two immediate objectives were
to end for ever the wars between them which, over the centuries, have cost so
many millions of lives, and to restore prosperity to the war-torn continent and
its peoples. Both objectives have been achieved: wars between the economically
integrated members of the EU are no longer possible and the level of common prosperity
achieved is without precedent. Today, the Union has progressively been enlarged
to twenty seven members with a population of some 500 million and a gross domestic
product greater than that of the USA. It accounts for one fifth of world trade
and provides more than half of all global aid to developing countries. It has
a single currency increasingly recognized as a major pillar of the world's economic
system. For most of its geographical area, the Union's citizens can travel as
freely and conveniently as they do within their own countries. All these are achievements
of which Europeans can rightly be proud. New challenges The
rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by French and Dutch referendums in 2005
demonstrated some alienation from and widespread lack of public understanding
of the European Union and its objectives, and exposed a democratic deficit in
its operations, which must be reversed. But the EU also faces new challenges to
its global interests. Foremost amongst them are climate change, security of energy
supplies, control of inward migration, terrorism, and the promotion of peace and
prosperity in the rest of the world. The new Lisbon treaty offers a framework
within which these challenges can be tackled, provided its provisions are fully
exploited. More democracy Federal
Union welcomes in particular that under the Lisbon treaty the president of the
European Commission will be elected by the Parliament on the nomination by the
European Council. The Council must furthermore, under the treaty, take account
of the European elections in making its nomination. Federal Union calls on all
political groups within the European Parliament to select before the elections
in June 2009 their nominees for president of the European Commission and to campaign
on behalf of their candidates during the election campaign itself. This will offer
a real choice to the electorate in the European elections and assure the voters
a pivotal role in the choice of the next head of the European Union's executive. Equally
important for Federal Union is the Lisbon treaty's recognition of the European
Parliament as a co-legislator with the Council in most European legislation. The
treaty also guarantees greater openness in the work of the Council. The EU system
is clearly moving towards a traditional two chamber parliamentary system, and
the greater transparency of the Council's work will make it easier to hold its
members to public scrutiny and accountability. The treaty moreover opens new avenues
for national parliaments and national publics to carry out this scrutiny. The
greater involvement of national parliaments in the European legislative process
and the new right of citizens' initiative are major steps towards a more legitimate
and accountable European Union. The Lisbon treaty also
marks a first, but not yet complete, attempt to describe the allocation of powers
between different tiers of government in the European Union. Full understanding
of this allocation is crucial for public acceptance of the Union and its structures.
Federal Union believes that powers exercised at the European level should be confined
to issues which cannot be managed effectively only at national level. The division
of responsibilities should always be governed by the federal principle of subsidiarity
whereby decisions are taken as close to citizens as possible, with higher tiers
of government acting only when the common interest so requires. These principles
are far removed from the spectre of a "European superstate" sometimes
invoked in this country. On the contrary, a European Union organized along federal
lines is the best guarantee of the continuing effectiveness, stability and political
identity of its member states. The European Union's
role in world affairs Federal Union welcomes the provisions
of the Lisbon treaty providing for the appointment of a High Representative to
chair the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and to be a Vice-President of
the European Commission, supported by the new "European External Action Service".
This will be a significant move towards providing the EU with a single voice representing
its political and economic interests in world affairs. The emergence of potential
new superpowers such as China and India and the economic strength of the EU after
its enlargement are moving us towards a multipolar world where economic strength
will be shared. Within the next decade, it is estimated that the USA, China and
the EU will each account for nearly one fifth of world GDP, with India 10% and
Japan 5%. Only in military capacity will the USA remain predominant. The EU is
and will remain an international actor with considerable capacity to influence
events on the world stage. On such global issues as climate
change, world trade and combating world poverty the EU already gives a clear lead.
Federal Union believes the EU should extend its involvement in securing peace
in the Middle East and build up closer relations with India, China and Russia
while retaining its traditionally close relations with the USA. The EU is well
placed to make its own, unique contribution to world peace, acting as a model
for other historically divided areas of the world. This model has already found
imitators such as Mercosur in Latin America, ASEAN in south east Asia, the developing
African Union and the free trade agreement between USA, Canada and Mexico. The
challenges and opportunities now offered to the European Union will depend for
their resolution and exploitation on governments and politicians, and upon opinion-formers
acting upon them. To persuade governments and politicians to meet their responsibilities
is the responsibility of committed Europeans. The UK, with its opt-outs and suspicion
of justifiable new developments, has not always played in the past the constructive
part that it could and should have. It is the urgent task of committed Europeans
in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to persuade British public and political opinion
that the United Kingdom should in future play a more constructive role in the
European Union, in their own interest, in their continent's interest and in the
interest of all humanity. Adopted by the Federal Union
AGM, 15 March 2008 | 
