For the Republic of Europe
We want the European Parliament to open right now a new constitutional phase to make the European Union become that “Common Home” that we need. We want to support this request through a petition to the European Parliament addressed to European citizens and through a motion for Municipalities, with which they can symbolically adhere to the Republic of Europe.
It is indeed widely believed that this European Parliament is facing the biggest challenge of its whole history: reap the heritage left by Altiero Spinelli and by the Treaty project of 1984, build upon the failure of the Treaty-Constitution project elaborated by the Convention on the Future of Europe in 200 and restart without any further delay.
The return to nationalisms, divisions, regionalisms, small fatherlands, started strengthening again since the end of the 80s. The years of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union, the Maastricht Treaty, the wars in former Yugoslavia.
We expect this Parliament to find the courage and the determination proper of those women and men who gave life to that Europe which brought us peace for the last 75 years.
Today, despite the efforts of part of European politics and its Institutions, the European Union seems run aground: it is no more the utopia of its peoples.
Is the United States of Europe the answer to this need? We believe that United States of Europe have been a great idea for many decades: an inspiring theme of hope, political culture, concrete action. Without the “North Star” of the United States of Europe, we wouldn’t have made the EU. We wouldn’t have entered the path that after the single currency could have led us to a European Constitution. Nevertheless, after the failure of that attempt, the nation states – that were, until that moment, the main positive interpreters of that prophecy – hit by the economic crisis, have been overwhelmed by the rising narrative of the new/old forces that took possession of the concept of “state-nation”. Today the category of “state nation” changed appearance, wearing the clothes of the new nationalisms, gritting its teeth, proclaiming its warlike primacies. We should have created the United States of Europe in 2005, now it’s more and more unlikely that we can make them anymore: there’s a time for everything.
For these reasons we believe that a paradigm shift is needed, a new good idea which can capitalize the best of the pro-European path, revitalizing it under a different perspective, unprecedented, triggering: the Republic of Europe, indeed.
Because the concept of Republic on the one hand makes central again the idea of a public space meant as a common good to be governed together through liberal democracy.
On the other hand, the concept of Republic demand the protagonism of European citizens, rather than their Governments. Luckily European Union already has in its Parliament, elected through universal suffrage, the most extraordinary and forward looking demonstration of this spirit. Whatever nationalists might think of it: the European “demos” does exist. For this reason, we have chosen “onedemos” as the domain to create our web references: the website www.onedemos.eu and the email address info@onedemos.eu.
Making Europe a Republic means to place at the heart the value of equality in front of the law for all the European citizens: same rights, same duties.
Making Europe a Republic, a federal Republic, means having common laws and therefore a homogeneous fiscal system, a harmonised social welfare system, a single foreign policy, a single defense policy, a single environmental policy, keeping valid the other fundamental civic value, which is pluralism of individual and collective identities.
Law will make us equal, culture will keep us different and in dialogue.
For these reasons, we have launched a petition to the European Parliament to open a new constitutional phase and the proposal of a motion for the Municipalities that want to symbolically adhere to the Republic of Europe The European Union can become a Republic but it needs a Constitution which describes the common set of values and commits European Institutions to translate this set in the equality of rights and duties, which founds and protects freedom, justice, peace.
At the end of the meeting in Scandicci, the first signature gathering banquet will be opened.
Davide Mattiello, President of Fondazione Benvenuti in Italia
Sandro Fallani, Mayor of Scandicci
Eric Jozsef, President of EuropaNow
Gerardo Santomauro, Major of Ventotene
Virgilio Dastoli, President of Consiglio Italiano del Movimento Europeo
Diego Montemagno, President of ACMOS
Ulrike Guérot, Founder of European Democracy Lab