Afederal Europe, also referred to as theUnited States of Europe (USE) or aEuropean federation, is a hypothetical scenario ofEuropean integration leading to the formation of asovereignsuperstate (similar to theUnited States), organised as afederation of themember countries of theEuropean Union (EU), as contemplated by political scientists, politicians, geographers, historians,futurologists and fiction writers. At present, while the EU is not officially a federation or even a confederation, most contemporary scholars of federalism view the EU as afederal system,[1] asupranational union, which has a flexible (seeright to secession,Article 50 andBrexit) membership and competence delegation.
It is to be differentiated from a fusedEuropean State,[2][3] or the concept of aEuropean Republic, equalizing European regions, past the member states, as advocated byUlrike Guérot.[4]
Various versions of the concept have developed over the centuries, many of which are mutually incompatible (inclusion or exclusion of the United Kingdom, secular or religious union, etc.). Such proposals include those from Bohemian KingGeorge of Poděbrady in 1464;[5]Duc de Sully of France in the seventeenth century;[6] and the plan ofWilliam Penn, theQuaker founder ofPennsylvania, for the establishment of a "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates".[7]George Washington also allegedly voiced support for a "United States of Europe",[8] although the authenticity of this statement has been questioned.[9]
Felix Markham notes how during a conversation onSt. Helena,Napoleon Bonaparte remarked: "Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility".[10] "United States of Europe" was also the name of the concept presented byWojciech Jastrzębowski inAbout eternal peace between the nations, published 31 May 1831. The project consisted of 77 articles. The envisioned United States of Europe was to be an international organisation rather than a superstate.Giuseppe Mazzini, an early advocate of a "United States of Europe" regarded European unification as a logical continuation of theunification of Italy.[11] Mazzini created theYoung Europe movement.
The term "United States of Europe" (French:États-Unis d'Europe) was used byVictor Hugo, including during a speech at theInternational Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849.[12] Hugo favoured the creation of "a supreme, sovereign senate, which will be to Europe what parliament is to England" and said: "A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood ... A day will come when we shall see ... the United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, reaching out for each other across the seas". During his exile from France, Hugo planted a tree in the grounds of his residence on the Island ofGuernsey and was noted in saying that when this tree matured the United States of Europe would have come into being. This tree to this day is still growing in the gardens of Maison de Hauteville,St. Peter Port, Guernsey.
In 1867,Giuseppe Garibaldi andJohn Stuart Mill joined Victor Hugo at the first congress of theLeague of Peace and Freedom inGeneva. Here the anarchistMikhail Bakunin stated: "That in order to achieve the triumph of liberty, justice and peace in the international relations of Europe, and to render civil war impossible among the various peoples who make up the European family, only a single course lies open: to constitute the United States of Europe".[13] TheFrench National Assembly also called for a United States of Europe on 1 March 1871.[citation needed]
"Under a capitalist regime, the United States of Europe are either impossible or reactionary."
Before thecommunist revolution in Russia,Leon Trotsky foresaw a "Federated Republic of Europe — the United States of Europe", created by theproletariat.[15] Following theFirst World War, some thinkers and visionaries again began to float the idea of a politically unified Europe. A Pan-European movement gained some momentum from the 1920s with the creation of thePaneuropean Union, based onRichard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's 1923 manifestoPaneuropa, which presented the idea of a unified European State. This movement, led by Coudenhove-Kalergi and subsequently byOtto von Habsburg, is the oldest European unification movement.[16][17][18] In 1923, the Austrian CountRichard von Coudenhove-Kalergi founded thePan-Europa Movement and hosted the First Paneuropean Congress, held inVienna in 1926.[19] The aim was for a Europe based on the principles ofliberalism,Christianity andsocial responsibility.[20]
His ideas influencedAristide Briand,French Prime Minister, who gave on 8 September 1929 a speech before the Assembly of theLeague of Nations in which he proposed the idea of a federation of European nations based on solidarity and in the pursuit of economic prosperity and political and social co-operation. At the League's request, Briand presented in 1930 his "Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal Union" for the Government of France.[21] In the early 1930s, French politicianÉdouard Herriot and British civil servantArthur Salter both penned books titledThe United States of Europe.[22][23]
After the First World War,Winston Churchill had seen continental Europe as a source of threats and sought to avoid the United Kingdom's involvement in European conflicts. On 15 February 1930, Churchill commented in the American journalThe Saturday Evening Post that a "European Union" was possible between continental states, but without the United Kingdom's involvement:
We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonality. But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not compromised. We are interested and associated but not absorbed.[24]
During the 1930s, Churchill was influenced by and became an advocate of the ideas ofRichard von Coudenhove-Kalergi and hisPaneuropean Union,[citation needed] though Churchill did not advocate the United Kingdom's membership of such a union. (Churchill revisited the idea in 1946).
During the World War II victories ofNazi Germany in 1940,Wilhelm II stated that "the hand of God is creating a new world & working miracles. ... We are becoming the United States of Europe under German leadership, a united European Continent".[25]
In 1941, the Italian anti-fascistsAltiero Spinelli andErnesto Rossi finished writing theVentotene Manifesto, encouraging a federation of European states.[26]
TheEuropean Confederation (German:Europäischer Staatenbund) was a proposed political institution of European unity, which was to be part of a wider restructuring (Neuordnung). Proposed by German Foreign MinisterJoachim von Ribbentrop in March 1943, the concept was rejected by FührerAdolf Hitler.[27] Also in 1943 the Italian Fascists proposed the creation of a 'European Community' free of British 'intrigues' at theirCongress of Verona in their newly declared Salo Republic (Mussolini having been rescued from captivity).
Churchill used the term "United States of Europe" in a speech delivered on 19 September 1946 at theUniversity of Zurich, Switzerland.[28] In this speech given after the end of the Second World War, Churchill concluded:
We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living.[29]
While Churchill advocated a united Europe, he saw Britain and its Commonwealth, along with the United States of America, and Soviet Russia as "the friends and sponsors of the new Europe", separate to a United States of Europe led by France and Germany.[29]
As early as 21 October 1942, in a minute to his Foreign Secretary, Winston Churchill had written, "I look forward to a United States of Europe in which the barriers between the nations will be greatly minimised and unrestricted travel will be possible".[30]
Churchill's was a more cautious approach ("the unionist position") to European integration than was the continental approach that was known as "the federalist position".[31] The Federalists advocated full integration with a constitution, while the Unionist United Europe Movement advocated a consultative body; the Federalists prevailed at the Congress of Europe.[31] The primary accomplishment of the Congress of Europe was theEuropean Court of Human Rights, which predates the European Union.[32]
In the 1947 essay "Toward European Unity", English writerGeorge Orwell called for the establishment of a Federal Europe under a system ofdemocratic socialism, which he believed could act as a geopolitical counterweight to both thecapitalistUnited States and thecommunistSoviet Union.[33]
TheUnion Movement was a British party founded byOswald Mosley after the dissolution of hisBritish Union of Fascists. Mosley first presented his idea of "Europe a Nation" in his bookThe Alternative in 1947. He argued that the traditional vision of nationalism that had been followed by the various shades of pre-war fascism had been too narrow in scope and that the post-war era required a new paradigm in which Europe would come together as a single state. In October 1948 when Mosley called for elections to a European Assembly as the first step towards his vision.[34]Nation Europa was a German magazine inspired by Mosley's ideas, founded in 1951 by formerSS commanderArthur Ehrhardt andHerbert Boehme with the support ofCarl-Ehrenfried Carlberg.[35] Mosley would establish theNational Party of Europe and his journal called The European.
By the 1950s and 1960s, Europe saw the emergence of two different projects, theEuropean Free Trade Association and the much more politicalEuropean Economic Community.
Individuals such as the formerGerman Foreign MinisterJoschka Fischer have said (in 2000) that he believes that in the end, the EU must become a singlefederation, with its political leader chosen by direct elections among all of its citizens.[36] However, claims that the then-proposedTreaty of Nice aimed to create a "European superstate" were rejected by former United KingdomEuropean CommissionerChris Patten and by many member-state governments.[36] (As of 2023[update], the post "President of the European Union" does not exist, nor are there any plans that it should do so.)
Themember states of the European Union have many common policies within the EU and on behalf of the EU that are sometimes suggestive of a single state. It has a common policy-setting body, theEuropean Council (of national Heads of Government) that defines the overall political direction and priorities of theEuropean Union. It has a common executive (theEuropean Commission) to oversee execution of policies and to verify compliance with Treaty obligations, including a singleHigh Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. It has a commonEuropean Security and Defence Policy, a single internal market for goods and services,freedom of movement of persons for work, aEuropean citizenship granting European rights, a supreme court (Court of Justice of the European Union – but only in matters ofEuropean Union law or areas affected by it), a common legislature in the form of the directly electedEuropean Parliament and theCouncil of the EU (of national ministers, one Council for each policy area) representing Member States, and numerous agencies and other bodies to implement European law and coordinate policies (such as EIROforum in research, with members likeCERN).[citation needed]
European Law also takes precedence over national law in all areas granted to it by member states (but not otherwise), ranging from energy and environmental policy to consumer rights and criminal justice. There are few domestic policies that are not impacted in some way by European Law agreed by the legislative bodies. Theeuro is often referred to as the "single European currency", which has been officially adopted by twentyEU countries while two other member countries of the European Union have linked their currencies to the euro inERM II. Then non-EU member states ofAndorra,Monaco,San Marino, andVatican City concluded monetary agreements with the EU on the usage of the euro. The non-EU member states ofKosovo andMontenegro adopted the euro unilaterally.[citation needed]
Several pan-European institutions exist separate from the EU. TheEuropean Space Agency counts almost all EU member states in its membership, but it is independent of the EU and its membership includes nations that are not EU members, notably Switzerland, Norway and as a result ofBrexit, the United Kingdom. TheEuropean Court of Human Rights (not to be confused with the European Court of Justice) is also independent of the EU. It is an element of theCouncil of Europe, which like ESA counts EU members and non-members alike in its membership. TheEuropean Political Community is an intergovernmental organization which was founded in 2022 and calls for greater cooperation among European nations, with 47 European states participating.
At present, the European Union is a free association of sovereign states (a de facto, but not de jure, confederation) designed to further their shared aims.[citation needed] Other than the vague aim of "ever closer union" in theSolemn Declaration on European Union, the EU (meaning its member governments) has no current policy to form a federal union. However, in the pastJean Monnet, a person associated with the EU and its predecessor theEuropean Economic Community, did make such proposals. A wide range of other terms are in use to describe the possible future political structure of Europe as a whole and/or the EU. Some of them, such as "United Europe", are used often and in such varied contexts, but they have no definite constitutional status.
In the United States of America, the concept enters serious discussions of whether a unified Europe is feasible and what impact increased European unity would have on the United States of America's relative political and economic power. Glyn Morgan, aHarvard University associate professor of government and social studies, uses it unapologetically in the title of his bookThe Idea of a European Superstate: Public Justification and European Integration. While Morgan's text focuses on the security implications of a unified Europe, a number of other recent texts focus on the economic implications of such an entity. Important recent texts here includeT. R. Reid'sThe United States of Europe andJeremy Rifkin'sThe European Dream. Neither theNational Review nor theChronicle of Higher Education doubt the appropriateness of the term in their reviews.[37][38]
Various federalist organisations have been created over time supporting the idea of a federal Europe. These include theUnion of European Federalists, theEuropean Movement International, the (former)European Federalist Party,Stand Up For Europe andVolt Europa.[citation needed]
TheUnion of European Federalists (UEF) is a European non-governmental organisation campaigning for a Federal Europe. It consists of 20 constituent organisations and it has been active at the European, national and local levels for more than 50 years. A young branch called theYoung European Federalists also exists in 30 countries of Europe.[citation needed]
TheEuropean Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it.[citation needed]
TheEuropean Federalist Party was a pro-European, pan-European and federalist political party from 2011 to 2016 which advocated further integration of the European Union.
As the successor movement of theEuropean Federalist Party,Stand Up For Europe[39] is a pan-European NGO that advocates the foundation of a European Federation. Contrary to movements like the UEF or the former EFP, Stand Up for Europe does not command any national levels anymore, but only consists of regional city teams and the European level.
Volt Europa describes itself a pan-European, progressive movement that stands for a new and inclusive way of doing politics and that wants to bring change for European citizens.[40][better source needed] The party claims that a new pan-European approach is needed to overcome current and future challenges, such as – among others – climate change, economic inequality, migration, international conflict, terrorism, and the impact of the technological revolution on jobs. Volt says that national parties are powerless in front of these challenges, because they go beyond national borders and need to be tackled by Europeans, as one people. As a transnational party, it believes it can help the European people unite, create a shared vision and understanding, exchange good practices across the continent, and come up with working policies. Volt Europa is the first European federalist movement to have elected members in two national parliaments, namely in the Netherlands and Bulgaria, as well as having elected five MEPs from Germany and the Netherlands.
Following the negative referendums about theEuropean Constitution in France and the Netherlands, the former Belgian prime ministerGuy Verhofstadt released in November 2005 his book, written inDutch,Verenigde Staten van Europa ("United States of Europe") in which he claims – based on the results of aEurobarometer questionnaire – that the average European citizen wants more Europe. He thinks a federal Europe should be created between those states that wish to have a federal Europe (as a form of enhanced cooperation). In other words, a core federal Europe would exist within the current EU. He also states that these core states should federalise the following five policy areas: a European social-economic policy, technology cooperation, a common justice and security policy, a common diplomacy and aEuropean army. Following the ratification of theTreaty of Lisbon (December 2009) by all member states of the EU, the outline of a common diplomatic service, known as theExternal Action Service of the European Union (EEAS), was set in place. On 20 February 2009, theEuropean Parliament also voted in favour of the creation ofSynchronised Armed Forces Europe (SAFE) as a first step towards a forming a true European military force.[41]
Verhofstadt's book was awarded the firstEurope Book Prize, which is organised by the association Esprit d'Europe and supported by formerpresident of the European CommissionJacques Delors. The prize money was €20,000. The prize was declared at the European Parliament in Brussels on 5 December 2007. Swedish crime fiction writer Henning Mankell was the president of the jury of European journalists for choosing the first recipient.[citation needed]
While receiving the reward, Verhofstadt said: "When I wrote this book, I in fact meant it as a provocation against all those who didn't want the European Constitution. Fortunately, in the end a solution was found with the treaty, that was approved".[42]
In 2012,Viviane Reding, the Luxembourgish Vice-president of theEuropean Commission called in a speech inPassau Germany and in a series of articles and interviews for the establishment of the United States of Europe as a way to strengthen the unity of Europe.[43]
The Italian Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi said in 2014 that under his leadership Italy would use its six-month-long presidency of the European Union to push for the establishment of a United States of Europe.[44]
In 2024, Matteo Renzi, serving as the leader ofItalia Viva, andEmma Bonino, head of theMore Europe party, formed anelectoral list for the2024 European Parliament election under the name "United States of Europe". Renzi described the initiative as an effort to "bring to Brussels several MEPs who are not sovereignists or populists—people who believe in the United States of Europe. People who do politics."[45] Alongside Italia Viva and More Europe, the list includes theItalian Socialist Party, theItalian Radicals, theEuropean Liberal Democrats andL'Italia c'è.[46]
In December 2017,Martin Schulz, who was then the new leader of the GermanSocial Democratic Party, called for a new constitutional treaty for a "United States of Europe".[47] He proposed that this constitution should be written by "a convention that includes civil society and the people" and that any state that declined to accept this proposed constitution should have to leave the bloc.[47]The Guardian's view was that his proposal was "likely to be met with some resistance fromAngela Merkel and other EU leaders".[47] On that day he also stated that he would like to see a "United States of Europe" by 2025.[48]
The former Italian Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi repeatedly expressed support for deeper European integration under the banner of a “United States of Europe.”[49][50][51][52] In a November 2019 address to theEuropean People's Party inZagreb, he argued that “unificare le Forze armate di tutti gli Stati” (“unifying the armed forces of all Member States”) was imperative for the EU to matter on the world stage, adding that it would also serve as a deterrent to large-scale migration and maintain strategic parity with global powers such as the United States, Russia, andChina.[49] On multiple occasions, he further urged amending the EU treaties to enable majority decision-making, contending that the unanimity rule often hindered rapid and decisive EU-level action.[50][51][52]
Berlusconi’s stance on the euro and European integration was more ambivalent in a 2014 interview with theBBC Newsnight. Warning that “the economic situation will force us and other European countries to abandon the euro and go back to their national currencies” without “radical changes,” he said the EU was “far from ever becoming a United States of Europe” due to what he called “very imbalanced economic” and “very imbalanced tax” policies, as well as the absence of a coherent foreign policy.[53]
In 1992, Dutch businessmanFreddy Heineken, after consulting with historians of theUniversity of Leiden,Henk Wesseling andWillem van den Doel published a brochure "United States of Europe, Eurotopia?". In his work he put forward the idea of creating the United States of Europe as a confederation of 75 states that would be formed according to an ethnic and linguistic principle with a population of 5 to 10 million people.[54]
Some people, such asT. R. Reid, Andrew Reding andMark Leonard, have argued that the power of a hypothetical United States of Europe could potentially rival that of the United States of America in the twenty-first century. Leonard cites several factors:Europe's large population, the scale of the combinedEurope's economy, Europe's low inflation rates, Europe's central geographic location in the world's landmasses, and certain European countries' relatively highly developedsocial organisation andquality of life (when measured in terms such as hours worked per week and income distribution).[56] Some experts[who?] claim that Europe has developed a sphere of influence called the "Eurosphere".Assumptions about a potential full or near superpower status of a perceived Supra-national Euro state are hypothetical in nature and on the other hand contrary notions and arguments exist across a wide spectrum among analysts, experts and pundits.[57][58][59][60]
Some people think that the European Union is unlikely to evolve into a unified federal superstate, due to political opposition of some members. Norwegian foreign policy scholar and commentatorAsle Toje has argued that the power and reach of the European Union more closely resembles asmall power.[61] In his bookThe EU As a Small Power, he argues that the EU is a response to and function of Europe's unique historical experience in that the EU contains the remnants of not one but five past European orders. Although the 1990s and early 2000s have shown that there is policy space for greater EU engagement in European security, the EU has been unable to meet these expectations.[62]
Asle Toje expresses particular concerns over the EU's security and defence dimensionCommon Security and Defence Policy, where attempts at pooling resources and forming a political consensus have failed to generate the results expected. These trends, combined with shifts in global power patterns, are seen to have been accompanied by a shift in EU strategic thinking wherebygreat power ambitions have been scaled down and replaced by a tendency towards hedgingvis-à-vis the great powers. The author uses the case of theEUFOR intervention inDarfur andChad to illustrate that the EU's effectiveness is hampered by aconsensus–expectations gap, owing primarily to the lack of an effective decision-making mechanism. In his view, the sum of these developments is that the EU – in the current situation – will not be a great power and is taking the place of a small power in the emerging multi-polar international order.[citation needed]
According toEurobarometer (2013), 69% of citizens of the EU were in favour ofdirect elections of thepresident of the European Commission and 46% support the creation of a united EU army.[63]
Two thirds of respondents think that the EU (instead of a national government alone) should make decisions on foreign policy, and more than half of respondents think that the EU should also make decisions on defense.[64]
44% of respondents support the future development of the European Union as a federation of nation states, 35% are opposed. The Nordic countries were the most negative towards a united Europe in this study, as 73% of the Nordics opposed the idea.[65] A large majority of the people for whom the EU conjures up a positive image support the further development of the EU into a federation of nation states (56% versus 27%).[65]
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InThe Old Earth, the third volume (1911) ofJerzy Żuławski'sThe Lunar Trilogy, the USE is a communist state.
In thefictional universe ofEric Flint's best sellingalternate history1632 series, a United States of Europe is formed out of the Confederation of Principalities of Europe, which was composed of several German political units of the 1630s.[66]
Science fiction has made particular use of the idea:Incompetence, adystopian novel byRed Dwarf creatorRob Grant, is amurder mysterypolitical thriller set in a federated Europe of the near future, where stupidity is a constitutionally protected right. References to a European Alliance or European Hegemony have also existed in episodes ofStar Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994). In theSpy High series of books for young adults, written byA. J. Butcher and set around the 2060s, a united Europe exists in the form of "Europa", andAndrew Roberts's 1995 bookThe Aachen Memorandum details a United States of Europe formed from a fraudulent referendum entitled the Aachen Referendum.[67]
Since the 2000s a number ofcomputer strategy games set in the future have presented a unified European faction alongside other established military powers such as the United States and Russia. These includeEuro Force (a 2006 expansion pack toBattlefield 2) andBattlefield 2142 (also released in 2006, with a 2007 expansion pack). InBattlefield 2142 a united Europe is shown as one of the two great superpowers on Earth, the other being Asia, despite being mostly frozen in a newice age. The disaster theme continues withTom Clancy's EndWar (2009), in which a nuclear war betweenIran andSaudi Arabia, destroying the Middle Eastern oil supply, prompts the EU to integrate further as the "European Federation" in 2018. One game not to make bold claims of full integration isShattered Union (2005), set in a future civil war in the United States, with the EU portrayed as a peacekeeping force. The video game seriesWipeout instead makes a clear federal reference without a military element: one of the core teams that has appeared in every game is FEISAR. Thisacronym stands for Federal European Industrial Science and Research. In the video game seriesMass Effect set in the 22nd century, the European Union is a sovereign state.
In the backstory of theFallout series, several European nations joined after the end of the Second World War, becoming known as the European Commonwealth. Heavily dependent on oil imports from the Middle East, the Commonwealth began a military invasion of the region in April 2052 once oil supplies began to run dry. This marked the beginning of the Resource Wars. After the oil dried up completely in 2060 and both sides were left in ruins, the Commonwealth collapsed into civil war as member states fought over whatever resources remained. It is not specified whether the European Commonwealth is a single federated nation or just an economic bloc similar to the EU.
In the anime seriesCode Geass, the EU (short for Euro Universe or Europia United), also known as the United Republic of Europia, is one of the three superpowers that dominate the Earth militarily, politically, culturally and economically. The political worldbuilding of the series partially resembles that ofGeorge Orwell'sNineteen-Eighty-Four, with three superstates in roughly the same geographic positions controlling the world.Gundam 00 anime series featured the Advanced European Union (AEU) as one of the major power blocs while inGundam SEED the Eurasian Union includes both European Union andpost-Soviet states.
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{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)President of the United States, Prime Minister of the United States of Europe