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THE UEF:
FROM ITS ORIGINS TO THE PRESENT
DAY
During World
War II a number of anti-fascist members of the Resistance in various European
countries, convinced that European union was the only way of guaranteeing
peace and economic order among European nations, founded diverse federalist
movements. The
meeting between militant federalists from 14 European countries between
15 and 22 September 1946 in Hertenstein on the initiative of Europa-Union
Switzerland, and which adopted a declaration-programme, was decisive for
the setting up of a European federalist organisation. On
the occasion of a second meeting in Luxembourg, at which the world federalists
played an important role, it was agreed that a permanent European secretariat
should be established in Paris and that the world secretariat should be
installed in New York. It
was in Paris that, on 15 and 16 December 1946, that the UEF was officially
brought into life, its function being to co-ordinate and intensify the
activities of the different movements and to organise them into a federal
structure. It was decided that the seat of the UEF should be in Switzerland.
The "integral federalist" Alexandre MARC (born in 1904) became the first
Secretary General of the organisation. Following
a fist international council in Amsterdam in April 1947 the UEF held its
first European congress in Montreux, from 27 to 31 August 1947. This
Congress was imbued with the personal ideas of Denis de ROUGEMONT (1906-1985),
Henri BRUGMANS (1901 - 1997) and Alexandre MARC. The resolutions
on political economy and general policy in Montreux form historical documents
of federalism. Sixteen countries were represented in Montreux, as
well as around forty groups from Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, United-Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and France. Once
the Council of Europe has been established, the UEF campaigned for a federal
pact by putting before the Assembly a petition signed by thousands of citizens
and a large number of eminent figures in political, intellectual and scientific
life. The UEF also campaigned for the ratification of the European
Defence Community (EDC) and for the establishment of a political community. After
rejection of the EDC project the federalists became increasingly strongly
divided as to the strategy to be followed by the UEF between those who,
following Altiero SPINELLI (1907-1986), favoured the constitutional approach,
and those who preferred a step-by-step approach. The former could
not be satisfied with a mere common market; the latter fully supported
it. This conflict led the UEF in July 1956 to split and its division
into two organisations : the "Mouvement Fédéraliste Mondial"
(M.F.E.), formed from militants of the former constitutional persuasion,
and the "Action Européenne Fédéraliste" (A.E.F.) bringing
together those of the latter. But
once the customs union had been established, bringing with it the prospect
of developing into an economic and monetary union, the two federalist organisations
came to agree on the desirability of coming together to relaunch their
political activities, build around the campaign for direct elections for
the European Parliament. This strategic idea, propounded by the Italian
federalists, quickly became the joint platform of all the federalist organisations
which met in April 1973, thus recreating the UEF, rebaptised the Union
of European Federalists. Today,
fifty years after its birth and nearly 25 years after its reunification
the UEF brings together federalist movement from fourteen countries (Belgium,
Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
Austria, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and United-Kingdom) as well as the
transnational "European Community" group. The
UEF secretariat is located in Brussels. The
UEF decided at its last congress in Vienna (April 1997) to mount a popular
campaign aiming at persuading the political classes and public opinion
in all the countries of the need to arrive at the convocation of a European
Constituent Assembly, with a view to this demand becoming the central theme
of the electoral campaign which will precede the European elections in
1999. Its
current President, Jo LEINEN, former Environment Minister and now deputy
in the parliament of the Saar and member of the Committee of the European
Regions, has succeeded Francesco ROSSOLILLO and John PINDER.
(drawn from articles
by Jean-Pierre GOUZY and the contribution of Cinzia ROGNONI in Movimenti
per l'Unità Europea under the direction of Sergio PISTONE)
Brussels, 25 July
1997
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