View source for Federalisation of the European Union

{{Short description|Proposals to federalise the European Union}}
{{About|proposals to federalise the European Union|hypothetical and historical proposals|Federal Europe|the political doctrine of European cultural integration|European values|the process of integration in Europe in general|European integration}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
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{{Politics of the European Union}}

There is ongoing discussion about the extent to which the [[European Union]] (EU) has already turned from a [[confederation]] (a [[political union|union]] of [[sovereign state]]s) into a [[federation]] (a single federal state with a central government, consisting of a number of partially self-governing [[federated states]]) over the course of decades, and to what degree it should continue to evolve in a [[federalist]] direction. {{As of|April 2026}}, the EU has no formal plans to become a federation.

Since the 1950s, [[European integration]] has seen the development of a [[Supranational union|supranational]] system of governance, as [[Institutions of the European Union|its institutions]] move further from the concept of simple [[intergovernmentalism]] and more towards a federalised system.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} However, with the [[Maastricht Treaty]] of 1992, new intergovernmental elements have been introduced alongside the more federal systems, making it more difficult to define the EU. The European Union, which operates through a hybrid system{{snd}} thus often described as {{Lang|la|[[sui generis]]}}{{snd}} of intergovernmentalism and [[Supranational union|supranationalism]], is not officially a federation or even a confederation, although many contemporary scholars of federalism view it as a [[Federalism|federal system]].<ref name="Built to Last">Kelemen, R. Daniel. (2007). {{cite web |url= http://www.princeton.edu/~smeunier/Kelemen%20Memo.pdf |title= Built to Last? The Durability of EU Federalism? |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130120153312/http://www.princeton.edu/~smeunier/Kelemen%20Memo.pdf |archive-date= 20 January 2013 }} In ''Making History: State of the European Union'', Vol. 8, edited by [[Sophie Meunier]] and Kate McNamara, Oxford University Press, p. 52.</ref>

==History==
[[File:College of Europe.jpg|thumb|left|The [[College of Europe]] in [[Belgium]] was founded after the 1948 [[Hague Congress (1948)|Hague Congress]], a pivotal moment in European federal history that also led to the creation of the [[European Movement]].]]

A Pan-European movement gained some momentum from the 1920s with the creation of the [[Paneuropean Union]], based on [[Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi]]'s 1923 manifesto ''[[Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi#Pan-European political activist|Paneuropa]]'', which presented the idea of a unified European State. This movement, led by Coudenhove-Kalergi and subsequently by [[Otto von Habsburg]], is the oldest European unification movement.<ref>[[Otto von Habsburg]]: ''Die Paneuropäische Idee. Eine Vision wird Wirklichkeit''. Amalthea Verlag, Wien-München 1999, {{ISBN|3-85002-424-5}}</ref><ref>Vanessa Conze: ''Das Europa der Deutschen; Ideen von Europa in Deutschland zwischen Reichstradition und Westorientierung (1920–1970)''; Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag; 2005; {{ISBN|978-3-486-57757-0}}.</ref><ref>Ben Rosamond, Theories of European Integration, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000, pp. 21–22.</ref> His ideas influenced [[Aristide Briand]], who gave a speech in favour of a European Union in the [[League of Nations]] on 8 September 1929, and in 1930, who wrote his "Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal Union" for the Government of France.<ref>D. Weigall and P. Stirk, editors, ''The Origins and Development of the European Community'', Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1992, pp.&nbsp;11–15.</ref>

At the end of [[World War II]], the political climate favoured unity in Western Europe, seen by many as an escape from the extreme forms of nationalism which had devastated the continent.<ref>{{cite web |title=The political consequences |publisher=[[European NAvigator]] |url=http://www.ena.lu/?doc=242&lang=3 |access-date=2007-09-05 |archive-date=9 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809230029/http://www.ena.lu/?doc=242&lang=3 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
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        For a lot more on immediate post-war proposals (Churchill, Spinelli and others), see the article 'United States of Europe'. Please do not expand this aspect of the history of integration ideas in this article, use that one.
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One of the first practical and successful proposals for [[European integration|European cooperation]] came in 1951 with the [[European Coal and Steel Community]]. Since then, the European Community has gradually evolved to Union in which a whole range of policy areas where its [[Member state of the European Union|member states]] hope to benefit from working together.

The process of intergovernmentally pooling powers, harmonising national policies and creating and enforcing [[Institutions of the European Union|supranational institutions]], is called [[European integration]]. Other than the vague aim of "ever closer union" in the 1983 [[Solemn Declaration on European Union]], the Union (meaning its member governments) has no current policy to create a [[Federation|federal state]].

Debate on European unity is often vague as to the boundaries of 'Europe'. The word 'Europe' is widely used as a [[synonym]] for the [[European Union]], although most of the European continent's geographical area is not in the EU, and some of the EU is outside of Europe (e.g. [[French Guiana]]). Most of Europe's people do, however, live in the EU.

===Multi-speed integration===
{{Main|Multi-speed Europe}}
The multi-speed Europe thesis envisions an alternative type of European integration, where the EU countries that want a more integrated EU can accelerate their own integration, whereas other countries may go at a slower pace or cease further integration altogether. Specific current examples include the [[Eurozone]] and the [[Schengen Area]], which not all members have joined.

== Present situation ==
{{Supranational European Bodies|size=580px|align=right}}
The [[European Union]] (EU) is not legally (''[[de jure]]'') a federation, although various academics have argued that it contains some federal characteristics. About how various scholars approach the issue, [[R. Daniel Kelemen]] of [[Rutgers University]] said: "Unencumbered by the prejudice that the EU is ''[[sui generis]]'' and incomparable, federalism scholars now regularly treat the EU as a case in their comparative studies (Friedman-Goldstein, 2001; Filippov, Ordeshook, Shevtsova, 2004; Roden, 2005; Bednar, 2006). For the purposes of the present analysis, the EU has the necessary minimal attributes of a federal system and crucially the EU is riven with many of the same tensions that afflict federal systems."<ref name="Built to Last"/>

According to [[Joseph H. H. Weiler]], "Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism".<ref>{{cite book |author=J.H.H. Weiler |author-link=Joseph H. H. Weiler |title=The federal vision: legitimacy and levels of governance in the United States and the European Union |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-924500-2 |chapter=Chapter 2, Federalism without Constitutionalism: Europe's ''Sonderweg'' |quote=Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism. It works. Why fix it? |year=2003 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/federalvisionleg00kaly }}</ref> Jean-Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano see the [[European Court of Justice]] as being a primary force behind building a federal legal order in the Union<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11558-006-9001-y | doi=10.1007/s11558-006-9001-y | title=How the court made a federation of the EU | date=2007 | last1=Josselin | first1=Jean-Michel | last2=Marciano | first2=Alain | journal=The Review of International Organizations | volume=2 | pages=59–75 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> with Josselin stating that "A complete shift from a confederation to a federation would have required to straightforwardly replace the principality of the member states vis-à-vis the Union by that of the European citizens. … As a consequence, both confederate and federate features coexist in the judicial landscape."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Josselin |first1=Jean Michel |last2=Marciano |first2=Alain |year=2006 |title=The political economy of European federalism |series=Series: Public Economics and Social Choice |publisher=Centre for Research in Economics and Management, University of Rennes 1, University of Caen |page=12 |id=WP 2006–07; UMR CNRS 6211 |url=http://crem.univ-rennes1.fr/wp/2006/ie-200607.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819213748/http://crem.univ-rennes1.fr/wp/2006/ie-200607.pdf |archive-date=19 August 2008 }}</ref>

Thomas Risse and Tanja A. Börzel wrote: "The EU only lacks two significant features of a federation. First, the Member States remain the 'masters' of the treaties, i.e., they have the exclusive power to amend or change the constitutive treaties of the EU. Second, the EU lacks a real 'tax and spend' capacity, in other words, there is no fiscal federalism."<ref>Thomas Risse and Tanja A. Börzel, [http://www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/papers/00/00f0101-04.html#P44_19193 The European Union as an Emerging Federal System] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010193511/http://www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/papers/00/00f0101-04.html |date=10 October 2008 }}, Jean Monnet Center at [[NYU School of Law]]</ref>

Other academics have argued that the EU is unlikely to evolve into a unified federal state. Kelemen has taken this view himself in a paper co-written with Andy Tarrant, arguing that limits placed on the bureaucratic capacity of the European institutions – such as the relatively small size of the [[European Commission]] – form a barrier to the creation of a federal European state. In their words: "widespread political opposition to the creation of anything approximating a large, unified executive bureaucracy in Brussels has long-since ended hopes, for the few who harboured them, of creating a [[European superstate]]."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kelemen |first1=R. Daniel  |last2=Tarrant |first2=Andy |year=2007 |title=Building the Eurocracy |url=http://aei.pitt.edu/7931/1/kelemen-d-08h.pdf }}</ref> Some common points in this context are that the European budget is very small and does not finance a lot of the economic activity of the European Union; that each member state of the European Union has its own foreign relations and its own military; that it is often the case that European Union member states decide to opt out of agreements which they oppose; and that member states still retain sovereignty over a large number of areas which might be expected to be transferred to a federal authority under a federal system. One important fact is that treaties must be agreed by all member states even if a particular treaty has support among the vast majority of the population of the European Union. Member states may also want legally binding guarantees that a particular treaty will not affect a nation's position on certain issues.

Use of the word 'federal' is itself the cause of some disagreement. [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] found opposition from the United Kingdom towards including the word "federal" in the proposed [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitution]], and hence replaced the word with "Community".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1435550/Giscard%27s-%27federal%27-ruse-to-protect-Blair.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130114035522/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1435550/Giscard%27s-%27federal%27-ruse-to-protect-Blair.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 January 2013 |title=Giscard's 'federal' ruse to protect Blair |work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London |author=Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose |date= 8 July 2003 |access-date=2008-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Sean |last=Thomas |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/06/22/do2210.xml |title=Gobbledegook |work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London  |date=22 June 2003 |access-date=2008-10-15}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |first=V. G. |last=d'Estaing |date=7 July 2003 |title= ''Unknown title'' |journal=[[The Wall Street Journal Europe]] |quote=I knew the word 'federal' was ill-perceived by the British and a few others. I thought that it wasn't worth creating a negative commotion, which could prevent them supporting something that otherwise they would have supported. … So I rewrote my text, replacing intentionally the word 'federal' with the word 'communautaire', which means exactly the same thing.}}</ref>

In November 2021, the now former German government, the [[Scholz cabinet]], called for European federalism in the coalition agreement and wanted to help achieve this.<ref>{{cite web |title=German government will push for a European federation |url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/german-government-will-push-for-a-european-federation/ |website=euractiv.com |date=25 November 2021 |accessdate=26 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What's in the German coalition deal for Europe (and the UK) |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-elections-government-europe-olaf-scholz-angela-merkel-sdp-fdp-greens-brussels/ |website=Politico Europe |date=24 November 2021 |accessdate=26 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present)|Russian Invasion of Ukraine]] and growing tensions between USA and Europe during the [[Second presidency of Donald Trump|second presidency]] of [[Donald Trump]], contributed to the emergence of new pan-European movements and parties like [[Ave Europa]], [[Union of European Federalists]], and [[Volt Europa]] calling for turning the EU into a proper [[federal republic]]. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-12-15 |title=Forget the far right. The kids want a ‘United States of Europe.’ |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/united-states-of-europe-online-propaganda-social-media-memes/ |access-date=2026-01-28 |website=POLITICO |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|European Union|Europe|Politics}}
* {{Annotated link |Anti-Europeanism}}
* {{Annotated link |Pan-Arabism|Arab Union}}
* {{Annotated link |Consociationalism}}
* {{Annotated link |Democracy in Europe Movement 2025}}
* {{Annotated link |European Federalist Party}}
* {{Annotated link |European Movement International}}
* {{Annotated link |Euroscepticism}}
* {{Annotated link |Nation state}}
* {{Annotated link |Politics of Europe}}
* {{Annotated link |Pro-Europeanism}}
* {{Annotated link |Pulse of Europe}}
* {{Annotated link |Sovereignty}}
* {{Annotated link |Spinelli Group}}
* {{Annotated link |Stand Up for Europe}}
* {{Annotated link |Subsidiarity (European Union)}}
* {{Annotated link |Union of European Federalists}}
* {{Annotated link |United States of Africa}}
* {{Annotated link |United States of Europe}}
* {{Annotated link |United States of Europe (electoral list)}}
* {{Annotated link |Volt Europa}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080531025508/http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com/Article/European-Integration--Westphalian-Cooperation-or-Federalization-/2383 European Integration: Westphalian Cooperation or Federalization?]
* [http://www.ellopos.net/politics/eu_hugo.html Political speeches by Victor Hugo: Victor Hugo, My Revenge is Fraternity!], where he used the term United States of Europe.
* [[Jürgen Habermas]]. [http://www.signandsight.com/features/676.html Towards a United States of Europe], signandsight.com
* [http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/analysis-federal-europe-look/article-154389 Analysis: What would a federal Europe look like?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813232955/http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/analysis-federal-europe-look/article-154389 |date=13 August 2007 }}
* Archival sources deposited by various Federal European Movements and its leaders are consultable at the [http://archives.eui.eu/en/fonds/ Historical Archives of the European Union] in Florence
* [http://www.europeanfederalistpapers.eu/ The European Federalist Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328221417/https://europeanfederalistpapers.eu/ |date=28 March 2022 }}

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[[Category:Council of Europe]]
[[Category:Politics of the European Union]]
[[Category:Eurofederalism]]