Political declaration of Mrs Mercedes Bresso, President of the UEF
Mrs Mercedes Bresso, the President of the Union of European Federalists, newly re-elected at the Wien Congress on 1 July 2006, in her concluding speech said that the European federalists are today deeply concerned on the future of the European Union, at present incapable to face the serious crisis provoked by the negative results of the French and Dutch referendums. The European Parliament, the national governments and the Commission should propose a way out. The reflection pause should end.
According to Mrs Bresso, “the Constitutional Treaty was planned in order to give the European citizens a more democratic and a more effective Europe and, therefore, it is an illusion to think that a more democratic and more effective Europe can be built without a European Constitution.” The European project is the European Constitution.
The European federalists propose that the draft Constitutional Treaty – eventually amended by a democratic Convention, if the governments and the European Parliament decide that it is convenient and necessary to amend it – should be submitted to a European-wide consultative ballot (a European referendum) at the same time as the next European parliamentary elections in 2009, in order to give a popular verdict to the Constitution.
Moreover, the Constitutional Treaty should enter into force if, in the European consultative ballot, a double majority of citizens and states approve it. In that way, says Mrs Mercedes Bresso, “we can avoid to come back to national referendums. We should accept the new European reality. And the reality, in the enlarged Europe, is that it is impossible to go on unanimously. A majority of citizens and states cannot be stopped by a minority.”
Note to editors:
The UEF, founded in 1946, is an independent and non-governmental European organisation, campaigning for a federal Europe. It is presided over by Mercedes BRESSO, President of the Italian region Piedmont and former MEP.