Thinking Federalist

The limits of the Euro-wide referendum

Since Maastricht in 1992, direct voting on EU issues has been on the increase. Starting off from a very limited number of countries ratifying only major institutional changes through referendums, there has been a wave of membership referendums in 2003 and several actual and announced (...)

Saturday 25 November 2006

Federalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Balkan region has been neglected by most federal scholars. While experts in conflict resolution and democratisation have been examining the countries of the former Yugoslavia in many ways, federal scholars have not been able to apply their theory to those countries. There are many reasons (...)

Thursday 16 November 2006

Pick your favorite federalism

Federalism is a fiction: -isms don’t translate into reality all that easily. The fallacy generally is this: invent an ingenious principle of government, and go on to claim it’s a catch-all solution. Being friends of Europe, federal-ism is our most beloved designer drug. But what’s the kick really? (...)

Tuesday 14 November 2006

EMI, UEF and JEF request an EU Foreign Minister

This Friday the Union of European Federalists (UEF), together with the European Movement International (EMI) and the Young European Federalists (JEF) handed over a statement in which three organisations express the urgent need for an EU Foreign Minister. The statement was handed over to (...)

Saturday 30 September 2006

JEF on Peace Day: Time for Europe to act for peace!

Europe is the world biggest peace project and indeed the creation of lasting peace was what motivated federalists after the Second World War to fight for the removal of European borders. But despite the success of the European peace project, the Balkan wars and the numerous armed conflicts (...)

Friday 29 September 2006

The Bilateral Way: Opportunism and “Rosinenpickerei”

Whilst Swiss people appreciate and celebrate the achievements of federalism within the country, they totally forget about it when acting internationally. There seem to be other principles ruling Switzerland’s European policy, more opportunist ones. Distrust and reluctance towards supra-national (...)

Monday 25 September 2006

FC Barcelona - more than a club, a new global hope for vulnerable children

How can a Football team foster World Federalism? Unexpectedly, the current Champion’s League winner the Futbol Club Barcelona has come up with an idea to link sports, solidarity and support to a supranational institution such as United Nations. Instead of using the historic maroon-and-blue (...)

Sunday 10 September 2006

Constitution, Social Europe, and the Failed Peace Project

The unhappiness about social security aspects of Europe have been pinpointed as the reason for turning down the Constitution. The real reasons behind the rejection to Constitution can be debated, and different opinions still remain. This article looks at the interconnectivity of the social (...)

Sunday 27 August 2006

UN reform: Where is the EU ?

The UN structure is an acronym of the immediate post-WW2 period. It has very little to do with the realities of today’s world. The need for a change has been evident for quite some while, and is even more visible today with the Security Council loosing its role as the prime arbiter at the (...)

Monday 24 July 2006

A pan-European Referendum for the European Constitution

The Movimento Federalista Europeo ([MFE->http://www.mfe.it), the Italian branch of the Union of European Federalists ([UEF->http://www.federaleurope.org), has recently launched a new political campaign under the slogan “A pan-European referendum for the European Constitution”. Its aim is that the (...)

Saturday 22 July 2006

What mobility in EU’s mobility year?

The European Commission has proclaimed the year 2006 as European worker’s mobility year. This came as a slap in the face of EU citizens coming from eight of the new member states that, due to transitional periods imposed on the free movement of labour, cannot be fully mobile. The Austrian (...)

Monday 10 July 2006

Athens: Federalist participation to the European social forum

From May 4th to 7th the 4th European social forum (ESF) was held in Athens. 35.000 people participated in more than 200 seminars and workshops. More East European and Turkish activists joined this event than any other previous ESF (Florence, Paris and London). The ESF was a great opportunity (...)

Sunday 9 July 2006
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