Thinking Federalist - The New Federalist

Legal challenges and historic opportunities for a European constitution

Lasse Ramson writes about the process of creating a European constitution debated by citizens, rather than governments.

Saturday 19 May 2018

Federal Europe revisited: Towards a truly pan-European federalism

Hector Niehues-Jeuffroy calls for a more decentralised form of European federalism.

Friday 18 May 2018

Comment: Eurovision Debating Contest?

Juuso Järviniemi argues that it’s right for Spitzenkandidaten to debate on prime time mainstream TV.

Saturday 12 May 2018

Robert Schuman, pioneer of Europe

In an article from 2007, Jean-François Thull narrates the life story of Robert Schuman, one of the ’founding fathers’ of the European Union.

Wednesday 9 May 2018

Representation and contestation in modern democracies. How important are protests?

The status-quo of international politics is largely influenced by the recent resurgence of political extremism and populism (exempli gratia, the 2014 electoral success of the anti-immigrant, anti-EU National Front from France; the 2017 electoral success of the right-wing populist and Eurosceptic (…)

Monday 7 May 2018

Letter to a true European: Thank you, Steph!

After three years as the Head of Translations for treffpunkteuropa.de, Stéphanie-Fabienne Lacombe is leaving the post. She has made a marvellous contribution to the magazine - time for a thank you letter.

Sunday 29 April 2018

Transnational lists, lead candidate and the role of European Council

In 1979 the European citizens elected for the first time their representative in the European Parliament. For the first time in human history a supranational body was elected directly by the people. Since then, the problem was how to grant the EP a proper role in the institutional framework of (…)

Thursday 26 April 2018

Mission Federation: How close are we?

Federalists aren’t happy with Europe as we see it today. How close are we to being satisfied? Juuso Järviniemi offers his take.

Thursday 19 April 2018

Macedonia, or the chronicles of an explosive name

The World Economic Forum in Davos: its snow-covered landscapes, its leaders and influential businessmen… and the “Macedonian dispute”. Indeed, the Forum held from 23 to 26 January was the occasion for the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev to meet. Both (…)

Saturday 31 March 2018

European perspective: We’re being transnational, why can’t you?

On Wednesday, 7 February, the European Parliament rejected the introduction of transnational lists for European elections in 2019, with 368 votes against and 274 in favour. A missed opportunity for Europe.

Thursday 8 February 2018

’The irony is that this happened on the 26th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty’

Jakub Zientala, President of JEF-Netherlands, explains the European Parliament’s vote on transnational lists and joins the chorus of JEF voices critical of the Parliament’s decision.

Thursday 8 February 2018

The underrated complexity of Euroscepticism and why it matters

Far from the impression of homogeneity conveyed by the media, there exists a plurality of Euroscepticisms, from which derive very different positions towards European integration. Considering Euroscepticism as a single political doctrine is not only a conceptual problem, but a political one. (…)

Friday 5 January 2018