Focusing on the establishment of federalist institutions only in the borders of EU will inevitably lead us to the increasing confrontation with other countries (bearing in mind ones which are not currently participating in these integration processes). In its turn, it will directly influence the inner EU problems.
In my humble opinion, it is an architectural mistake. In fact, nowadays, the EU is a raw but already functioning prototype of a future democratic world federalist state. Moreover, in comparison with the majority of the world states, the EU is a real role model to follow from the democratic point of view. Rule of law separation of powers, independent political parties and media, etc., are all present.
However, what do we have as a result, even with such nice portfolio of advantages? This democratic framework, I mean the EU, is really difficult to scale up because of a lot of reasons. Moreover, there is a principle: If you do not develop, you degrade. Some countries, like Great Britain, stopped their participation altogether, while some of them began cheating in order to circumvent some unprofitable restrictions, thus decreasing their involvement in the integration.
Therefore, I believe, that we will have to re-design a new framework for the construction of the federalist world state. Moreover, it seems that we should start with conquering the hearts of loyal people all over the world. In other words, we need to nurture a loyal political elite, leaders beyond the EU borders. An action begins with a thought, especially in the globalized world.
Following Altiero Spinelli’s manifest, we can notice that national states and absolute sovereignty were declared as the main enemies. These statements and similar ones are wrongly considered by the political elites of non-EU countries (e.i. Russia) as aggressive and threatening to their power. That is why they influence the minds of the people via powerful, high-quality media in such a way that is opposite to federalism and democracy. Power centralization helps such national leaders control the political situation inside their countries. Actually, they are currently winning the struggle for hearts and minds in their own countries partly because of our strict focus on EU problems.
Reading again some articles of JEF positions over the past few years, it looks like both the European and Russian politicians are aimed at defense rather than on negotiations. I hear more and more talks about increasing military budgets. However, is it really a solution to the problem? What will we get in the end? Will we, the citizens of the future united Europe, prevent a wave of wars coming upon us? What do we have to do for this?
From my point of view, we need to consistently promote and spread the ideas of Altiero Spinelli. We all know that he stood for the principle of subsidiarity, the transition from a national type of state to a supranational one, the rule of law. Furthermore, Altiero Spinelli actually gave us a mechanism for conflict resolution and we should just apply it without re-inventing the wheels. It’s worth mentioning that the European federalists have always criticized the European Union because it did not take into account the principles that Altiero Spinelli put forward. It should also be recalled that he was in prison at San Stefano for almost 20 years and that his main idea was how to develop a structure of Europe which would prevent a war.
I live in Belarus and I know that the war is close to our borders. This misfortune befell the Ukraine and I realize how important it is to start discussions right now. I don’t mean official political contacts like Norman format in Minsk. I mean the growth of consciousness among simple people, especially the youth.
Nothing promotes the growth of consciousness like the inner confrontation of opposites - as Carl Jung said. In this regard, we need to focus our attention on promoting our ideas among the youth all over the world and first of all Russia. This powerful country borders on the European Union and can significantly influence on survival. We need to win this struggle for the hearts and minds and we can do it because the truth is behind us.
As far as this struggle is concerned, I also think we should keep in our minds that isolation, the growth of military budgets and sanctions cannot solve the security problems. Remember the USSR (or even North Korea), where people without normal food and clothes were ready to solve the most complicated technical problems for the sake of defeating NATO. Do you believe sanctions can solve problems again? Isolation can only lead us to extremely serious challenges like hybrid wars, coups, hacker attacks, nuclear wars.
Let us involve Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian and other youth in our discussions. Let us prepare for them resources for obtaining objective information in their own language. Let us prevent war hawks from escalating this difficult situation while we still have time. I would not want to be driven into the troops to kill my European friends for the benefit of big businessmen, gunsmiths and other oligarchs.
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