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| Action for European Federalism | |
|---|---|
| Name | Action for European Federalism |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Founders | Altiero Spinelli, Umberto Terracini, Altiero Spinelli (note: repeated), Piero Calamandrei, Edoardo Martino |
| Type | Political advocacy group |
| Location | Brussels, Rome |
| Region served | Europe |
| Leader title | President |
| Leader name | Altiero Spinelli |
| Affiliations | European Movement, Union of European Federalists |
Action for European Federalism is a transnational advocacy organization founded in the aftermath of World War II to promote federalist integration across Europe. It has engaged with institutions such as the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community, and the European Union while interfacing with political figures from Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Its proposals influenced treaties including the Treaty of Rome and initiatives debated at the Treaty of Maastricht and the Treaty of Lisbon.
Founded in 1948 by veterans of the Paneuropean Union and anti-fascist activists from Italy and Belgium, the group emerged alongside movements led by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Winston Churchill, and Konrad Adenauer. Early campaigns targeted institutions such as the Council of Europe and the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation while responding to events like the Berlin Blockade and the Marshall Plan. Key moments included collaboration with the European Coal and Steel Community, participation in dialogues around the Schuman Declaration, and influence on the drafting of the Ventotene Manifesto and the Spinelli Plan. During the Cold War, the movement positioned itself between Atlanticist currents represented by NATO and neutrality movements in Sweden and Switzerland, and it engaged policymakers from Charles de Gaulle's France to leaders in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the 1970s and 1980s it interacted with debates around European Political Cooperation, the European Parliament, and enlargement to include Greece, Spain, and Portugal. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the enlargement waves of 2004 and 2007 renewed debate involving actors such as Václav Havel, Lech Wałęsa, and Boris Yeltsin regarding federal options.
The organization's federalist agenda drew on intellectual currents from Giuseppe Mazzini, Denis de Rougemont, Altiero Spinelli, and Ernest Renan while opposing nationalist currents associated with Charles Maurras or regionalist movements such as in Catalonia and Scotland. It advanced a constitutionalist vision related to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and proposals comparable to the Draft Treaty Establishing the European Union (Spinelli Plan), advocating supranational institutions similar to those in the United States and federal models observed in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. Its policy platform addressed monetary dynamics influenced by the Bretton Woods era and later by the European Monetary System and the Eurozone debates culminating in the Maastricht Treaty and the creation of the European Central Bank. The movement endorsed democratic legitimacy debates tied to the European Parliament and judicial elements comparable to the European Court of Justice.
Structured as a network of national sections, it mirrored arrangements seen in organizations like the European Movement International and the Union of European Federalists, with leadership drawn from members of the Italian Constituent Assembly, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. Decision-making bodies resembled committees in entities such as the Council of the European Union and ad hoc coalitions akin to those formed at the Congress of Europe (1948). It maintained liaison relationships with political parties including the Christian Democracy, the French Socialist Party, the CDU, the European Green Party, and federalist wings of the Labour Party. Funding and governance echoed models used by non-governmental organizations that work with the European Commission and foundations such as the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.
Campaigns ranged from advocacy for treaty reform to public education initiatives during referendums such as those on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and the Maastricht Treaty ratification processes in France and the Netherlands. It organized conferences and symposia featuring Javier Solana, Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand, Margaret Thatcher, and Giulio Andreotti and coordinated petitions, public letters, and manifestos similar to the Ventotene Manifesto and the Spinelli Plan campaigns. The group participated in debates at venues such as the College of Europe, the European University Institute, and the London School of Economics, and it mobilized youth through networks comparable to the Young European Federalists and student movements linked to the International Union of Students and European student unions. It engaged in litigation strategies referencing jurisprudence from the European Court of Justice and campaigned around enlargement episodes involving Turkey, the Western Balkans, Croatia, and Romania. It maintained dialogues with municipal actors in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, and Athens.
The organization produced pamphlets, policy papers, and periodicals distributed alongside works by Altiero Spinelli and commentaries in outlets such as Le Monde, The Guardian, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, La Repubblica, and El País. It published analyses referencing legal frameworks like the Treaty of Westphalia (historical comparisons), the Treaty on European Union, and studies paralleling scholarship from the Centre for European Policy Studies and the European Policy Centre. Communications used broadcast platforms including BBC, RAI, France Télévisions, and Deutsche Welle and engaged with academic journals such as the Common Market Law Review and the European Law Journal. It issued position papers ahead of European Council summits chaired by figures like Herman Van Rompuy and Donald Tusk and collaborated with think tanks including the Bruegel and the Carnegie Europe office.
The group's influence is traceable in proposals adopted in instruments like the Treaty of Rome, the Single European Act, and debates leading to the Lisbon Treaty, and it fostered networks reaching the European Commission and the European Parliament. Critics from sovereigntist parties such as National Rally, UK Independence Party, and commentators aligned with Václav Klaus argued against federalist centralization, while academic critics referenced tensions highlighted by scholars like Jürgen Habermas, Erik Oddvar Eriksen, and Andrew Moravcsik. Debates with proponents of intergovernmentalism exemplified by Charles de Gaulle and defenders of subsidiarity cited the Principle of Subsidiarity and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. Accusations included elitism, technocracy, and insufficient democratic accountability, countered by supporters pointing to comparative federal systems in Belgium and Germany and civil rights protections in documents like the European Convention on Human Rights.