Ten years ago, for the first time in their history, the WFM and the UEF held a joint meeting in Montreux on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their foundation. It was possible to call that meeting because of the widespread conviction that the reasons for the separation between European and world federalists were no longer valid. What divided federalists after the end of WWII was their differing view of the priorities to be pursued: the European federalists' regional aim contrasting with the world federalists' global objective.
Yet the Montreux Declaration contained a clear statement that "the foundation of regional federations - insofar as they do not become an end in themselves or run the risk of crystallizing into blocs - can and should contribute to the proper functioning of the world federation". I think that this view is shared today by both European and world federalists.
Since the Ventotene Manifesto, written in 1941, European federalists have recognized the final objective of their political commitment to be the achievement of a world federation. On the other side of the equation world federalists conceive regional federations as being intermediate stages on the road to world federation. But I would like to underline that regional federations can also act as a brake on the tendency toward world centralism, since the subsidiarity principle suggests that nations should be represented at regional level and the great regions of the world be represented at world level.
I have been struck by another far sighted assertion in the Montreux Declaration, namely the idea that federalism is the political priority of our time. "We world federalists", the Declaration stated, "are convinced that the establishment of a world federal government is the crucial problem of our time. Until it is solved, all other issues, whether national or international, will remain unsettled. It is not between free enterprise and planned economy, nor between capitalism and communism that the choice lies, but between federalism and power politics. Federalism alone can assure the survival of man".
There is a striking analogy between these words and a passage in the Ventotene Manifesto, where we can read: "The dividing line between progressive and reactionary parties no longer coincides with the formal lines of more or less democracy, or the pursuit of more or less socialism, but the division falls along a very new and substantial line: those who conceive the essential scope and goal of the struggle as being the ancient one, the conquest of national political power, and who, albeit involuntarily, play into the hands of reactionary forces, letting the incandescent lava of popular passions set in the old moulds, and thus allowing old absurdities to arise once again, and those who see the main purpose as being the creation of a solid international state". Ideas like these are absolutely essential in offering us an orientation towards the future of humankind.
During the long years of the Cold War, the UN was paralysed by the cross-vetoes of the superpowers. While the bipolar world order, born out of WWII, certainly promoted European unification within the Western bloc, it also hindered any genuine progress towards world unification. The division of the world into opposing blocs left no room for the actions of the world federalists. For forty years their pioneering, far-sighted activities could not, for objective reasons, go beyond outlining their ultimate aims and exploring the eventual features of a peaceful world order. Today, with the collapse of that great ideological barrier which for decades gave rise to distrust and hostility between the blocs, with each side investing in terrifying tools of mass destruction, the world has now entered a transitional period characterised by contradictory trends. On the one hand, we are witnessing the collapse of cohesion within states and international organizations - a trend which is particularly strong in the former communist sphere of influence but is also visible everywhere in the world.
On the other hand, co-existing with this trend we have globalisation fostering the formation of regional organizations of states - the EU is the world leader in this respect - opening the way towards a new world order based on law and UN reform.
The end of the Cold War has revealed the obsolescence of the present UN institutions founded 60 years ago. We have now entered a new phase of international co-operation. Already by the end of the 20th century a new generation of international organizations had appeared: the WTO, created to govern the global market, and the International Criminal Court, established to defeat the culture of impunity and to pave the way for the rule of law at international level.
The ICC represents the greatest achievement of the WFM in its 60-year existence. It has played a leading role in the development of a trans-national NGO movement unrestricted by state borders. This is an important political and organizational innovation. The creation of the NGOs' Coalition for the ICC, for example, introduces an extraordinarily efficacious new pattern of action which made it possible for it to exert a real influence on the course of a world diplomatic conference. I think that we can confidently claim that the alliance between the Coalition and like-minded states provided the necessary critical mass for the creation of the ICC.
Federalists today are united in their common commitment against the old demons of nationalism and their drive to strengthen and democratise the EU and the other similar regional organizations as well as the UN. It was the awareness of the complementarity of the objectives of the European and world federalists which led the UEF at the Genoa Congress in 2004 to forward the application for full membership of WFM. This is the first WFM Congress in which there are no longer British, French and Italian delegates but only UEF delegates. The unification of the European and world federalists is one of the most important achievements we celebrate in this 60th anniversary of the foundation of the WFM. Unity is strength. Without themselves being able to speak with one voice it would be difficult for federalists to ask governments to transfer their power to the European and world levels.
We should recognize that the process of unifying the European and world federalists is still incomplete, since not all UEF national sections have yet decided to become WFM members and not all the European WFM chapters are UEF members. But the unification process has started and is in progress. The recent decision of UEF-France to become a WFM member through the UEF shows it. Precisely because they are the strongest federalist organizations in the world, the UEF and the WFM share great responsibilities. The complete achievement of their unification is a task for the next decade.
In conclusion, if we were to take a quick glimpse into the future, we would realize that under the twin banners of free international trade (World Trade Organization) and the protection of human rights (International Criminal Court), matters which were once considered domestic affairs of the states are now regulated by international organizations. The vigorous growth of globalisation highlights the erosion of state sovereignty and fosters the strengthening of economic, monetary, social and environmental international institutions.
But the fact that those institutions can act without democratic legitimation remains an unresolved problem. "In our age everything has been globalized except consent", wrote George Monbiot. "Only democracy has remained relegated to the national state". International democracy and the need for a World Parliament are therefore the great tasks awaiting the young generations of federalists.
* Message of the UEF President for the 60th anniversary of the WFM.