Guy Verhofstadt
Les Etats-Unis d’Europe
Bruxelles, Luc Pire, 2006
In fifty years of integration the European Union succeeded in reaching its initial goals of peace, stability and prosperity. The initial enthusiasm now gives way to concern. The Europeans are worried about opening up European enterprises to new Member States, about competition from South-East Asian economies, and particularly from Chinese textiles. Above all they are worried about the degree of organised crime which could increase in an enlarged Europe (p. 12).
It is in this context that Guy Verhofstadt publishes his manifesto whose main aim is to contribute to the debate on the future of the European Union by presenting his vision of a United States of Europe.
Reviewing the historical context and past attempts to achieve a political European Union, Verhofstadt argues that a future “dynamic European politics is impossible without efficient, transparent and democratic institutions” (p. 63).
Today, the European Union functions at times according to the intergovernmental model and, at others, to the community method. Verhofstadt stresses that “The future of Europe lies in building a political Europe founded on a community or federal ground” (p. 32). He proposes that in future the EU should focus only on few missions. First, it should develop a socio-economic strategy to face both the challenges of globalisation and of Europe’s ageing population. Second, in order to meet the challenge of organised crime the EU should develop the area of justice and security. Third, the European Union must speak with one voice on common foreign and security policy, and be equipped with a common army.
Research and development (R&D) he considers to be a major priority for the future of Europe, as well as the implementation of a trans-European network. “Shortly, the expenses that go to the R&D must be periodically increased in order to take the second place in the budget after the agriculture spending” (p. 53).
The simplification of EU jargon, so-called Eurospeak, is also a matter of priority if we are to diminish the gap between the European dream and European reality as the citizens experience it.
So far, economic integration seems to have been successful. A European Constitution would have brought a major and necessary step forward towards political integration but was rejected “not because it was too ambitious, but because of its lack of ambition” (p. 65). Starting from the observation that the EU Member States are not a homogenous group and that some states favour an intergovernmental model for Europe and others prefer the federalist model, or perhaps a mix of the two, Verhofstadt envisages a federal-core Europe. “To wait until everybody is willing, would be absurd. It would be like waiting for a train that will never arrive” (p. 66). Thus he foresees a European Union made up of two concentric circles: a federal circle which would become the United States of Europe;
and a second confederal circle, possibly called the Organisation of European States.
This manifesto presents arguments in favour of a vision. A politician and Prime Minister of a federal Member State of the European Union, he sets out his arguments in favour of a federal European Union in all their complexity but written in a very accessible style. To be or not to be a federal European Union? The future holds the answer.