Bruno Boissière is Secretary-General of the Union of European Federalists

Based on certain values, should the European Union be open to all countries wanting to join, regardless of geographical or cultural conditions?

The Union - and, certainly, a political union of the peoples and States of Europe - should be founded on common values. While this is a necessary condition, it is not enough. For me, Europe - politically - begins and ends where the sense of joint purpose begins and ends. In other words, a United Europe cannot be based on decree; either its peoples desire it or they do not. No one doubts that on the geographical and cultural levels all the candidate countries now negotiating with the Union are already European. To tell the truth, it is a question of re-unifying Europe. Beyond that, it is perfectly foreseeable and acceptable that a European federation, made attractive by its own success, could one day be joined by other States which, while outside Europe's strict geographical limits, could take part in its political development and join in defending its common values, the unity and diversity of its culture, and even its territory.

Would the desire to impose geographical limits to the Union give support to those suspicious of the process of integration as leading to a European 'super-state' founded on the model of the nation states?

In fact, the error to be avoided is that of seeking to reproduce on a larger, even a continental, scale the nation-state, today overtaken both from below (the regions) and from above (the building of Europe). The political Europe of the future should not be a unitary and centralised state with an immutable territorial area. Federalism seeks to unify, from bottom to top, the different entities, while respecting their diversity. This is not an end in itself; rather it is a method or state of mind. In this way, the geographical limits of a Europe progressing towards union have evolved in line with the enlargements from six to nine, twelve and fifteen. It is not for geographical and cultural reasons, for example, that Switzerland, Sweden or the countries of eastern Europe are not yet members of the Union. As has been happening progressively within the area corresponding to today's Union, the time will come to question the validity of frontiers, these 'scars of history' and to consider them as links rather than as barriers.

Does the Union prefigure an ideal for the United Nations as organisation?

The Union such as it is today does not represent an ideal model for the future organisation of the United Nations. At best it amounts to an experience, a contribution on the road to world unity. "Example is not the best way of influencing others, it is the only way", wrote Albert Schweitzer. This is what Europe is in the process of demonstrating to other regions of the planet and to the world as a whole. At its first congress at Montreux in 1947, the UEF chose, moreover, as a statutory objective, "to work for the creation of a European federation, a constituent element of the world confederation". In other words, to promote a federal Europe in and for a united world.

Should the specific nature of the Union lead to its member states being grouped in the United Nations under the Union's flag?

The European Union of today can, indeed, be described as an 'unidentifiable international object', neither international organisation nor federal state, but rather some sort of intermediate or hybrid body the two. It follows that the question of its representation in the United Nations does not arise as a matter of urgency. Certainly any progress in the constitutional process, notably as regards the legal personality of the Union, could bring this question onto the agenda. Should the Union be transformed into a real European federation, then its accreditation as a single entity to the United Nations would come to the fore, but on different terms from those of today. Indeed, the present global challenges could oblige the UN to carry out a fundamental reform of its organs in the direction of a democratisation of its structure and doubtless of a regionalization of the representations of its members, and of an improvement of its efficiency.