Federal Europe Is the Solution

Nicola Vallinoto
Congress Vice-Chair of the World Federalist Movement. Editor of the International Democracy Newsletter

Reply to Giorgia Meloni's speech during her end of year press conference.

At the end of year press conference when a journalist asked her whether it is not "time to build a United States of Europe," Giorgia Meloni, new Italian Prime Minister, said she “disagrees with the federal model of the European Union. The Europe that can provide better solutions is a confederal Europe, that is, sovereign nations that decide to share some major matters rather than continuously surrendering pieces of sovereignty to create an extremely bureaucratized European superstate that risks flooding the system.”

Contrary to what the Prime Minister said, I believe that a federal Europe is the solution to the problems that European citizens are concerned about. Italy is better off being part of a federation instead of a confederation, where the strongest countries have the upper hand. Moreover, it is good to emphasize how the federation is not a superstate as Meloni would have us believe. In a supranational federation, only certain matters are the prerogative of the higher level. Foreign and security policy as well as energy policy are certainly among them. In these cases, the sovereignty of states is shared, not surrendered, at the federal level, and decisions are made by majority vote, not unanimity, with a bicameral system representing the states and the people. Shared sovereignty through a common federal government also means lower costs for citizens. Just think of the savings we could achieve with one energy purchasing centre and one military force instead of twenty-seven armies.

On one point I completely agree with Giorgia Meloni: all issues that can be better solved at the national level must remain a national responsibility according to the principle of subsidiarity.

The model to which the Prime Minister refers is De Gaulle's Europe des Patries, a Europe in which states remain sovereign. History shows us that such a model does not work. The United States of America in the beginning was a confederation. After a few years they realized that the confederal model did not allow for effective decision making and in 1789 they decided to become a federation and have a common government.

Europe needs to acquire its own autonomy if it is not to remain subservient to the great powers. If we want the EU to be less bureaucratic and take care of the important issues, it needs to be given the powers by the nation-states to make quick decisions when necessary.

For this reason, the Italian government should follow up on the demands of the Conference on the Future of Europe and foster a constituent process that can provide the EU with the tools to become a global player and attempt to govern, rather than submit to, globalization.