Three days before the conference, I was asked to give a short presentation on "a positive vision for the future of an integrated Europe".

 

Arriving in Bratislava, I discovered that the conference programme gave the title of my talk as: "Why do we need a federal Europe?" Until then, I had not thought in detail about the structure of the kind of integrated Europe I envisioned. My main concern had been to counter the arguments of those who want to dismantle the EU and retreat into a 19th-century model of competing nation-states jealously guarding their 'sovereignty' against any supra-national institution.

 

It is not my intention to defend the way the EU currently functions. But it is the soft option merely to list its many faults and argue for its destruction. It is easy to point to its undemocratic nature, lack of transparency and the sometimes silly regulations it produces - and forget to mention its many positive aspects: much good legislation, especially on the environment and human rights; the principle of consensus in the Parliament, which transcends the fighting for narrow party interests which so often characterizes national politics.

 

To want to dismantle the EU is to risk throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. The 'baby' in this context is the idea of a Europe growing closer together in mutual solidarity and cooperation; treasuring its diversity and enormously rich cultural history, but also accepting that the old nation-state model has outlived its usefulness, that something new is waiting to be born in Europe - a new way of living and working together which raises every country to higher and higher levels of achievement: not in terms merely of material wealth, but in terms of genuine democracy and the possibility for all citizens (not just an elite minority) to develop their full potential as human beings.

 

Those who condemn the EU often complain of the 'loss of national sovereignty'. They typically identify the apparatus of state and government with that sovereignty. But sovereignty belongs properly to the people (as most of the constitutions of the countries of Europe state clearly). This true sovereignty is another name for the free, self-actualising, self-determining individual.

 

When individuals join together in groups to achieve a task which they cannot achieve alone, they always have to sacrifice a little of their individual freedom of action for the common good. That is also a 'loss of sovereignty': freely given, it makes possible the achievement of a higher good - the ideal which has been put forward as a vision for the future and freely accepted by all.

 

What the EU/Europe currently lacks is that common vision, the idea(l) which can inspire all its citizens to accept the small sacrifices in return for the greater prize.

 

The nation-state is incapable of generating an idealism that transcends its own borders. But the challenges which now face us are transnational and we can only find the solutions together.

 

We need the talents and the rich diversity of outlook of all the peoples of Europe. This is a unique adventure in the history of human society - the possibility of genuinely transcending race and class and all the other differences which the nation-state only emphasizes.

 

The complexity of the European situation can be daunting. I find it useful to bring the problem down to the human level - to think of the relationship of the peoples of Europe from the perspective of the relationship between a small number of individuals in a family or other group. Democracy works best at a local level and people achieve remarkable things when they manage to transcend their individual differences (without giving them up!), pool their talents and agree on a common aim (which is always a compromise for at least some of them). Europe is no different.

 

What is needed is an openness to new ways of doing things, a desire to do better than we have so far done, and a certain maturity of outlook which has nothing to do with age: it is rather about a security of personal identity which does not see a threat in making sacrifices for the sake of a higher goal. Clinging to ones identity within the nation-state (or religious or ethnic group) is a sign of immaturity.

 

Of course the EU must be reformed and transformed so that it genuinely serves the common good and the need of the individual for self-realisation within society. People must reclaim their sovereign power and dignity as citizens - not subjects. That is why such initiatives as democracy international and its European Referendum Campaign are so important and must be supported. But this is only a beginning - the beginning of a long, peaceful revolution which will ultimately transform Europe and fulfil the non-violent ideals of that violent revolution of 1789 which proclaimed Liberté, Égalité et Fraternité - freedom of conscience and belief; equality in human rights; fraternity in our economic dealings with one another.

 

That is why we need a federal Europe - because a Europe of competing nation-states jealously guarding a sovereignty which does not belong to them cannot create Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

 

Switzerland has shown that it can be done, that a federation of peoples with four different languages, two main religions and diverse cultures can create a dynamic democracy. The preamble to the Swiss Constitution could serve as a model for a European one:

 

We, the Swiss People and Cantons,

whereas we are mindful of our responsibility towards creation;

resolving to renew our alliance to strengthen liberty and democracy, independence and peace in solidarity and openness towards the world;

determined to live our diversity in unity respecting one another;

conscious of our common achievements and our responsibility towards future generations; and knowing that only those remain free who use their freedom, and that the strength of a people is measured by the welfare of the weakest of its members;

give ourselves the following constitution.

 

Let us all work to reclaim our own sovereignty and with it the right also to give ourselves a constitution of which we can be proud.