Imagine if We Were All Together

the Union of the Citizens of Europe.

What a Giant Step Forward.

Imagine the initiative for the foundation of the common Europe had not been taken by governments …

but by ourselves, the people of this amazing continent.

Imagine if, from the beginning, it had not only been about issues like agriculture, the internal market and the customs union …

but, above all, about the creation of a buoyant transnational European democracy.

Imagine if, from the 1950s onwards, we had gradually learned to feel not first as Poles, French, Spaniards or Germans …

but as Europeans.

Imagine that if people hear the term “European Union” today, they wouldn’t think of “Brussels” …

but of 440 million fellow European citizens.

© Julian Mink Photography

Then the EU would have been built on firm ground from the very beginning – and many of the doubts that plague the European project today would simply not exist.

Today, we are able to repair these initial flaws and finally turn the European Union into a vibrant European democracy that draws its power from the will of its citizens and not from the fluctuating interests of dozens of ever-changing national governments.

LET US LEAVE THE OLD “UNION OF THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE” BEHIND.

LET US OPEN A NEW CHAPTER:

THE UNION OF THE CITIZENS OF EUROPE.

The European treaties have already mapped out this path. Let’s simply follow it:

WHAT WE STOOD FOR: RESOLUTE TRANSNATIONAL ACTION.

People often talk about the “United States of Europe” or the “European Republic”. This sounds like an unknown prolific land on far-off shores of the ocean. No one has seen it yet. The question is:

Will anybody build the boat to get there and explore it?

Many of us trust our governments will lead us onto this path. But they won’t. It is true that Europe has grown closer over time – a lesson learned after two mad world wars. But this lesson is slowly fading away. Today we feel in many places that Europe is starting to fall apart again: migration crisis, financial crisis, Brexit, rule of law problems, and the stone-age behaviour of Russia in its brutal war against Ukraine. Most governments are trying to keep their own little boat afloat.

If Europe is not to gamble away its own future, we can no longer rely on the 27. We will have to build the big boat ourselves:

We, the union of the citizens of Europe.

Only when we together muster the strength to consistently put our own governments on a European course through determined transnational action, instead of accepting that they pursue their “national interests”, will we be able to help the great European project achieve a breakthrough.

This is what we want to stand for: To resolutely expand the number, size and scope of transnational actions.

WHAT WE DID – AND STILL DO.

WHO WE WERE