On 9 May, the entire JEF community will be organising activities all over Europe to bring citizens together and remind them of the significance and importance of this day as a symbol for all Europeans.
Philippe Adriaenssens, President of JEF-Europe, says: “As Europeans, we share a common vision of peace and can achieve it if we act together. Nevertheless Citizens still feel Europe as too far away from their daily lives, and do not feel sufficiently involved in the democratic decision-making processes. This feeling of distance has generated a rising of the populists and extreme right in some countries, and has led to an increasing intergovernmental bargaining trend instead of a constructive aspiration for a federal Europe. On Europe Day we invite all Europeans to rediscover the significance of European integration and to honor the basic principles of the EU: freedom, democracy and tolerance as the answer to the challenges of today.”
9 May is, along with the flag, the anthem, the motto and the single currency, a European symbol which identifies the political entity of the European Union. However, there are still discrepancies in policies and gaps in institutional decision-making which can only be closed by the construction of a full-fledged democratic European federation, the logical final stage of the process of building an ‘ever closer Union’ .
Adriaenssens adds: “This is why JEF-Europe calls for deeper integration, the completion of the single market, an EU budgetary policy promoting Europe’s economic recovery, an efficient and strengthened European economic governance, and a strong common diplomatic and external policy to turn the Union into a leading actor on the world stage.”
JEF-Europe supports in particular the current proposal of introducing an additional 25 MEPs who would be elected from transnational lists during the elections to the European Parliament. Giving EU Citizens the possibility to vote for representatives of different nationalities on EU-wide lists will finally make the European dimension of the elections more tangible and will boost the democratic legitimacy of the EU’s legislature.
“The institutions of the European Union, the national parliaments and the governments should recall the aspirations behind the Schuman Declaration and confirm the Union’s mission of peace, solidarity and enlargement towards the building of a European federation if we really want to have a space that could guarantee democracy and unity,” concludes Adriaenssens.
[ENDS]
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