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European Cities for a Democratic and Sovereign Europe

Francesco Mazzaferro

14/02/2022 07:04 0 comments

Event report available

Joint meeting of the Frankurt, Lyon and Milan local sections of the Union of the European Federalists

The three cities of Frankfurt, Lyon and Milan are twinned since the late 1960s. Through their partnership they have contributed to make Europe rich, pleasant and diverse. The European Federalists of the three cities share the goal to turn the Conference on the Future of Europe into an opportunity to protect and strengthen democracy in our European Union at all levels of power, bringing it closer to the citizens and enhancing its capacity to cope with the challenges of our age: coping with climate change and digitalisation, with inequality and societal polarisation, as well as with internal and external security threats.

The Conference should be a step towards a political and institutional reform of Europe. European cities should play a key role in this upheaval.

The Europa-Union in Frankfurt, the Movimento Federalista Europeo in Milan and the Union des Fédéralistes Européens in the region Auvergne Rhône-Alpes invite to a joint zoom meeting which will inaugurate their common initiatives in the months to come, including a manifestation in Strasbourg upon conclusion of the Conference on 7 May and initiatives to mobilise the mayor of the three cities and of other European towns.

At the end of the meeting, they will approve a joint Declaration to be posted in the Platform of the Conference.

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Event report

Federalists from Frankfurt, Lyon and Milan announced joint actions of the three cities ahead of the conclusion of the Conference and approved a declaration in favour of a democratic and sovereign Europe (see https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=759705781670657). They raised the following requests 1) the European Union requires a more democratic and effective form of government: for this reason the Parliament should be fully involved in the decision process through co-decision, and unanimity in the Council should be abolished; 2) the Union should be accordingly provided with the competence to collect its own resources with the purpose of financing and directly improve common European public goods (e.g. decarbonization; humanitarian aid; digitalization); 3) the Union should be provided with adequate tools to preserve its values in the Member States: this may include the power to deny access to European funds for those national authorities which are not respecting the rule of law and the primacy of EU law; 4) it is urgent to build a common foreign and defense policy through the transfer of competences and resources at European level; 5) while some competences should be transferred at European level, it is key to enhance the dialogue with local governments and to give full application to the principle of subsidiarity.