TO THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
OF BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY,
LUXEMBOURG, THE NETHERLANDS
The European Union is unable to rise to the challenges that now face the citizens of Europe. Minor adjustments at institutional level and attempts to give Europe new competences without transferring to European level the sovereignty needed to govern them cannot increase either its efficiency, or its democratic legitimacy.
The future of Europe now depends on the will of several countries to found, in the near future, a European federation.
The words of Jean Monnet in his Memorandum of 1950 have never been more topical than they are today: " Any which way we turn, in the current world situation, we are only met with impasses… . We need to change the course of events… . But words are not enough. Only immediate action taken on an essential point can change this current static state. We need profound, real, immediate and dramatic action that will bring about changes and turn into reality the hopes that the people are on the verge of not believing in any more".
Responsibility for accomplishing this profound action rests on Europe's six founder states. It is up to them:
- to restart the process of building Europe outside the ambit of the existing Treaties, as these now offer no room for progress in a federal direction;
- to enter into a federal pact, through which those states willing to do so will transfer to Europe their sovereignty in the fields of defence and of foreign policy;
- to convene a constituent assembly, elected within the ambit of those countries that have entered into the pact, which will receive a mandate to draw up the Constitution of a European federal state that will remain open to all those countries subsequently wishing to join it.