Spinelli group
The Spinelli Group ( English Spinelli Group ) is an initiative founded on September 15, 2010 by members of the European Parliament who advocate European federalism . One of its goals is to achieve cross-party majorities in the European Parliament for federal proposals and to build a pro-European network beyond Parliament. The group is named after Altiero Spinelli (1907–1986), a communist politician and pioneer of European integration .
The founders include in particular Guy Verhofstadt , leader of the liberal faction ALDE , and Daniel Cohn-Bendit , co-chair of the Group of the Greens / EFA . The Spinelli group is also supported by the Union of European Federalists (UEF).
organization
The core of the group is the Steering Group , which is made up of 33 members, some of whom are members of the European Parliament, others who work in a different way than politicians or intellectuals for European federalism. One of the founding members, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa , passed away at the end of 2010.
Within the European Parliament, the group forms the so-called MEP Spinelli Group , which includes all MEPs who have joined the online manifesto. There are currently around 100 MPs. Finally, outside the European Parliament, there is the Spinelli Network Group , which includes all the other citizens who have signed the initiative's online manifesto and who meet annually on Europe Day in Brussels. This network currently comprises a little over 2000 people (as of March 2011).
The following table lists the members of the Steering Group:
Positions
In a manifesto published on the initiative's homepage, the Spinelli group calls for closer European integration, since nationalism and intergovernmentalism in a globalized world only lead to political impotence. She criticizes the supposedly current tendency in which nation states increasingly put their own interests before those of the European Union as a whole, and calls for a “federal and post-national Europe, a Europe of citizens”.
Specifically, in the budget negotiations on the EU's multiannual financial framework for the period 2013-2020 , the Spinelli Group rejects the reduction in the EU budget proposed by various member states . She advocates better European economic governance and the introduction of transnational lists in European elections .
Way of action
Within parliament, the group tries to organize majorities for federal positions in important votes. It also exerts influence on the decisions of other institutions of the European Union through written declarations from the European Parliament. In addition, the Spinelli Group organizes an annual meeting of all the signatories of the online manifesto on Europe Day , as well as other conferences and panel discussions on European issues. Before each summit of the European Council , the so-called “shadow council” takes place, at which members present federalist positions on the topics negotiated at the summit.
Altiero Spinelli
The group is influenced in various ways by its namesake Altiero Spinelli, one of the masterminds of European integration and founder of the Union of European Federalists . The form as a cross-party organization within the European Parliament has a forerunner in an initiative by Spinelli who founded a similar organization, the Crocodile Club, on July 9, 1980 to collect supporters for his project of a constitutional treaty for the European Union.
The manifesto also refers to Spinelli's 1941 Manifesto by Ventotene , in which the latter first called for the establishment of a European federal state. The manifesto that was written in prison during the Second World War was, however, motivated by anti-fascism; Spinelli and his co-author Ernesto Rossi spoke out against this background - in contradiction to the later constitution of the EU and the objectives of the Spinelli group - for a revolutionary, socialist Europe: “The European revolution must be socialist in order to meet our needs become; it must work for the emancipation of the working class and the creation of more humane living conditions ” . Spinelli and Rossi also refer to “militarism” in the Ventotene Manifesto , which serves “the reactionary forces of the privileged classes” , while today's European Union is the world's largest producer and exporter of war weapons.
Two of the founding members have family ties to Altiero Spinelli: Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa was the partner of Spinelli's daughter Barbara Spinelli , Amartya Sen was married to Spinelli's stepdaughter Eva Colorni .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release of the Union of European Federalists , September 15, 2010: Federalist Campaign grows - new Spinelli initiative .
- ^ Spinelli Group, Who we are ( Memento from September 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ EMI: Jo Leinen & Team bring the largest pro-European network on track. European Movement Germany , November 28, 2011, accessed March 30, 2012 .
- ↑ Spinelli group, [1] (English).
- ↑ EurActiv , 16 September 2010: Promoting federalism: Spinelli group seeks support .
- ↑ EurActiv , 23 Mar 2011: “Shadow” EU summit harshly criticizes EU leaders for lack of initiative .
- ↑ Abels, Gabriele / Oestler, Frieder: Of crocodiles, midwives and great men - Spinelli's heirs and their plea for a federal and post-national Europe. In: European Center for Research on Federalism (ed.): Yearbook of Federalism 2014. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2014, pp. 476–491.