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In the light of the return of war in Europe, the Conference on the Future of Europe is the occasion to launch the necessary treaty reforms to create a federal Union.

War is back in Europe. In this dark hour of our history, which we never wanted to relive, we stand by the Ukrainian people. 

The return of the demonic face of nationalism is also for us Europeans a watershed reminder that time has come to complete the European project, which was born precisely to prevent war and despotism in Europe again. 

Right now, the EU is demonstrating unity and determination in the face of this dramatic common threat; but once again its strength is in reaction, and has not been in action. EU lacks genuine competences in foreign and security policy, in defence policy, in industrial and energy policy, and in one word it is not politically equipped to act effectively. Even its economic union is incomplete, since we do not have a fiscal union and a federal budget.  

The Conference on the Future of Europe was born as an experiment in supranational democracy to directly involve citizens and promote the emergence of a genuinely European political debate on the future of the EU. The European institutions committed themselves, by signing a joint declaration, to give concrete follow-up to the requests coming from citizens through the digital platform and the recommendations of the panels, without taboos.

All the more so today, in this dramatic moment, we must keep this promise and respect the will of the citizens, which has become very clear: more European democracy, the definition of EU policy through democratic mechanisms and greater effectiveness and capacity for action of the European institutions. As a confirmation, federalist ideas emerged very clearly on the platform, first in their respective areas (European Democracy: Stronger together: a democratic European Federation; A stronger economy, social justice and employment: Making the EU budget work for Europeans: a Fiscal Union; Other ideas: For a European sovereignty: the necessary reforms).

We therefore call on the Executive Board of the Conference, on the Working group Chairs, on the members of the Plenary and the institutions represented in the CoFoE to respect the will of the citizens.

Even more so at a time when the European Union needs to adapt its institutions in the face of dramatic new challenges brought about by Russia's aggression, we need to highlight in the Conclusions of the Conference 

1. the need of concrete institutional reforms to create a federal political union; 
2. the request of convening a Convention to reform the Treaties.

The Conference must be able to live up to the scale of the current dramatic moment. In front of the return of the war, we cannot postpone any longer to start building a sovereign, democratic, federal Union.

Union of Europan Federalists (UEF) and Young of European Federalists (JEF)