Progress Report 8
31 October 2021
Name of the federal Europe
We started this process with the name ‘United States of Europe’. During the process of improving the Preamble, the question arose in the Discussion Forum whether that was a good title. Based on that discussion, it was decided to use another name for the time being: ‘Federation Europe’. This subject was discussed again in the online meeting on 29 October. Support for the following reasoning emerged:
– The name European Union is a familiar name to the citizens of Europe.
– For many, it is also a symbol of security and prosperity.
– The same applies to the flag. Keep it.
– Do not create a new name with which they are not immediately connected.
– Combine the words European Union with a federal word.
Well, on the basis of these recommendations, the board chooses the name ‘Federal European Union’ from now on. The flag will also be retained, although there is still a discussion to be held on how many stars should be displayed if fewer than the current 27 Member States ratify the constitution.
Amendment of Article 1
In the first of the two weeks dedicated to amending Article I, nine members have participated so far. It has resulted in a good improvement of this Article. Ostensibly, when studying the discussion in the Forum, one sees contradictory views, but that is a normal aspect of diverging views. At a higher level of abstraction, it appears to be possible to converge divergent insights.
Click here to see the preliminary result after one week of improvements. We ask the participants to judge whether the processing of mutually reinforcing discussion elements is good enough, or whether it can be made even better in the coming days.
Submission of amendments
For the sake of good order, I would like to mention again that we would like to receive concretely worded texts of amendments. Comments are, of course, welcome, but preferably as a concrete explanation of a concretely worded amendment. We would like to submit these amendments as much as possible via the Discussion Forum. But the possibility of submitting them via citizensconvention@faef.eu remains because not everyone is able to use the Forum. Either because of the specific format of the amendment or because they do not master the digital working method. This was the case, for example, with the proposed new paragraph 4 of Article I, the affiliation of the Federal European Union to the World Federation under the Earth Constitution, discussed and sent by members of the World Federalist Movements Netherlands.
I hope that this second week of amending Article I can produce an even better text.
Best regards, on behalf of the board,
Leo Klinkers
President FAEF