Europe United
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| Europe United | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Leader | Aki Paasovaara |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Vejledalen 28 4 th. DK-2635 Ishøj Denmark |
| Political ideology | pro-European and federalist |
| International affiliation | n/a |
| Website | www.europeunited.org Denmark: www.europeunited.dk |
Europe United is an emerging pan-European, pro-European and federalist political party. Its central policy is a fully united and federal European Union, with greatly improved democratic structures and more influence for the citizens (e.g. through direct democracy and referenda). It plans to start competing elections in the 2009 European Parliament election.
Contents |
[edit] Structure
As of 2006, the party is in the initial stages of formation and so has not yet acquired its final structure. Plans foresee a pan-European political party comprised of state branches registered as national political parties in all those countries which Europe United considers to be eligible for membership in the European Union (the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe and Belarus). Currently, Europe United is registered in Denmark and Moldova
It is run by a mixture of party members, party senators and members of the board. Europe United differs from most other pan-European political parties in that national parties all stand on the same policy platform at European level and are all signatories to the same charter. It also differs in that it accepts national parties from states that are outside the EU, but within the European continent, as members of its party.
The party holds an annual convention around Europe Day (9 May), with the location being decided by the Senate; a second annual convention is held in Brussels every October.
| Country | Name | Status | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
 Denmark |
Europe United | political party[1] | 2006-02-17 |
 Moldova |
Europe-United | political NGO[2] | 2006-05-05 |
 Belgium |
registration being prepared, likely in October 2006 | ||
 Croatia |
registration being prepared, likely in 2006 | ||
 Turkey |
registration being prepared | ||
 United Kingdom |
registration being prepared | ||
 Sweden |
registration planned |
[edit] History
Europe United was started in 2005 by the Finnish-born, Danish-based politician Aki Paasovaara. On 15 April 2006, Europe United announced its merger with another federalist party which had been founded in 2005, United for Europe. (Statement from Europe United, Statement from United for Europe)
The first party convention was held from 7 May until 9 May 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The key points of this convention were:
- Strategies were laid out for the key areas of fundraising, recruitment and public relations.
- The party's charter was approved by all members present.
- It was decided that a manifesto would be drafted shortly, and that work would begin on reworking the policies to bring them in line with the current legal framework of the European Union.
- A decision was made to hold elections to the Party Senate shortly.
From 24 May until 7 June 2006, the first elections for the Senate of Europe United were held.
The second convention was held from 26 October until 29 October in Brussels, Belgium.
[edit] Policies
Much of the party policies and philosophies are based on an agreement laid down in the 2006 Copenhagen spring party summit. Although, policies can change easily due to the fluid nature of the party, being primary based on the Internet (currently, all the polls and decisions are made on-line, but it may change to major polls done by both electronic and postal voting). Much of the party policy tends to be middle-of-the-road, on one hand supporting economic liberalism, while on the other hand making sure that the less well off are looked after.
[edit] Economic policy
The party generally follows a liberal economic policy by supporting the current European policy of liberalisation and freedom in the markets and supporting the creation of trans-European companies. However, it seeks to promote European companies first, over non-European companies, under its “European interests first” principle.
[edit] Social policies
It generally follows a liberal social policy, with full support for the welfare state together with support for a Danish-style “flexicurity”. It believes in full labour mobility, freedom to live and work anywhere in Europe.
[edit] Political policies
Much of the party's efforts and its raison d'être are its political policies. It supports a fully federal united Europe (under the working title of United Europe), open to any European state (defined as "member of the Council of Europe plus Belarus"), provided it passes the Copenhagen criteria and its accession is agreed on in a pan-EU referendum and in a referendum in the country in question. In its program for solving the EU's democratic deficit it advocates:
- replacing all national vetoes in the Council of the European Union by qualified majority voting;
- reforming the presidency of the European Commission, replacing it (and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union) with a single fully elected EU presidency voted for by a pan-EU constituency (through STV);
- granting primary legislative powers to the directly elected European Parliament;
- ensuring full transparency on the procedures of the Council of the European Union, European Commission and European Parliament;
- making a treaty change to allow for pan-EU referenda on enlargement and other constitutional issues.
It also supports centralising all of Europe's political institutions in Brussels, as opposed to the current three centres in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg City.
