The European Federation

The European Federation

By Paolo Falconio  

Member of the Honorary Governing Council and lecturer at the Society of International Studies (SEI)

This European Union has proven as inadequate as it is ineffective in defending European interests. Its very mechanism of step‑by‑step integration translates into treaties that must be ratified and that impose rigid rules, incapable of adapting to a world in constant transformation. Consider the ban on state aid, which prevents strategic industrial policies in a world where China and the United States (think of the Stargate project) have no such taboos.  

If Europe and the European States want to have a future, they must recover the spirit of the founding fathers—Schumann, Adenauer, De Gasperi. This must be done by the Europe west of the Elbe, the old Union before the eastern enlargement, which was an operation against European integration. These nations in the East come from centuries of domination (from Austro‑Hungarian to Soviet) and today experience an identity‑driven and sovereigntist moment that is perfectly understandable. For them, the Union is simply a large Market, perceived in purely economic terms.  

The clock of history does not run at the same pace for all European nations, and we must acknowledge this. Faced with a Europe that today accounts for about 18% of global GDP, with strongly negative indicators, in 1980 Western Europe alone held a GDP share of 32.5%. Obviously, this figure must be read in relation to the growth of new economies, such as China. Yet it is a fact we must confront.  

We must return to dreaming of a Federation of States alongside an enlarged market, because it is the only way to achieve political subjectivity—a synthesis of diverse interests, the ability to adapt to the changing world, including its economic and industrial dynamics, and the application of the principle of solidarity.  

Failing this, people like me will be forced to continue chronicling the decline of the continent and its nations. The most terrible aspect is that, for reasons of scale, what we witness today will continue to happen: micro‑economies forced into ruthless competition for crumbs, incapable even of imagining a role in the dynamics between existing and emerging superpowers.  

Even Germany, the only nation that might have some chance of existing in the new world, would still be too small and ultimately vulnerable to the geopolitics of others.  

Whether or not one agrees with the theses set out above, the reflection cannot escape reality: Europe is facing a historical phase in which its international weight is diminishing, and the response to this challenge requires a vision broader than mere intergovernmental cooperation.  

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