On 15 September 2010, an outspokenly federalist group named after Altiero Spinelli, the spiritual father of the supranational integration process in Europe, was launched in the European Parliament by MEPs Isabelle Durant, Vice President of the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, Chair of the ALDE group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-chair of the Greens/EFA group, and Sylvie Goulard, former President of the European Movement France.

Philippe Adriaenssens, President of the Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe), was present at the official ‘Launch of the Spinelli Group for a federal and post-national Europe’ and welcomes the initiative: “Almost twenty-five years after Spinelli’s death, we are delighted to have his idealist spirit back at the heart of European democracy!”

“Listening to the ambitions of the Spinelli Group and reading their manifesto, the similarities with JEF’s ‘Federalist Manifesto’ are striking,” remarks Adriaenssens. “They use exactly the same anti-intergovernmentalist rhetoric, they also point to the global challenges to state the need for an ‘ever closer Union’ and they call for a higher EU budget with own fiscal resources, too.”

The group already gathered the support of prominent political leaders such as Jacques Delors, Joschka Fischer, Mario Monti and MEP Andrew Duff, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), the parent organisation of JEF.

“Altiero Spinelli always dreamed and fought for a strong and inclusive network of European citizens that would build up a European Federation from the bottom.” comments Adriaenssens. “We will work together with the members of the Spinelli group and reach out to them with our concrete proposals for pro-federal reforms in order to make sure that our generation will turn Spinelli’s dream into reality.”
[ENDS]

PRESS CONTACT:

Philippe Adriaenssens | President of JEF-Europe
+32 472 334 127 | president(at)jef.eu