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The Federal debate continued
Amsterdam, june 3, 2001. In a long awaited speech on the future of Europe, the French prime minister Lionel Jospin laid down his vision on the European Union on may 28, 2001 before an audience of students in Paris.
Jospin first of all likes to define the purpose of a further going union, before talking about the structure.
To Jospin the European project is "first and foremost a political undertaking, it is "content" first and "framework" only secondarily."
"Europe is made up not merely of regulations, directives and disputes. It is first and foremost a work of the mind, a societal model, a world view. The European idea as part of reality - that is what counts."
Jospin emphasizes the role of the "nation state" as the central player in the Union. If a European 'federation' will come into being it will be a "federation of nation states".
"If, on the other hand, "federation" is taken to mean a gradual controlled process of sharing competences or transferring competences to the Union level, then the term refers to the "federation of Nation States", the term coined by Jacques Delors. This is a concept which I fully support. From the legal point of view it may seem ambiguous. But I believe it is politically sound, because Europe is an original political structure, a unique precipitate of an indissoluble mixture of two different elements: the federalist ideal and the reality of European Nation States." |
The Jospin Speech: "On the future of an enlarged Europe
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The prime ministers site
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