This is an extract from Tony Czarnecki’s book: ‘Democracy for a Human Federation’
Once the leaders of the countries willing to create the European Federation (EF) invoke the Article 20 of the Lisbon Treaty, they may consider organizing an Opening Convention on federalization, which may make the following decisions (please note, that the timeline seems to be absolutely unreal, but I assume all this will be done while chaos becomes ‘a new normal’):
- Elect a temporary EF President, whose main role would be to manage the Transition Period. It looks, as the best such candidate might be the French President Macron
- Draft the scope of the Federation Treaty, including key legal acts, stressing that it would only federate the very essential areas, without which it would not be able to operate as a state; this is intended to be the so called miniFed, with the following competencies:
- The president elected by a Federation-wide vote
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs – all competences
- Ministry of Finance – common currency, common federal budget, including federal taxes and customs
- Ministry of Federal Home Affairs – a very limited scope, initially the Federal Police only
- Ministry of Defence – will have all competences. All national armies, will become part of the Federal Army, financed from a federal budget, except of some small-arms units
- All sovereign debts of the joining members will become the debt of the EF
- Agree a Transition Period of three months for the Federation Treaty to come into force and a further three months before it starts operating as an independent state.
- Agree the Roadmap for the Transition Period, with completion dates to be signed off at the next Ratifying Convention, and which may include the following tasks:
- Agree to federate under the jurisdiction of the current article 20, which means that all countries deciding to join the EF will still be members of the EU on the same terms, as one group
- Agree the length of a transition period, before the Federation becomes an independent state (three months suggested)
- Finalize the scope of the EF (which areas will be under the jurisdiction of the EF)
- Chose the President elect of the future EF
- Choose the minister-elect for each of the federated ministries of the future EF
- Sign the Federation Treaty by the participating prime ministers of the federating countries
- Formally notify the European Council of the pending federalization and continue doing so through the EU Council
- Prospective members will have one month for amendments to the initial Federation Treaty
- These amendments will be discussed at another pre-federalization Convention. Any amendment will be passed by a simple majority voting
- The national parliaments will have two weeks for ratifying the amended Federation Treaty
- Any new prospective member state that will have not signed the Federation Treaty could do so and become a founding member, if it does so before the ratification process by the member states’ parliaments is complete
- The countries, which will not have the Euro currency at the time of intended accession to the EF, will have to convert to the Euro currency latest within two years
- A Federalization Convention will be called, which will ratify the Federation Treaty
- The Federation Treaty will come into force three months from its ratification, at the end of which the European Federation will become an independent state. Its nations, former members of the EU, will retain their EU membership through the EF, which will consider EF as an independent state
- In those three months, each Minister-elect will set up his Ministry in co-operation with the relevant Minister of the joining country
- A two-year Constitutional Period will begin.
Once this first stage is completed, then the Second stage may begin.