Read here what was discussed and decided in the FC in Sofia

The JEF network met at the end of March for the Spring beautiful city of Sofia, Bulgaria. The representatives of JEF sections, directly elected Federal Committee members, the board, other elected people and the secretariat gathered among the cherry blossoms and in the historical halls of Sofia University to discuss future priorities of the JEF network. As usual, our Federal Committees are hosted by our National Sections and we are thankful to the team of JEF Bulgaria for making sure that everything ran smoothly and for the excellent venues, food and fun we had!

The halls had witnessed the first speeches of federalists in Bulgaria but also darker times in the form of the oppressive “people’s court” during the communist era. Now this was the venue for the first meeting of the JEF network in Bulgaria. Over the weekend we adopted a new four-year strategy, 14 political resolutions on a range of topics (see them below), and two other internal resolutions: An internal resolution for a more sustainable JEF and on the Continuation of the JEF Europe President’s role availability as a full-time position. 

Politics from environment and management of Eurozone to Europe’s relationship with different parts of the world

Our Political Commissions had been hard at work since the beginning of the year to draft new resolutions for our Federal Committee meeting. These are important documents as those are drafted and adopted by the whole network as the official political positions of JEF. How to join and make your voice heard? Any JEF member can join the PC’s work! Feel free to reach out to the co-chairs!

You can find the adopted resolutions here: 

• For a More Federal European Union: Ensuring a Democratic Treaty Change and Constitutional Amendment Process
• Calling for a European Constituent Assembly
• On the institutional design and governance of the Eurozone
• Strengthening the economic and political union within the Lisbon Treaty
• Towards a real Federal Budget
• Shaping Europe’s Cultural Field for a Stronger Future
• Calling for a fully fledged Health Union for the European Union
• Environment does not stop at borders: Towards a Sustainable Europe and a Sustainable Global Climate Policy
• Better integrated and more sustainable mobility infrastructure for an Ever Closer Union
• Towards a strong future-oriented relationship with Africa
• Towards the accession of the Western Balkan countries
• On Future UK–EU Relations
• For a common European Response to the invasion of Ukraine and the future of Ukraine
• Countering Russian interference and aggression: EU policy towards the Russian Federation

Organisational questions and development high on the agenda

Besides political debate, the network dove into financial topics and organisational development of JEF. A participatory process of drafting a new four-year strategy which started in August 2024 culminated in Sofia. During the process, national sections and people holding elected positions on European level met 10 times to discuss and draft the focus areas of the strategy which were validated by the Autumn Federal Committee in Budapest: 1. effective external and internal advocacy and communication, 2. JEF identity, political values, culture, and federalism, 3. Membership growth, community-building and opportunities for JEF members, 4. JEF Europe’s governance, and relations between sections and JEF Europe, and 5. Financial state of JEF Europe and financial support for participation. Now in Sofia we adopted the objectives and measures how to reach these.

Our organisational task forces are also hard at work and hosted sessions to support the capabilities of our sections on a range of topics in Sofia. Taskforce Capacity Building hosted a session about fundraising for political NGOs, Taskforce Civic Education about Europe@School activities of different sections, and Taskforce Advocacy on recognising the practices and wishes on advocacy of sections. 

See you next autumn in Strasbourg!

You can also read our webzine The New Federalist’s article from Sofia here! We are also happy to announce that we elected Belgrade, Serbia as the location of the Federal Committee meeting in the Spring of 2026. We also announced the dates of our European Congress in Strasbourg where we will be hosted by JEF Strasbourg and JEF France: 14th to 16th of November 2025.

Rendez-vous l’automne prochain à Strasbourg! ?