Statement | “How evergreen, our group of friends”: EU needs to stick together and set a path for reform after the election

Brussels, 10.06.2024

Key points:

  • The renewed higher participation shows EU citizens see the relevance of the EU in their lives but the rise in extreme rights shows the desire for clear change remains unanswered.
  • The EU needs urgent reforms to be able to face the global challenges of today and tomorrow and answer its citizen priorities.
  • After a successful EurHope campaign, JEF will continue to engage to improve EU democracy towards a federal Europe and bring citizens to the center of European policies.

As the results of the European Parliament election become known, JEF Europe expresses its satisfaction to see the turnout increase from 2019 maintained. We express our concern over anti-EU candidates and parties gaining across the union and what this means for our union.

“A united EU and Europe are as important as ever. We call on pro-European forces to forge a coalition and set an agenda for building peace and commit to the necessary EU reforms to tackle global challenges”, says Christelle Savall, President of JEF Europe. 

JEF Europe reminds incoming Members of the European Parliament that with the mandate they have received from the citizens, they have a duty to work to solve challenges our continent is still facing. In light of that, two necessary actions remain: treaty change to provide the EU with the necessary tools to tackle challenges, and enlargement to extend the EU’s area of peace and democratic freedoms to the entire continent.

This new mandate needs to build hope, as expressed by citizens in our EurHope campaign. Citizens want an EU that is capable of tackling the climate crisis, to build peace, to guarantee high-quality healthcare for all and build stability through commitment to democracy, rule of law and protection of human rights. As representatives of EU citizens, the European Parliament and the EU should align the future agenda with the priorities of the citizens.

We call all national governments to respect the European election process and to appoint the Lead Candidate (“Spitzenkandidat”) of the leading European party as the designated President of the European Commission. The next President of the Commission must have campaigned for this position, this is an important matter of democratic legitimacy, active citizenship and trustworthiness of our institutions.

JEF will continue to engage itself to be there for the years to come, raising awareness and advocating for a better and more transparent European democracy and EU’s development towards a federal union capable of meeting the citizen needs in times of multiple crises. We will build out on JEF and Make.org’s EurHope campaign and the hard work of all JEF members across Europe, which have decisively contributed to the significant turnout, together with the European Parliament efforts.

JEF Europe wishes to cooperate with civil society and newly elected MEPs and to develop EU solutions and engage young people in building a better Europe. We call on all those wanting to take action after the results of the European Parliament to join us.

About JEF Europe

The Young European Federalists (JEF Europe) is a political youth NGO advocating for the creation of a democratic European federation as a guarantee for peace, the rule of law and human rights. JEF Europe promotes true European citizenship, works for the widening and deepening of the European Union and strives for a more just and integrated society on the European continent. Established in 1972, the organisation has more than 10,000 activists organised in over 300 national, regional and local sections in 35 countries.

About EurHope

JEF Europe, together with Make.org, launched EurHope, a participatory campaign ahead of the 2024 European Elections, supported by a coalition of more than 40 actors. In its first phase, the campaign gathered 1.5 million votes from across the EU and more than 5,000 proposals were submitted to the multilingual online platform (eurhope.org). The Agenda of Hope, regrouping 15 priorities of young people, statistically significant, was presented to European political parties and politicians. For each proposal, JEF Europe wrote, together with other civil society organisations, the reforms and steps needed to implement those priorities. The last phase of the initiative is dedicated to an offline and online campaign, to get young people to go vote.