Submitted by the Political Commission 1: Institutions and Governance.
Adopted by the online Federal Committee on 5 April 2020.
Re-adopted by the Federal Committee in Prague on 13 November 2022.

JEF Europe,

• Deeply convinced that for the EU to deliver for citizens it needs to evolve into a fully-fledged federal Union;
• Aware that the Lisbon Treaty does not provide sufficient legal framework to progress towards political integration;
• Ensuring that citizens of Europe are represented in the European Constituent Assembly and for the EU to include EEA countries, candidate countries and potential candidates with the ongoing accession process, in shaping the European Federation, affirming the inclusive and democratic process;
• Concerned that many European citizens still question the benefits of European integration and the idea of an ever-closer union and do not feel represented by EU institutions, leaving space for nationalist parties to increase their influence;
• Noting that the EU urgently needs to strengthen its internal and external abilities to meet current and future challenges, not least in light of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, the weakening of the trans-Atlantic partnership, the energy shortages and its economic and human rights consequences;
• Acknowledging the necessity for a strong common foreign policy of the EU to counter recent threats from its neighbors and other global actors;
• Empowered by the common response to the Covid-19 health crisis, and by the Next Generation EU program, which show the benefits of common approach among European states;
• Strongly condemning the increased use of the intergovernmental method in recent years, which has prevented the EU from acting efficiently on many challenges and has diminished the role of the European Parliament, the only directly elected institution of the EU, while contributing to the weakening of the citizens’ trust towards the European Union;
• Aware of the necessity for a democratic renewal of the EU institutional and legal framework;
• Convinced that the EU has to complete the economic, fiscal and political union, as outlined in The Draghi report on EU competitiveness (2024) in order to have a well-functioning internal market ready to meet contemporary challenges;
• Recalling the JEF Europe Political Platform, which calls for a Constituent Assembly to elaborate a federal constitution and to put it to a vote in a pan-European referendum;
• Aware that the EU commits itself to involving citizens and representative associations in all areas of EU action (Art. 11 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU));
• Reminding that the ordinary method for treaty revision requires the European Council to call a Convention (Art. 48(3) TEU), which can recommend amendments to the Treaties to be adopted by consensus by an intergovernmental conference (Art. 48(4) TEU);
• Convinced that citizens should have a stronger voice in wider-European politics and that any treaty revision process should rest on broad public debate and closely involve civil society and young people in particular;
• Convinced that the Constituent Assembly has the potential to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the European integration process by involving citizens in the process of reviewing or renewing the European legal and constitutional framework, and illustrating the citizens’ responsibility for the future of Europe;
• Welcoming that the Conference on the Future of Europe eventually took place, but disappointed with the disinterest and lack of coverage by national media and the lack of consistent implementations of the outcomes;
• Applauding the European Parliament for having adopted a resolution calling on the European Council to agree to start the process to revise the EU Treaties;
• Positively noting the Commission’s call for a European Convention during the September 2022 State of the Union address;

JEF Europe, therefore,

With regard to a future Constituent Assembly:

1. Calls for a new constitutional momentum to be fostered resulting in a newly formed European Constituent Assembly;

2. Urges the European Parliament to initiate the process of drafting a European Constitution;

3. Calls on the European Parliament to convene a Constituent Assembly to further develop the proposals of a European Constitution;

4. Calls for the Constituent Assembly to be composed of directly elected through transnational lists citizens’ representatives, including a significant proportion of young people, a balanced gender composition, and a meaningful participation of various minority groups;

5. Calls for the Constituent Assembly to also include representatives from civil society, including youth organisations;

6. Calls for the Constituent Assembly to be held in the most transparent and accessible way, to ensure that citizens are properly informed on the process;

7. Calls upon media in all Member States to closely follow the Constituent Assembly and to continuously inform citizens on its work;

8. Urges that the Constituent Assembly should elaborate a Constitution setting up a Federal Europe, and ensure sufficient democratic legitimacy and accountability;

9. Calls for the new European Constitution to complete the economic, social, fiscal, defence and political union that the EU in the current form couldn’t achieve;

10. (Note: skipped in source document)

11. Demands, in any case, the new legal framework to be a milestone towards a genuine European Federation;

12. Calls for a scaling up of the EU’s communication strategy, both in terms of funding and channels, to combat misinformation of the Constituent Assembly’s work.