https://www.reddit.com/r/YUROP/comments/1j7yxcy/final_goal_to_become_a_federation/
created by Avia_Vik on 10/03/2025 at 13:44 UTC
11 upvotes, 2 top-level comments (showing 2)
I am a federalist, and I have been one for a long time now, supporting all types of European integration as it has many many advantages in my eyes and thats how I would like to see the EU in the future. However, recently I realised that federalisation itself will not change that much. All main advantages of a federation can be reached with simple further integration, which could be easier and quicker to accomplish.
ARMY. I am a big supporter of an EU army, one and only. This way the EU would be one of the main players in the world military-wise and, more importantly, will be more capable of defending itself. However, in reality, the main problem of our 27 European armies isn't that they are not united, but the fact that they are not standardised enough. We need to standardise equipment, intelligence, actions etc within our individual army networks and respond to threats together with coöperation. This doesn't require a need for 1 united army (tho ofc it would still be more efficient this way). So do we really need to unite all armies or do we just need to homogenise what we have, make a proper defense alliance and a rapid deployment unit?
DOCUMENTS. The European Union passport, once again, one and only, is something I would like to see, but many would not. Instead, the EU could standardise passports even more than they already are today while also keeping them different and preserving all what most Europeans want to preserve: "national identity". In the end of the day, all EU passports even today are nearly equal in power and within the EU fall into 1 category of EU citizens. The only difference that a unified passport would do is more or less just looks and once again some efficiency advantages ofc. Other documents like national ID cards, emergency passports etc also should be further standardised but probably not merged into 1 type still, as it would result in more problems than advantages.
There are many examples like these when further integration is certainly necessary but absolute merger of things might be an overkill that Europe won't swallow in its current form.
The only real advantage that a federation would do is that the EU would finally speak in 1 voice. 1 sole national idea for the entire country of over 450 million people, without people like orban and fico holding much power. This would probably never be reached if we continue being divided but, as we recently saw, these disagreements can be fixed by removing VETO and following the majority vote system.
European Union's motto is "IN VARIETATE CONCORDIA" - "United in Diversity". And I feel like if we make everything the same all across the EU we will eventually neglect diversity and will turn into something similar to some other federations in the world which would be a nightmare, where 1 person can change course of the entire nation in the matter of weeks.
Now, I know that we are very far from federalising, but it doesn't mean we can't think of it or push for it. And federalisation is nonetheless a good concept in my opinion, as it is just one of many steps of further EU integration.
But is a federation actually the goal that we should aim for? Or will it just ruin the core principals of modern Europe?
Comment by AutoModerator at 10/03/2025 at 13:44 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
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Comment by DisIsMyName_NotUrs at 10/03/2025 at 17:50 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Europe in my eyes, already is a federation. Just a very loose one.
The goal of the EU was to ensure peace, stability and prosperity on the continent. I believe that it is a huge success in that regard. If you'd told someone 100 years ago that France and Germany would be best friends, in a single market, had no borders... they'd call you crazy. Yet here we are.
The current level of integration was unprecedented, even 50 years ago. And we're just heading towards more and more. The question should not be of whether or not we want more or less Europe. It should be one of what kind of Europe it should be.
I believe that within the next 100 years (barring something cataclysmic happening), the EU will infact be a single country de-facto. We have been set on an irreversible course towards a federation, and while it will probably take time, we will eventually get there. Or at the very least to something like Switzerland today