Federalism is the best way to ensure that decisions are taken at the most effective way and as close to the citizens as possible! This ensures transparency and accountability. Today many decisions are taken in Brussels others even at global level, but the citizens feel that they have no chance to shape such decisions. The European Federalist Party wants to be the bridge giving the European citizens direct access to shape decision-making at the European level!

Frequently asked questions:

1. Can you explain in one minute, what does “federalism” mean?

Federalism means “Democracy in diversity”, or the multi-level organization of political entities under three basic aspects: Democracy, Subsidiarity and Solidarity

• Democracy means one man/woman, one vote, the majority decides!

• Subsidiarity means that sovereignty lies with each individual and with the democratically elected institutions, starting at the local level; political competencies are transferred to a higher (regional, national, European or international) level, if the objective can better be realized within a larger political entity (due to the dimension and/or the costs of tackling it).

• Solidarity means that en effort is made to ensure that disparities between individuals as well as within and between cities, regions and countries are contained and reduced; such financial per-equation mechanisms (in economic theory known as automatic economic and fiscal built-in-stabilizers) are necessary, not only from an ethic point of view, but also from an economic reasoning (“The rich cannot remain rich, if he/she has poor neighbours…”).

2.    Can you explain in one minute what does “federal” mean?

• First, “Taking decision as near as possible to the citizen!”

• Second, “Taking decisions bottom-up, in a decentralized way”, starting with the local level!

• Third, “The ‘sovereign’ is the citizen; according to the “principle of subsidiarity”, he/she decides directly or indirectly (by means of elected mandates) about the competencies which are given up to a higher political/decision-making level.”

• Forth, “Shared sovereignty at federated levels” – this means: Common decisions are taken by the federated political authorities in a bi-cameral system, one chamber is representing the interest of the people and the second chamber shows the aggregated interests of the governments of the federated political entities.

(Example: After World War Two, the Allies shaped a “Federal Republic of Germany”, not to create a centralized German “super state”, but to have a decentralized country, where the national level was constituted and controlled by the German people and their regional governments).

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