Welcome to the website of the Schuman2030 projects.
Our objective is simple, yet ambitious and necessary.
Europe today needs to make a step forward, and when we say Europe we really mean the European Union (the EU). The EU has been built in slow steps by way of treaties since the end of the second World War. The goals were to strengthen the European identity by first creating tighter economic links and today even more political links.
Robert Schuman (1886–1963) was a French statesman and one of the principal architects of European integration after World War II.
His most significant contribution was the Schuman Declaration of May 9, 1950, in which he proposed placing French and German coal and steel production under a common High Authority — open to other European countries. This initiative aimed to make war between historic rivals France and Germany “not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.”
This proposal directly led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) via the Treaty of Paris (1951) — the first step toward today’s European Union.
Schuman is often called the “father of Europe” for his vision of supranational cooperation as a path to peace and prosperity. It should be noted that the aim was cooperation, not creating a supranational authority.
After the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU need to take a new step. In honor of Robert Schuman, we called it the Schuman2030 project.
Today, we must admit that the de jure situation is quite different from the de facto situation. There is a lack of democracy with citizens’ participation and there is an overreach by the EU Commission. An overreach that translates itself in EU Directives often covering micro-level issues and complex bureaucratic regulations. 80% of the member states’ laws are an implementation of these directives. We need to reduce this bureaucratic regulations as they strangle Europe’s economic fabric. Competences need to go back to the member states and the local level.
At the same time, it is clear that the EU is increasingly confronted with world-wide challenges: geo-political, economic, pandemics and recently war at our borders whereby Europe is squeezed between superpowers. The EU is here largely operating without a clear legal base and without democratic control. At the same time, we must acknowledge that there is a lack of a long term vision.
Project Schuman2030 aims a follow-up treaty of Lisbon addressing the challenges. We look outside and get our inspiration from successful practices elsewhere.
1. Bottom-up subsidiarity of competences
Inspired by the direct democracy framework of Switzerland, competences are delegated to their most appropriate level, following the rule:
Decisions at lowest level possible unless EU-wide action is necessary.
2. Increased participation of citizens and the European Parliament in the de decisions. Citizen’s Initiatives and binding referenda for important matters.
3. Reinforcing the supra-national and cross border competences
On the world-wide scene the EU must be able to act as a strong and resilient block and have the infrastructure as well as command structure to enable this.
4. Long term planning and supervision
In a world that is changing fast and technology is disrupting economic immobility, Europe must look decades ahead not driven by ideology or political opportunism but by a solid insight in what the future can bring and how to anticipate on it.
Note:
The EU and its treaties are now a complex, rigid and bureaucratic matter. The proposed changes will greatly simplify the framework and reintroduce the flexibility that each member state needs to fully develop. At the same, the EU leadership will be able to focus on these issues that concern all member states and for which the EU brings a bonus. Keep following project Schuman2030. This is Work In Progress.