FEDERATION AND NATION-STATES, FEDERATION OF NATION-STATES
Europe in the French presidential campaign

France is engaged in one of its regular political campaigns for the presidential elections, due to take place in late April and early May. Despite a widespread lack of interest for the electoral debate in the general public, Europe has found in the debate a place, which it had not had previously. In that context the main candidates (Jacques Chirac, present incumbent of the job, and his Prime Minister Lionel Jospin) seem at first sight to have similar “European” manifestos, which all stress the need for la fédération d’Etats-Nations.

This however does not imply that France’s European policy will be the same whatever the result of elections. Indeed, the concept bears several different meanings: the federation of Nation-States is not, in the French political discourse, a monolith.

Chirac vs Jospin: two visions of Europe

The French president has detailed his visions for Europe in a speech he gave in Strasbourg on March 6th, 2002. In the wording of a federation of nation-States, the emphasis lies here on the concept of Nation-State: the main pole of power and legitimacy lies in the European Council. “The Nation, unavoidable reality, more alive than ever, shall remain for the coming times the prime engine of history. It is this double-faced reality, national and European, which is reflected by the concept of Federation of Nation-States” Chirac said. The “president of the Union” would be elected by the European Council and embody Europe towards the outside world. Also, “so as to continue to defend the European general interest, [the Commission] will have to remain really independent of States and political parties.”

These viewpoints tend to go in a direction which clearly contradicts Lionel Jospin’s proposals. The “Premier-Ministre-candidat” outlined his European views in a speech he made May 28th, 2001, and restated them in his presidential manifesto “Je m’engage” (I am committed). He calls for the “affirmation of a common project, the will to create a genuine federation of Nation-States, today’s expression for the United States of Europe that were dreamt in his time by Victor Hugo.” The standpoint here is really more Community-oriented. Jospin develops for instance a highly politicised vision of the Commission’s role, since he “will propose that the President of the European Commission be nominated within the members the political majority who won the European elections.”

Contradiction in terms?

Would this confirm that the federation of nation-states is no more than an oxymoron that could please any-one? We do not think so.

Contrary to other European countries, one has to remember that France is not a federal country. Quite the opposite, since for a long time, federalism was associated to anti-republicanism, almost “anti-frenchness”. Therefore the emergence of the federal idea in the French public sphere is to be heartedly welcomed, for it breaks a taboo. In May, Lionel Jospin claimed Europe is “a unique precipitate of an indissoluble mixture of two different elements: the federalist ideal and the reality of European Nation States.” Speaking of a “federalist ideal” is a step that few would have expected several years ago. If joining the idea of Nation-States to the idea of federation is the price to pay to raise the profile of federalism, then we are happy to pay that price

Secondly, the very concept of Nation-State has to be put into – the French – context. The expression does not only mean that a federation should respect and protect the cultures of its Member States, and idea that all federalist activists share (Unity in Diversity, remember?). It also reassures the public opinion of unitary States, by making sure that a federation neither means a European super-State nor a Europe of the regions. In other terms, it merely reaffirms the federal legal concept of institutional autonomy: within a federation, each Member States is free to organise itself constitutionally and administratively the way it wishes.

Of course the concept of a federation of Nation-States cannot be, by itself, transposed in other Member States (although the expression was also used by Joschka Fischer or Carlo Azeglio Ciampi), since the concept of Nation-State has a very French connotation. However, other Europeans should not be afraid about its use by French politicians. On the contrary, it gives grounds for optimism: federalism is penetrating the minds.

Marianne Bonnard - mailto:marianne.bonnard@jef-europe.net
and Emmanuel Vallens - mailto:emmanuel.vallens@ft.st