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VERSO LA COSTITUZIONE DELLA FEDERAZIONE ECOLOGISTI EUROPEI
due appuntamenti a Torino: 15 e 29 novembre 2026
Care e cari,
il Direttivo transitorio, insieme al Tavolo tecnico per l'organizzazione dell'Assemblea costituente e all'Ufficio stampa, comunica che i lavori per la costituzione della Federazione Ecologisti Europei (FEE) si svolgeranno in due giornate, in presenza e online, domenica 15 e domenica 29 novembre, presso il Centro culturale Sereno Regis, in via Garibaldi 13, a Torino.
La prima giornata, il 15 novembre, dalle 9 alle 18 (pausa caffè di 20 minuti, alle 11 e alle 15) sarà dedicata all'esame degli atti costitutivi e delle proposte politiche . Sarà inoltre possibile presentare eventuali proposte integrative, che verranno accolte e discusse in diretta, per favorire un confronto aperto e partecipato.
La seconda giornata, il 29 novembre, dalle 9 alle 18 (pausa caffè di 20 minuti, alle 11 e alle 15) sarà dedicata alla conclusione dei lavori e al voto finale, che determinerà la nascita del Direttivo e dei Commissari provinciali, chiamati ad accompagnare la Federazione nella fase iniziale e a preparare il percorso verso il suo primo Congresso nazionale.
Political motion
Document submitted for discussion and potential amendment by the Constituent Assembly on
November 15, 2026
A new direction for society, the economy, and Europe
An ecological policy cannot simply describe the environmental crisis. It must set out how to bring about concrete change in people’s lives, work, the economy, democracy,
peace, and European institutions.
Preamble
In 1972, the report *The Limits to Growth*, promoted by the Club of Rome, founded by Aurelio Peccei (Turin, 4 July 1908 – Rome, 13 March 1984), raised an issue that can no longer be avoided: an economic system based on the continuous growth of the production and consumption of materials, energy and land cannot expand indefinitely on a finite planet.
More than fifty years have passed. Awareness of the Earth’s limits has grown, but the economic model has not changed direction with the radicalism required. On the contrary, resource consumption, the transformation of territories, biodiversity loss, climate disruption, and the production of materials and waste have reached levels that call the very conditions for life into question.
We are therefore not facing a temporary crisis in a system that can simply be adjusted. We face the need to transform the way society produces, consumes, uses land and organises its economy.
This transformation cannot be entrusted to technology alone, nor can it consist merely of replacing one energy source with another. It must address the purposes of the economy, our relationship with the commons, the way we produce and work, the way we use land, and the way we distribute resources.
The economy must once again become a tool serving the needs of people and ecosystems, rather than an end to which society and nature are subordinated.
From this awareness comes the **Economic Conversion of Ecology**: not a contraction of the economy, but a redirection of economic activity towards meeting people’s needs while progressively reducing the consumption of materials, energy and land, and regenerating the ecosystems on which our own lives depend.
This conversion inevitably concerns work as well. No worker should be forced to choose between their health and their job, or between environmental protection and the ability to live with dignity. If a form of production must be phased out because it harms health or ecosystems, the answer cannot simply be to close the activity and destroy jobs. Production must be transformed, existing skills put to use, new activities created and people given the tools they need to navigate the transition.
Likewise, the costs of conversion must not be imposed on families, territories or communities with fewer resources. Those who have benefited most from the use of the commons, and those whose activities have placed the greatest pressure on ecosystems, must make the greatest contribution to financing the transformation. This is the principle behind the European Citizen Fund: a financial fund supported in part by contributions proportionate to the use of the commons and the pressure exerted on ecosystems, as well as by public resources allocated to ecological conversion.
The Fund will support the conversion of productive activities, professional retraining, income protection during employment transitions, and measures needed to reduce environmental impacts. It must also finance public services, research, training, environmental regeneration and collective well-being.
Contributions arising from the use of the commons and from high-impact activities must never authorise the breaching of ecological limits. Those placing greater pressure on ecosystems must contribute more to the transformation. Contributions to the Fund must not become a licence to pollute: activities incompatible with ecological limits must be transformed or, where necessary, phased out.
Transforming the economy also requires transforming democracy. Decisions concerning land, work, energy, health, peace and the future of communities cannot be left exclusively to institutions, markets or the most powerful economic interests. People must be able to access information, participate, make proposals, decide and exercise oversight.
Finally, ecological conversion requires peace and cooperation. Competition for resources, energy dependence, inequality and international power relations cannot be separated from the conditions in which peoples build their future. Peace must become a practical capacity of politics and institutions, not merely a declaration.
Addressing issues that now transcend national borders also requires a new European political dimension. Europe must become a democratic Federation, based on the participation of citizens and territories and capable of acting collectively on major issues that no country can address alone. This vision underpins the political proposal of the European Ecologists Federation (FEE).
The proposal is founded on six inseparable principles:
The centrality of ecosystems;
Biophysical limits;
An economy serving needs and ecosystems;
Participatory democracy, justice and solidarity;
Peace;
A federal Europe.
Six foundations for one transformation: recognising the Earth’s limits, changing the economy, protecting people, restoring power to democracy, building peace and giving Europe a new political form.
1. THE CENTRALITY OF ECOSYSTEMS
Without ecosystems capable of sustaining life, there can be no society, no economy, no freedom and no future.
Implement environmental commitments and accelerate ecological conversion
The European Ecologists Federation adopts the United Nations 2030 Agenda as a reference for addressing major environmental and social challenges, interpreting its goals in light of the planet’s biophysical limits and the need to move beyond an economic model based on unlimited material growth.
FEE calls for the urgent implementation of the Nature Restoration Law in spatial planning, strengthening Natura 2000, protected areas and ecological connectivity. Degraded habitats, including those damaged by fires, and wetlands must be restored. A permanent monitoring system and stable, adequate funding for biodiversity conservation are also needed.
Ecological conversion must turn commitments into concrete, verifiable results, making the protection of life, the regeneration of nature and people’s well-being fundamental criteria for political action. Environmental commitments must not remain declarations: they must lead to measurable objectives, binding deadlines and effective action to protect and regenerate nature.
Give space back to nature
FEE proposes stopping the consumption of natural land by prioritising the recovery and reuse of existing buildings, industrial assets and infrastructure. Stopping new transformations is not enough: space must be returned to nature, degraded and sealed areas renaturalised, and ecosystem continuity restored.
Every major infrastructure project must be assessed in terms of its actual necessity, collective benefit, land and material consumption, emissions, effects on ecosystems and available alternatives.
A European ecological network without borders
FEE promotes a European ecological network linking parks, forests, rivers, wetlands and natural habitats through connected ecological corridors, with common, binding rules for the protection of ecosystems and wildlife.
Protecting this network must include ecosystem-based forestry, the conservation of veteran trees and deadwood, fire prevention, the control of invasive alien species and the reduction of light pollution. Forest and wildlife management must be based on scientific knowledge, continuous monitoring and ecological regeneration goals. Nature knows no national borders: its protection requires shared European responsibility.
Cities where people and nature return
FEE promotes cities designed around people rather than cars, through continuous public transport networks, walking and cycling routes, park-and-ride facilities and shuttle services.
Outlying neighbourhoods must have services and public spaces of the same quality as urban centres. Tree-lined avenues, shaded squares, green spaces and meeting places should make public spaces more liveable and help address heatwaves.
Cities must progressively reduce sealed and artificial surfaces that obstruct urban greenery, water infiltration and temperature regulation. Soil de-sealing, renaturalisation and green connectivity must become standard urban-planning criteria, alongside the protection and responsible management of trees.
Trees, safety and quality of urban life
FEE recognises trees as essential components of urban ecosystems, biodiversity and public health. Investing in tree cover improves quality of life, including in degraded peripheral areas, and enhances the ecological and health benefits provided by vegetation. Where trees are felled, compensation must take account of the relationship between the canopy removed and the canopy that must be restored: the rule of one tree felled for one tree planted is no longer acceptable, because we cannot afford to lose ecosystem benefits, also in light of the Nature Restoration Law.
Safety must be ensured through competent management, appropriate maintenance and accessible information about risks, recognising that zero risk does not exist. FEE supports a balanced approach that protects people without turning every residual risk into a reason to fell trees. It also supports reviewing civil-liability rules to reflect scientific knowledge, the normal biological development of plants and the need to conserve tree cover.
From the Anthropocene to the Ecocene
FEE regards moving beyond anthropocentrism as a cultural and political transformation: human beings are part of the community of life, and ecosystems must form the foundation of public decisions and the organisation of society.
2. BIOPHYSICAL LIMITS
The Earth is not an inexhaustible store of materials and energy, and ecosystems cannot absorb the consequences of human activity indefinitely. Recognising these limits means rethinking how we produce, consume, invest and distribute wealth.
The Economic Conversion of Ecology
FEE adopts the Economic Conversion of Ecology as a method for bringing the economy within the planet’s biophysical limits. This does not simply mean reducing economic activity, but redirecting it towards society’s real needs, reducing resource consumption and pressure on ecosystems, and creating new opportunities for employment, income and well-being.
Ecological conversion must become a practical opportunity for territories, businesses and people. When production harms health or ecosystems, it must be transformed, making use wherever possible of existing facilities, skills and professional expertise without making workers bear the cost of change.
Water, soil and territory
Water is a common good and a fundamental right. FEE promotes public management of water, river-basin planning, protection of water resources and groundwater in both quantity and quality, adaptation to drought and the renaturalisation of rivers.
Spatial planning must go beyond municipal boundaries, assess the cumulative impacts of urbanisation and direct urban regeneration towards public purposes rather than speculation.
Energy, buildings and mobility
The energy transition must begin with lower consumption, energy efficiency and the development of renewable sources, prioritising already artificialised surfaces. FEE opposes nuclear energy and is willing to promote a third referendum to reaffirm this position, supporting an energy model based on renewables, responsible resource management and citizen participation.
Energy planning must be based on actual needs: first energy efficiency, waste reduction and improvements to buildings and production systems; only then the generation, storage and distribution of renewable energy. FEE rules out fossil fuels, nuclear power and forest biomass, and proposes reform of the European electricity market to free the value of renewables from gas-price volatility. Grids, storage systems, energy communities and self-generation must be developed.
Energy renovation of buildings must also be accessible to households without sufficient resources, prioritising insulation, comfort, lower consumption and the phase-out of fossil fuels. The Citizen Fund and European financing instruments should support investment, allowing costs to be recovered through energy savings. Leasing and public financing are needed for households without initial capital, alongside public and social housing, affordable rents, action against evictions and cooperative housing. FEE supports limits on touristification and land consumption, as well as planning powers that ensure consistency from municipalities to provinces.
Mobility must move beyond dependence on private cars through an integrated, accessible and connected European and local public transport network encompassing trains, buses, trams, metros, cableways and ferries. FEE supports reopening suspended railway lines and, where necessary, restoring discontinued ones. It promotes a modest annual contribution instead of a ticket for every journey, better access for inland and remote areas, freight transport by rail and reduced air traffic. Electric mobility must be part of a wider transformation of travel patterns, not a substitute for reducing traffic.
Agriculture, food and other living beings
Food production must regenerate soil fertility, protect biodiversity, reduce water consumption and limit the pressure caused by intensive livestock farming.
FEE promotes agroecology, organic and diversified farming, reduced pesticide and fertiliser use and water consumption, short supply chains, access to land and support for small producers. It upholds the right to healthy food through sustainable canteens and measures against food waste. Agricultural land used for animal feed should progressively be converted to crops for human consumption and soil restoration.
Animals cannot be treated merely as factors of production: their protection and the reduction of their exploitation must be accompanied by conversion pathways for the businesses and workers concerned.
Animal protection must recognise animals as sentient beings and oppose suffering and exploitation. This requires reviewing the regulation of transport, slaughter, trade and animal experimentation, as well as adopting non-lethal approaches to human–wildlife conflicts. The phase-out of intensive livestock farming must be accompanied by conversion plans for the businesses, territories and workers involved.
Research into new molecular forms of food production as alternatives to livestock farming must be assessed for safety, resource use and effects on ecosystems. Wildlife management must be based on knowledge of ecological balances and habitat protection.
Wildlife, the abolition of hunting and protection of territories
FEE campaigns for a ban on hunting and an end to killing animals as a routine tool for wildlife management. The lives of other animals must be protected through scientific understanding of ecological balances, habitat conservation and the development of effective, non-lethal population-management methods, including fertility-control systems where scientifically validated and safe.
Wildlife management must also safeguard people’s right to safety, peace of mind and free use of the areas where they live and work. Situations in which armed hunters, including those using dogs, restrict everyday life in the countryside or interfere with respect for private property must be addressed.
Together with citizens, associations and political organisations willing to share this objective, FEE will promote a democratic process to replace current hunting legislation through an abrogative referendum and comprehensive legislative reform protecting other animals and ecological balance.
Waste, materials and the circular economy
FEE promotes reuse, repair and recycling before disposal; durable, repairable and reusable goods; deposit-return systems, refill and reduced packaging. The goal is zero unsorted waste and a progressive move beyond the disposal-based model. Historical landfills must be mapped and characterised; materials recovered; degraded areas returned to nature; and extended producer responsibility, ecodesign and repairability strengthened.
Civil protection and climate adaptation
FEE promotes territorial climate-adaptation plans and prevention of floods, landslides, fires, droughts and heatwaves. Early-warning systems, continuity of essential services, soil renaturalisation as a safety measure against climate risks, organised volunteering, community resilience and priority protection for vulnerable people are needed.
Convert production and redistribute work
FEE promotes a European plan to convert productive activities incompatible with biophysical limits, supporting innovation, the transformation of facilities and vocational training. No worker must be abandoned because of the transition: income support, retraining and assistance in moving into new employment must be guaranteed.
The transition must be a conversion, not simply a closure. Workers, skills, facilities and local expertise must be protected and supported towards new activities. FEE opposes relocation driven solely by financial advantage and promotes reuse of facilities and infrastructure wherever possible.
FEE also proposes reducing working time to as little as five hours per day without loss of pay, alongside the creation of new stable jobs. The aim is to distribute the work society needs more fairly, reduce unemployment and give people time for life, relationships, culture, participation and solidarity.
Reduced working hours must be accompanied by decent wages, collective bargaining, workplace safety, action against insecure employment and the creation of additional permanent jobs. Unemployment resources should be redirected towards support for stable hiring, with safeguards against using the mechanism for replacement, dismissal or precarious employment. FEE upholds the right to disconnect and promotes worker participation in company decisions. The financial and organisational details will be set out in a specific implementation proposal, consistent with the principle that ecological conversion must protect people and create opportunities rather than new inequalities.
3. AN ECONOMY SERVING NEEDS AND ECOSYSTEMS
The economy is a tool of society, not its purpose. Continuous growth in production and consumption does not necessarily mean greater well-being. FEE proposes an economy oriented towards meeting real needs, improving quality of life and respecting the Earth’s limits.
The aim is not to produce ever more, but to produce what is needed, reduce waste, make the most of existing resources and guarantee everyone decent living conditions without compromising ecosystem balance.
Return the value of the commons to society
Air, water, soil, seas, the atmosphere and biodiversity are a shared wealth. Part of the profits generated through the use of the commons must return to society through the European Citizen Fund, supporting ecological conversion, ecosystem regeneration, services and social well-being. No financial contribution can legitimise the destruction of nature or the breaching of ecological limits: activities incompatible with those limits must be transformed or brought to an end.
A more frugal society, but not a poorer one
Frugality does not mean deprivation. It means freeing well-being from the need to consume ever more materials and energy. Repairing rather than replacing, recovering buildings, regenerating forests, making services accessible and strengthening local economies are concrete forms of wealth.
Well-being cannot be measured solely by income, consumption or GDP growth. Time is also wealth: time for loved ones, family, culture, knowledge, democratic participation, volunteering and solidarity improves quality of life and community cohesion, even when it generates no economic transaction. FEE opposes advertising that encourages unnecessary or deceptive consumption.
Make what society needs economically worthwhile
Taxation, credit and public spending must encourage activities that serve the community and are compatible with ecological balance: maintenance, repair, reuse, research, innovation, efficiency, environmental regeneration and local services.
Conversely, the economic advantages of activities that consume natural assets, generate waste or transfer their environmental and social costs to the public must be reduced.
FEE proposes a fairer, progressive tax system that combats tax avoidance and ensures a greater contribution from rents and windfall profits. The aim is gradually to reduce taxes on labour and socially useful activities and shift the burden towards activities that consume natural resources, damage ecosystems, generate waste or pass their environmental costs on to society.
Public budgets must also become tools of ecological conversion: public resources should prioritise measures that reduce environmental impacts, protect ecosystems and improve quality of life, avoiding funding for activities that cause environmental and social harm.
FEE supports an economy that recognises the value of necessary work, the commons and care, measuring wealth by tangible improvements in people’s lives and by preserving the conditions that make life possible.
Industry, innovation and technology
FEE promotes an industrial conversion policy with European supply chains, responsible management of critical materials, conversion of polluting and energy-intensive facilities, and public, cooperative or social ownership of strategic infrastructure.
Research and innovation must serve the common good and be assessed for their environmental and social impacts. Ecodesign, repairability, durability and the circular economy must become standard production criteria.
4. PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY, JUSTICE AND SOLIDARITY
Ecological conversion also requires a transformation in how decisions are made, power is distributed and people participate in community life. Democracy cannot end at the ballot box: citizens must be able to understand, discuss, propose, decide and scrutinise choices that affect their future.
Representative and participatory democracy
FEE proposes a proportional electoral system, without majority bonuses or electoral thresholds, with open lists and preference voting. It also considers it necessary to restore the number of parliamentarians that existed before the 2020 reduction: 630 elected members of the Chamber of Deputies and 315 elected senators. The signatures required to submit electoral lists should be reduced to 500–1,000 per constituency, removing barriers that restrict access for new political forces and undermine democratic pluralism.
Participation must continue after elections through local assemblies, participatory budgets, consultations, referendums and other tools that can genuinely influence decisions. Institutions must ensure transparency and access to public information and data, account for their choices and explain decisions that depart from outcomes emerging from participatory processes.
Scientific knowledge, local experience and dialogue with citizens must all contribute to public decision-making. FEE also defends freedom of expression, association, dissent and peaceful protest as essential conditions for a living democracy.
Transparency, anti-corruption and information
Transparency must cover acts, data, studies, assessments, funding and decision-making processes in forms that are understandable and accessible. FEE promotes transparency in political funding, regulation of lobbying, prevention of conflicts of interest, anti-corruption measures, regulation of online political advertising and independent evaluation of public policies.
FEE promotes media pluralism, an independent public-service media, support for local and investigative journalism, protection of journalists and measures against ownership concentration. Political advertising must be transparent; media literacy strengthened; disinformation countered; and electoral integrity protected.
Digital technology, data and artificial intelligence
FEE promotes European digital sovereignty, public and interoperable infrastructure, net neutrality, data protection, open-source software, accessibility and action to close the digital divide.
Algorithms and Big Data systems must be subject to independent audits, human oversight, transparency in public-sector use, and prohibitions on mass surveillance and algorithmic discrimination. The energy, water and material footprint of artificial intelligence must be assessed.
FEE also promotes the security of energy, healthcare, water and administrative networks; protection against ransomware; encryption; resilient public archives; and European technological autonomy. Digital security must be achieved without militarising society and must include moving away from dependence on private cross-border payment networks through a public or cooperative European system.
Social justice and fundamental rights
Ecological conversion must not create new inequalities or impose the costs of transformation on the most vulnerable people and communities. Social justice follows from climate and ecosystem justice, because health, dignity and well-being also depend on the quality of the environment in which we live.
FEE promotes effective access to fundamental rights: housing, health, education, water, energy, mobility, work and essential services. Access to these rights cannot depend exclusively on individual purchasing power. Taxation and public resources must help reduce inequalities and guarantee dignified living conditions.
Welfare, care and long-term support
FEE promotes a universal public welfare and care system, including a minimum income, support for disability and long-term care needs, services for children and older people, leave entitlements, work–life balance and recognition of domestic and care work. Energy and housing poverty must be tackled, and universal public services made accessible to everyone.
Healthcare and public health
FEE promotes a universal, public, community-based health service founded on prevention, mental health, local healthcare, shorter waiting lists, adequate staffing and access to medicines. Pandemic preparedness, environmental health, air, water and food quality, the One Health approach and health assessments of environmental and climate impacts must be strengthened.
Equality, gender and LGBTQIA+ rights
FEE promotes gender pay equality, action against gender-based violence, support services for survivors, reproductive rights, education in relationships and emotional literacy, recognition of LGBTQIA+ families, accessibility, care policies and balanced representation in institutions.
Migration, asylum and citizenship
FEE upholds the right to asylum and promotes regular migration routes, community-based reception, integration, education, labour inclusion and citizenship. Administrative detention must be overcome; cooperation with countries of origin and transit strengthened; and people forced to migrate by climate, environmental, economic or war-related crises protected without discrimination based on origin or citizenship.
Practical solidarity and civic participation
Solidarity must take concrete form through actions involving citizens, associations and third-sector organisations. FEE promotes stronger civil-service programmes and organised volunteering to support older people, people living alone or requiring long-term care, combat poverty and encourage social inclusion.
Particular attention must be paid to recovering surplus food that is still safe to eat, involving markets, shops, producers, restaurants and associations so it can reach people in need. Simpler administrative procedures, suitable spaces and collaborative arrangements should make these initiatives easier while fully respecting food safety and hygiene.
Solidarity must also extend beyond national borders, promoting relations among peoples based on cooperation, shared knowledge and technology, and opposition to exploitation and global inequalities.
Rights and responsibilities towards all living beings
FEE opposes all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, hatred and violence. Moving beyond anthropocentrism also requires recognising that other animals are not mere instruments serving human beings. Animal protection, the elimination of exploitation and habitat conservation are integral to justice and collective responsibility.
Schools and lifelong learning must help develop free, informed citizens who can understand social and ecological change, engage with differences and take responsibility for their communities, future generations and other living beings.
Education, research, culture and knowledge
FEE promotes a democratic, inclusive public education system rooted in local communities, the right to education, action against school dropout and environmental, scientific and digital education, including education about artificial intelligence.
FEE supports independent universities and research, open access to data, studies and research findings, integrated protection of cultural and natural heritage, libraries, museums, the arts and minority languages. Technical and vocational training must support ecological conversion, including through Erasmus and European mobility.
Environmental justice and protection of dissent
FEE promotes access to environmental justice, legal standing for associations, protection for activists and environmental defenders, corporate accountability and action against environmental crime. It supports the creation of a Biodiversity Authority, the repair and regeneration of environmental damage, and effective implementation of the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
Local self-government and internal federalism
Restoring Provinces as elected institutions must be accompanied by financial autonomy and their own powers, cooperation among municipalities, a review of the role of mountain communities and metropolitan areas, and guarantees of essential service levels and uniform rights.
Subsidiarity, territorial participation and coordination among municipalities, Provinces and the European level are conditions for federal democracy.
5. PEACE
Peace means not merely the absence of war, but the building of relationships based on dialogue, cooperation, respect for rights and reduced inequality.
FEE proposes redirecting resources currently devoted to the war economy towards a peace economy. Initially, at least 10% of public resources currently spent on armaments and military expenditure should be allocated to strengthening diplomacy, conflict mediation, international cooperation and Civilian Peace Corps. This share should increase progressively as effective civilian conflict-prevention and management capabilities develop.
FEE proposes a permanent European Civilian Peace Corps comprising mediators, diplomats, legal experts, psychologists, educators, social workers and local experts, able to intervene before, during and after conflicts. Europe needs transparent oversight of arms supply chains and their end use, as well as a gradual shift of military resources towards prevention, diplomacy and cooperation.
Peace must become a structural choice for Europe through preventing wars, progressive disarmament and international relations based on solidarity among peoples.
International relations and global justice
FEE promotes reform of the international financial system, review of international debt, and investment in healthcare, education, water, energy, agriculture, infrastructure and productive systems compatible with ecosystems.
A significant share of public investment should be financed and accounted for in the currency of the host country. Trade agreements must be reformed; food sovereignty supported; international governance made more democratic; knowledge, technologies and patents shared; and historical colonial and ecological responsibilities acknowledged.
6. A FEDERAL EUROPE
The European Ecologists Federation recognises the European level as necessary for addressing crises that transcend national borders—climate, geopolitical and economic crises—but is cautious towards those who turn this necessity into uncritical support for federalism as an end in itself. As currently structured, the European Union has a democratic deficit: a European Parliament whose powers remain partial, a Commission not directly elected by citizens, and decision-making that is often opaque and distant from the communities governed by its rules. Before transferring further powers to common institutions, FEE considers it essential to verify their democratic legitimacy, transparency and proximity to citizens.
FEE rejects the idea that overcoming national sovereignty automatically means greater justice or effectiveness. If poorly designed, shared sovereignty among Member States risks creating not a European common interest but a new centre of power even further removed from direct democratic control. Transferring powers from national to supranational level without adequate democratic checks and balances could lead to outcomes that are even less democratic.
Recent environmental developments reinforce this caution: the postponement and weakening of the anti-deforestation regulation, the downgrading of the wolf’s protection status at European level despite criticism from parts of the scientific community, and the reopening of debate on pesticide use, also under pressure from agri-industrial lobbies, show that European institutions do not automatically guarantee stronger environmental protection than can be achieved nationally. The distance between decision-makers and citizens can make it easier to impose rollbacks without genuine democratic debate.
For this reason, FEE makes any further step towards European integration conditional on concrete, verifiable institutional reforms: full legislative powers for the European Parliament, genuine democratic oversight of the Commission and mechanisms for direct citizen participation. Europe must undergo radical democratic transformation and represent territories and citizens, not national governments. We therefore propose:
Two chambers representing citizens and territories
The European Federation should be based on two chambers with legislative powers: a Citizens’ Chamber representing Europe’s population and a Territories’ Chamber representing territorial communities.
The Territories’ Chamber must be built from the bottom up through Provinces and territorial groupings. To perform this democratic function, Provinces must once again become representative bodies, with members directly elected by citizens, replacing the current system of indirect election.
A democratically elected federal government
The federal government, comprising 27 members, should consist of a President and a Commission of 26 members, 13 elected by the Citizens’ Chamber and 13 by the Territories’ Chamber, through procedures based on qualified candidacies and criteria of competence and representativeness.
The Federal Commission is the executive body of the federal Europe. It governs in accordance with the directions set by the two chambers, submits legislative proposals, coordinates common policies and implements decisions adopted by the Federal Parliament. It is accountable to both chambers, which oversee its work.
The President of the European Commission is elected by the two chambers sitting jointly, on the basis of nominations put forward on an equal basis by the Citizens’ Chamber and the Territories’ Chamber. Commission members may neither stand as candidates nor take part in the vote. The election procedure is to be defined by the Federal Statute.
The President of the European Commission represents the unity of the Federation, safeguards its fundamental principles and coordinates and provides general direction for the Commission’s work, while respecting the collective powers of the federal government and the decisions of the two chambers. The President promulgates laws passed by the chambers or, where reasoned objections exist, refers them back for reconsideration.
Common decisions and territorial autonomy
The unanimity rule must be overcome by favouring decisions adopted by a two-thirds majority, ensuring both the Federation’s ability to act and a balance between the representation of citizens and that of territories.
The European Federation must guarantee the absence of internal borders and the freedom to live, work, study and move. Both chambers must have the right of legislative initiative and jointly approve laws; in areas currently subject to veto, unanimity must be replaced by a two-thirds majority. Federal institutions must reduce the power of private economic interests in relation to the collective interest.
The federal Europe we propose must be an instrument of peace, cooperation and solidarity among peoples, capable of guiding ecological conversion, protecting the commons and guaranteeing rights, democracy and social justice while respecting territorial autonomy.
CONCLUSIONS
The European Ecologists Federation intends to build a political project capable of translating the principles of ecological conversion into concrete transformations of the economy, institutions and society.
This project is founded on respect for the Earth’s limits, social justice, participatory democracy and peace. Its purpose is to guarantee dignified living conditions for everyone and preserve the natural foundations of life for future generations and all living beings.
FEE Interim Executive Committee: Giuseppe Sammatrice – Andrea Gillo Bernardi – Isabella Terranova – Antonio Scatassi – Luciano Benini – Massimo Chiaia – Domenico Giglio – Franco Correggia – Paolo Debernardi – Gaia Angelini – Giuliano Caviglia – Jose Antonio Berdugo – Lorenzo Raspanti – Marco Nicolai – Gianandrea Nicolai – Maria Bonaria Dell’Oglio – Roberto Canola – Sabrina Mossetto – Gianluigi Salvador – Dante Schiavon – Lorenzo Tinacci – Glauco Venturi – Roberto Ferrigno.