"In Varietate Concordia" — United in Diversity
A citizen's proposal for a federal, democratic, and strong Europe
In 2004, the European Union tried to give itself a proper constitutional foundation. A treaty was signed in Rome — the same city where the whole project began in 1957. Then France voted no. The Netherlands voted no. The attempt was buried, and the political will that had produced it quietly dispersed.
In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty stepped in as a compromise — a technical adjustment rather than a political statement. It reorganised institutions, clarified competences, gave the Union a permanent President of the European Council and a foreign policy chief. But it did not resolve the deeper question: what kind of political entity is the European Union, and who does it actually answer to?
That question has gone unanswered for seventeen years. Meanwhile, Europe has changed beyond recognition. A member state left. A pandemic paralysed the continent. A full-scale war returned to European soil for the first time since 1945. The United States, long Europe's security guarantor, began questioning its own commitment to the alliance it built. And within the Union itself, democratic norms started eroding in member states that the EU struggled to hold accountable.
Europe was built for a different era. Built by people who had survived the worst the continent had to offer, and who chose, against all odds, to try something new. That spirit deserves a structure worthy of it.
This is a proposal to build that structure. Not to dismantle what exists — but to finally complete it.
This is not a list of abstract ideals. Each proposal below is written out in full constitutional language — with specific articles, clear powers, and real limits. Here is what the document actually puts on the table.
Today, no EU citizen gets to vote for the person who leads the Union's executive. That ends here. The Constitution establishes a President of the European Union elected directly by all citizens, by universal suffrage, every five years — with a maximum of two terms. To stand as a candidate, a person must gather 200,000 signatures from at least seven different member states. This is not a symbolic office: the President holds real executive power and is answerable to every European, not to a back-room negotiation among heads of state.
The current system splits legislative power between the European Parliament — directly elected — and the Council, where national ministers bargain behind closed doors. This Constitution proposes a European Congress with genuine democratic accountability. It holds exclusive legislative power over the things that matter most: foreign affairs, defence, the currency, borders, and the movement of people. For the most sensitive decisions, a double-qualified majority of both chambers is required — so no single bloc can steamroll the rest.
Seventy-two articles. That is how many rights this Constitution places beyond the reach of any government. They cover human dignity, personal freedom, freedom of expression and of the press, academic freedom, digital rights, the rights of children and the elderly, workers' rights, the right to strike, and the right to a fair trial — among many others. These are not aspirations. They are directly binding on every member state and every institution in the Union. No opt-outs.
Since February 2022, Europe has been reminded, at enormous cost, of what it means to lack a unified security structure. This Constitution gives the European Congress exclusive power over foreign affairs, defence, and the protection of civilian populations — uniformly across the Union. The EU would maintain its own armed forces under democratic oversight. The era of 27 separate defence budgets, 27 separate procurement systems, and 27 separate responses to the same threat would be over.
The EU has watched, with limited tools, as democratic backsliding happened inside its own borders — courts packed, press freedoms curtailed, elections manipulated. This Constitution makes the requirements explicit: every member state must guarantee free elections, freedom of speech, equality before the law, and social justice. These are not guidelines. They are conditions of membership, enforced through the Union's legal framework. The rule of law is not a suggestion — it is the foundation on which everything else rests.
Every few years, the EU's budget negotiations descend into a bruising fight over who pays and who receives — because there is no constitutional framework governing how contributions work or what limits apply. This Constitution changes that. It establishes clear principles for Union taxation, a fair system for distributing revenue between the Union and its member states, and hard constitutional rules on the budget. Europe's finances, governed by law — not by whoever shouts loudest at the table.
Europe's media landscape is under pressure from political interference, ownership concentration, and state-sponsored disinformation. This Constitution addresses all three directly. It establishes constitutional protection for press freedom and journalist privacy, bans government interference in editorial decisions, and requires that no single company dominate a national media market. It also creates the European Broadcasting Corporation — an independent public broadcaster operating in all 24 official EU languages, governed by journalists elected by their own peers, not by politicians. The EBC's mission: to inform, educate, and hold power to account across the whole Union.
Most constitutions treat education as a policy area. This one treats it as a branch of power — equal in status to the legislature, executive, judiciary, and media. Each member state has a Teachers' Debate: an independent body of educators, half elected by school directors and half by the national legislature, with the authority to set educational policy and veto legislation on education. Teachers in state schools are guaranteed at minimum the average graduate salary of their country. The aim: an education system that is genuinely independent of political cycles, governed by the people who actually deliver it.
Foreign interference in European elections is no longer theoretical. Russia's documented disinformation campaigns, its financial ties to far-right parties across the continent, and its active information warfare against EU institutions have made this an urgent constitutional question. This Constitution addresses it directly: the European Congress is required to identify and label autocratic regimes. Any political party, media organisation, or NGO found to have knowingly accepted funding from a labelled autocratic state faces immediate dissolution. There is no grace period, no fine — dissolution. It also bans foreign-backed lobby groups from participating in EU elections or influencing EU legislation.
The Constitution does not just give citizens rights — it gives them power. Three hundred thousand voters can introduce a bill directly to the European Congress. One million voters, or the legislatures of five member states, can force a referendum on any bill. Five hundred thousand voters can demand a referendum to repeal an existing law. Citizens' Assemblies — randomly selected groups of Europeans, moderated by experts — can deliberate on issues of public importance and send non-binding recommendations to the Congress. This is not a suggestion box. It is a constitutional mechanism for citizens to participate in governance between elections.
"We, the peoples of Europe, unite for a freer, happier, richer, equal, peaceful and more secure future."— Preamble, Constitution of the European Union (2026)
On May 9, 1950, Robert Schuman stood up in Paris and proposed something that most people assumed was impossible: that France and Germany, enemies for generations, should pool their coal and steel production under a common authority. His argument was simple. If the raw materials of war were shared, war between those nations would become not just unthinkable — but materially impossible.
That declaration, made seventy-six years ago today, was the seed of the European Union. What followed was one of the most remarkable political achievements in human history. But Schuman's vision was always of something more than a trading bloc. He spoke of a "European federation." He understood that economic cooperation was a beginning — not an end. The federation he imagined was never completed. This document is an attempt to continue where he left off.
The Schuman Declaration leads to the Treaty of Rome. Six nations choose cooperation over conflict. The project that will become the EU begins — with coal and steel, and the belief that shared prosperity builds lasting peace.
The Treaty of Maastricht creates European citizenship, launches the path to a common currency, and establishes the European Union as such. It is the most ambitious step since Rome — but it leaves governance fragmented, sovereignty jealously guarded, and democratic accountability incomplete.
After years of Convention deliberations led by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a Constitutional Treaty is signed in Rome. It would have given the EU a single legal personality, a clearer structure, a Charter of Rights, and a Foreign Minister. French voters reject it in May 2005. Dutch voters follow three days later. The project is shelved, and the political momentum behind it collapses.
The Lisbon Treaty rescues some of the 2004 reforms in diluted form — a permanent President of the European Council, a High Representative for Foreign Affairs, extended qualified majority voting. It is the last time the EU's fundamental architecture has been seriously revised. That was seventeen years ago. Since Lisbon, the world has changed. The EU's structure has not.
The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union — the first time a member state has done so. The years that follow reveal just how ill-equipped the EU's treaties are to handle a departure of this scale, and raise a harder question: if membership feels abstract and distant to citizens, what holds the project together?
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine brings war back to European soil. Europe responds with sanctions, aid, and political solidarity — but without a common defence structure, without a unified foreign policy command, and without the constitutional authority to act as a single power. At the same time, the United States begins signalling doubts about its NATO commitments. Democratic backsliding continues in Hungary. Migration strains member states with no common constitutional framework to resolve it. The climate crisis demands collective action the treaties barely enable. Seventeen years after Lisbon, Europe is navigating the most dangerous geopolitical moment since the Cold War with institutions designed for a calmer world.
This Constitution does not pretend that political union is easy, or that ratification would be simple. It is a contribution to a debate that should be happening — and largely isn't. Schuman did not wait for the moment to be perfect. He made the proposal, and let history decide. This document does the same.
150 pages. Freely available. A complete constitutional draft — not a wish list, but a working document built for debate.
Schuman did not wait for consensus before making his proposal.
He made the proposal, and let Europe decide.
Share it. Argue with it. Improve it.
That is what Europe Day is for.