Declaration of the International Pan-European Union

Strasbourg, 18 February 2023

The centenary of the activity of the International Pan-European Movement is a remarkable jubilee in the history of contemporary Europe. The movement was founded and presided by the visionary of the Pan-European unification and promoter of the creation of common European bodies (European Parliamentary Union, Council of Europe, European Parliament, etc.) count Richard von Coudenhove Kalergi between the 1920-ies and 1972, and thereafter until 2004 by the Archduke Otto von Habsburg, whose efforts gave crucial support to the process of accession of all member states of the European communities, now European Union, since his first election in 1979 to the European Parliament. He is followed by the former member of the French National Assembly and of the European Parliament Alain Terrenoire, who is successfully guiding the International PEU since 2004. Almost all the founders of the European communities in the 1950-ies were members of the Pan-European movement already before the Second World War. The Pan-European idea has been built into the foundations of the actual European Union. And that is what we are celebrating at the jubilee meeting of the International Pan-European Union in Strasbourg. 

We, members of the Enlarged Presidency of the International Pan-European Union, at our meeting in Strasbourg, February 18, 2023, at the occasion of the conference of the International PEU An Independent, Sovereign, and United Power Europe, organised by the Pan-European Union of France, declare:

1. The European Communities and the European Union were born out of dire experiences of the two world wars in the 20th century. The Union is the answer to many dangers and challenges and was founded on the idea of peace. That is what was recognised by the Nobel Committee when the EU was granted the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012.
2. We are fighting with all our political possibilities for a European Union which is a real world power of peace with a common foreign and defence policy, an European Army and full sovereignty on all political fields, which are necessary, that Europe can survive in a world, which becomes more and more dangerous.
3. We support the democratisation of the European Union by strengthening the European Parliament and its seat in Strasbourg, symbol of peace, freedom and reconciliation in Europe.
4. We warn that the deficiencies of the European Union, noticed in these times of crisis, should be corrected. The European Union should secure its self-sufficiency in the food production and its energy sovereignty.
5. In our concern for the European identity and European motivation of the citizens of the European Union we want to stress the importance of education and culture, and specifically of the care for a good humanistic education in Europe.
6. Other fields of education, science, technology and research should be strongly promoted in order to secure the competitiveness of the European Union in the world.
7. We wholeheartedly support the brave resistance of the Ukrainian people against the Greater-Russian aggression, and for freedom, democracy and European values. We strongly ask for further humanitarian and financial aid and defence arms supply to Ukraine, and wish Ukraine to make a great success in the future accession negotiations with the EU.
8. We oppose all the threats to the democratic government of Moldova from the Russian side. We strongly support the independence, freedom and the EU perspective of this European country.
9. Therefore, we greet the granting of the candidate status for membership in the EU to Ukraine and Moldova.
10. We greet the decision to start of the accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.
11. We greet the decision of the European Council and European Commission to grant the candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We want Bosnia and Herzegovina to abandon the aspirations to hegemony of any community and to constructively accept this European perspective. 
12. We invite the Montenegrin Parliament to establish the functioning of the Constitutional Court in its full capacity as a necessary step towards resolving the deep political crisis, conduct further presidential elections in March 2023, and continue an inclusive political dialogue about the next parliamentary elections. We wish good progress in the accession negotiations to Montenegro.
13. We wish the improvement of relations of Serbia with its neighbours, the renunciation to the Great-Serbian ideology, the alignment with the EU foreign and security policy, and further progress in the negotiations with the EU.
14. We wish the quick liberalisation of the visa regime, the membership in the Council of Europe, and the attainment of the EU candidate status to Kosovo.
15. Pan-Europe means the integration of the whole continent. We work for this on the fundament of Christian, humanist and democratic values, human rights and the will of the citizens to build up a strong unity in diversity.