A European federation would share power between a European government and the member states under a constitution, each sovereign in its own field.
The term is older than the EU, and the founders used it.
The definition
A federation divides power by territory. A central government handles some matters for the whole; member units, called states, provinces or cantons, handle others; a written constitution fixes who does what, and neither level can change that division alone. The United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Belgium work this way.
Two neighboring terms help. A confederation is a looser union whose members can veto many decisions and can leave; the United States under the Articles of Confederation was one. A unitary state, like France, has one national parliament that decides what powers regions hold. A European federation would sit in between: European institutions would govern a limited list of common matters, typically defense, foreign policy and the single market, while nations kept everything else.
The founders’ word
The Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, the founding text of today’s Union, said the coal and steel pool would lead to “the first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace.” In 1984 the European Parliament adopted Altiero Spinelli’s Draft Treaty establishing the European Union by 237 votes to 31. The treaties themselves chose a vaguer phrase: Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union speaks of “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe.”
How close is the EU?
Closer than a confederation, short of a federation: its law, market and currency work federally; defense, foreign policy and taxes do not, and members can leave under Article 50. We set out both halves in Is the EU a federation?
The live debate
The question is back in mainstream politics.
- Germany. The 2021 coalition agreement of the SPD, Greens and FDP said the Conference on the Future of Europe should lead to a constitutional convention and “a federal European state”. The 2025 agreement of the CDU/CSU and SPD dropped the phrase and says only that Germany is open to treaty changes “where necessary”.
- The European Parliament. In November 2023 it adopted proposals to amend the treaties, with more majority voting, new EU powers in areas such as health and industry, and a larger EU role in defense, by 291 votes to 274. The European Council has not acted on them; in November 2025 Parliament again urged it to discuss a convention.
- Mario Draghi. In October 2025 the former Italian prime minister and ECB president argued that “a new, pragmatic federalism is therefore the only viable path forward”, while conceding that a full federation “would require political conditions that do not exist today.”
- The opponents. The Patriots for Europe alliance, launched in 2024 by Viktor Orbán, Herbert Kickl and Andrej Babiš, pledged in its founding manifesto to “prioritize sovereignty over federalism” and warned of a European “superstate”.
The arguments on both sides are weighed in Pros and cons of a federal Europe, and the practical design in Would a United States of Europe work?
What it would take
A federation cannot be reached by stretching the current treaties. Under Article 48, any treaty change needs the agreement of all 27 governments and ratification in every member state, several of them by referendum. That is why recent change has come in smaller steps, such as joint borrowing and common defense loans. Our position is that defense is where a federal answer would do the most good, and where Europe’s current arrangement is under the most strain.