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Mitterrand and Kohl urge European political union

Letter by the German federal chancellor Helmut Kohl and French president François Mitterrand
to the Irish Presidency of the EC . 19 April 1990 . SOURCE: Agence Europe, 20 April 1990.

In the light of far-reaching changes in Europe and in view of the completion of the single market and the realisation of economic and monetary union, we consider it necessary to accelerate the political construction of the Europe of the Twelve. We believe that it is time "to transform relations as a whole among the member states into a European Union ... and invest this union with the necessary means of action", as envisaged by the Single Act. With this in mind, we would like to see the European Council deciding as follows on 28 April:

1. The European Council should ask the competent bodies to intensify the preparations for the intergovernmental conference on economic and monetary union, which will be opened by the end of 1990 at the invitation of the Italian presidency, as decided by the European Council in Strasbourg.
2. The European Council should initiate preparations for an intergovernmental conference on political union. In particular, the objective is to:
   • strengthen the democratic legitimation of the union,
   • render its institutions more efficient,
   • ensure unity and coherence of the unions economic, monetary and political action,
   • define and implement a common foreign and security policy.

   The Foreign Ministers should be instructed to prepare an initial report for the meeting of the European Council in June and to submit a final report to the European Council meeting in December. We wish the intergovernmental conference on political union to be held parallel to the conference on economic and monetary union.

3. Our aim is that these fundamental reforms - economic and monetary union as well as political union - should enter into force on 1 January 1993 after ratification by the national parliaments.

The Foreign Ministers of the French Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany, Roland Dumas and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, will present these ideas for discussion at the forthcoming informal meeting of the Council of Ministers (General Affairs) on 21 April.

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      Cf.  Proudhon, Principe Fédératif * Le mémorandum d'Alexis Leger * The Briand Memorandum * Kalergi, European Spirit must Precede Europe's Political Unification * La Construction de l'Europe selon Jean Monnet * Plan Fouchet * L'Union Européenne selon Altiero Spinelli * Il Manifesto di Ventotene