In an era defined by the resurgence of nationalism, the looming threats of climate change, war and the decay of the democratic Rule of Law, the federalist vision articulated by Altiero Spinelli and his co-authors some 80 years ago appears to be relevant again, offering a roadmap for European integration.
Today, the EU finds itself beset by a confluence of challenges that test the very foundations of the postwar liberal order. Geopolitical tensions, fueled by the assertiveness of authoritarian powers and the transatlantic rift, have underscored the need for a cohesive and influential European voice on the global stage. The existential threat of environmental degradation requires concerted, supranational action that transcends national borders. And the rise of anti-democratic forces within Europe threatens to unravel the hard-won progress towards political stability and the protection of human rights.
It is against this backdrop that the legacy of Spinelli and his manifestos, the Ventotene Manifesto and the later, Manifesto of the European Federalists shines once more. A former member of the Italian Communist Party, during his decade-long imprisonment by the Fascist regime, Spinelli emerged as a passionate advocate for a radically new political order – one built not on the pursuit of narrow national interests, but on the foundations of a genuinely united Europe in the post-war era.
The Ventotene Manifesto envisioned a “European revolution” that would combat private monopolies, implement land reform, and establish worker ownership and management in industry – a socialist reform of society. However, Spinelli rejected Stalinism, calling for the creation of a “Movement for a Free and United Europe” to organize the political struggle for European unification, which himself and the co-authors saw as an imminent possibility.
Spinelli’s Life
Born in 1907 in Rome, Spinelli came of age in the tumultuous years following the First World War, a period marked by the rise of Fascism and the breakdown of the old order. As a young man, Spinelli was drawn to the revolutionary fervor of communism, joining the Italian Communist Party in 1923. His early political activities soon landed him in trouble, and in 1927, at the age of just 20, he was arrested and sentenced to 16 years in prison for his subversive work against the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.
In 1937, Spinelli was transferred to the remote island of Ventotene, where he would spend the next decade of his life as a political prisoner. It was here, in this unlikely setting, that he would forge a vision for the future of Europe – one that would ultimately shape the trajectory of the continent for generations to come. Joined by fellow intellectuals Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni, Spinelli penned the Ventotene Manifesto, calling for the creation of a federated, supranational European union. Completed in June 1941, the manifesto rejected the destructive forces of nationalism and instead proposed a radical restructuring of European politics, built upon the principles of democracy, socialist reform, and international cooperation.
Though the manifesto was initially circulated in secret, its impact was felt far beyond the confines of Ventotene. Spinelli, a leading proponent of European federalism, would continue to champion this cause long after his release from prison. In 1943 he co-founded the European Federalist Movement (MFE), which played a crucial role in promoting the idea of a federated, united Europe in the post-war period.
Spinelli was closely involved in the establishment of the ECSC in 1951, which was a precursor to the European Union and he played an advisory role in the negotiations leading to the ECSC Treaty. In 1957 he wrote the Manifesto of the European Federalists, a text that was considered more mature and influential compared to the Ventotene Manifesto. In this one he put forward a more detailed vision and principles for the structure of the European federation, with parallel and independent sovereignties between the federation and nation-states.
He served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1986, where he continued to advocate for the federalization of Europe. In 1984, Spinelli was the principal architect of the European Parliament’s proposal for a European Union Treaty, which called for the creation of a federal European Union with a directly-elected parliament, an executive, and a court of justice.
A committee for institutional reform chaired by Spinelli produced a “Draft Treaty establishing a European Union”. Although the member states did not approve the text, it paved the way for the European Single Act and the Maastricht Treaty, which effectively established a European Union, albeit not a federal one. But it incorporated some of his ideas, such as the establishment of the European Union and the expansion of the European Parliament’s powers
The Ventotene Manifesto
At the heart of the seminal Ventotene manifesto’s vision is the conviction that the traditional nation-state system had become an anachronism, incapable of addressing the transnational challenges of the modern world. Spinelli and his co-author Ernesto Rossi wrote:
The new “dividing line between progressive and reactionary parties” will be that which separates on the one hand those who “conceive as the essential aim of the struggle the old one, that is the conquest of national political power – and who will, albeit involuntarily, play into the hands of the reactionary forces by letting the incandescent lava of popular passions solidify in the old mould, and resurrect the old absurdities”, on the other hand those who “will see as a central task the creation of a solid international state, will direct the popular forces towards this end and, even having conquered national power, will use it in the first line as an instrument for achieving international unity.”
As the authors noted, this vision was not presented as an idealistic dream, but rather as a pragmatic necessity in the post-war era. “Only the birth of a supranational European federation of States,” they asserted, “could have prevented new conflicts in Europe.”
Spinelli and Rossi believed that the establishment of a united Europe must be accompanied by a fundamental transformation of the existing political and economic systems. That included large-scale nationalisations in strategic sectors of collective interest, industrial reform to extend worker ownership through cooperative management or worker ownership; provisions for young people to “minimise the distances between the starting positions in the struggle for life”; roughly equal average wages for all occupational groups; and even the prefiguration of a kind of universal basic income.
But the Ventotene Manifesto also placed the rights and freedoms of European citizens at the heart of its proposed political system, recognizing that true unity could only be achieved through a shared commitment to democratic principles and freedom, thus reflecting Spinelli’s split from the Communist Party in 1937 for «ideological deviation and petit-bourgeois presumption».
The Ventotene manifesto did not offer concrete institutional and reform proposals but rather called for the centralization of key policy areas, such as foreign affairs, defense, and economic policy, under the authority of the federated European state. This would involve a clear delineation of competences between the supranational institutions and the member states, with the goal of ensuring the effective functioning of the European federation.
The manifesto’s influence on the development of the European Union can be seen in various stages of the integration process. Its federalist vision laid the groundwork for the establishment of supranational institutions like the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor to the modern-day European Union.
Spinelli’s ideas relevance today
The manifesto’s call for a ‘solid international state’ as a primary bulwark against future conflict and instability finds renewed relevance in an era defined by the interconnected nature of economic, environmental and security threats.
Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the limitations of the nation-state system, underlining the urgent need for coordinated, transnational responses to global crises. Moreover, the rise of anti-democratic, far-right and even neo-fascist forces in Europe has revealed the fragility of the liberal democratic norms that the authors of the manifesto identified as a key component of their vision of a free and united Europe. As Spinelli and Rossi wrote, the ‘creation of a stable international state’ must be accompanied by ‘extensive social reform’ and policy restructuring to safeguard the rights and freedoms of European citizens.
In 2010 the Spinelli Group was created, an informal, cross-party alliance within the European Parliament, including the Liberals and Democrats of Renew Europe, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the European People’s Party (EPP), the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) and even some parties of the Left group. The newly formed alliance, fragile as it may seem at the moment, constitutes a democratic front against the rise of eurosceptic and far right forces putting Spinelli’s ideas once more to the test..