PROFILPELAJAR.COM

The Spinelli Group is an initiative founded with a view to reinvigorate the endeavour for federalisation of the European Union (EU), by creating a network of citizens, think tanks, NGOs, academics, writers and politicians who support the idea of a federal and united Europe. Among other goals, the Group aims to "find a federal majority [among members of the European Parliament] on important subjects." Founded on 15 September 2010 in the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels, the group is named after Altiero Spinelli (1907–1986), founder of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and a founding father of the European integration.

The group was founded by Guy Verhofstadt, former head of the liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the Parliament and honorary president of the Union of European Federalists (UEF) in Belgium, former co-chair of the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group Daniel Cohn-Bendit, French MEP Sylvie Goulard (ALDE) and former EP Vice President Isabelle Durant (Greens/EFA), with the support of the Union of European Federalists.

Federalists' movements

The Spinelli Group is not the first initiative launched in the European Parliament, gathering together followers of European federalism ideas. On 9 July 1980, the Crocodile Club a group of MEPs was founded by Altiero Spinelli himself. For more than 60 years, the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and its youth organisation Young European Federalists (JEF), with a "belief that only a European Federation, based on the idea of unity in diversity, could overcome the division of the European continent",^[1] have been actively working to promote the idea of European federalism. MEP Andrew Duff and president of UEF has welcomed the launching of the Spinelli Group saying, that "existing federalist forces and organisations, such as the UEF and the Intergroup, welcome this new initiative".^[2]

Manifesto

With a manifesto online,^[3] recalling the Ventotene Manifesto written by Altiero Spinelli, Group activists call members of the European Parliament and Europe's citizens to sign it and add their names to the list of those fighting against nationalism and intergovernmentalism. By supporting the aims and principles laid out in the manifesto, Spinelli group followers try to speed up the process of European integration and promote a federal Europe.

Members

The Spinelli Group is organised in three sections.

The Steering Group gathers the 33 founding members and newcomers—politicians and thinkers dedicated to building a federal Europe.
The MEP Spinelli Group gathers 108 MEPs who signed the manifesto. They look for strategies and majorities in the European Parliament to push the pro-European, federal, and post-national agenda.
The Spinelli Network Group is made of every citizen who signed the manifesto of the Spinelli Group. As of 8 May 2017, they are 7,327. They participate in debates and fora.

This pro-European initiative is supported by prominent political leaders such as former Commission President Jacques Delors, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, former competition commissioner Mario Monti and MEP Andrew Duff, President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), and other well known public bodies. It is also enthusiastically supported by such European Union promoters as former European Parliament President Pat Cox and current Parliament Vice-President Isabelle Durant (Greens/EFA; Belgium).^[4]

The 35 members of the Steering Group in 2010 were:^[4]

After the 2024 European Parliament election the Spinelli Group has 81 members of which 79 are MEPs. ^[6]

All Members
Name	Party Affiliation
Sandro Gozi	Renew Europe
Guy Verhofstadt(Former MEP	Renew Europe
Domènec Ruiz Devesa(Former MEP)	S&D
Petras Auštrevičius	Renew Europe
Raquel Garcia Hermida-Van Der Walle	Renew Europe
Ľubica Karvašová	Renew Europe
Reinier van Lanschot	Greens/EFA
Benedetta Scuderi	Greens/EFA
Daniel Freund	Greens/EFA
Anna Strolenberg	Greens/EFA
Gabriele Bischoff	S&D
Brando Benifei	S&D
Vivien Costanzo	S&D
Klara Dobrev	S&D
Markus Ferber	EPP
Lukas Mandl	EPP
Nikolas Farantouris	The Left
Ignacio Sánchez Amor	S&D
Rasmus Andresen	Greens/EFA
Marc Angel	S&D
Laura Ballarin Cereza	S&D
Damian Boeselager	Greens/EFA
Delara Burkhardt	S&D
Pascal Canfin	Renew Europe
Benoît Cassart	Renew Europe
Olivier Chastel	Renew Europe
Estelle Ceulemans	S&D
Salvatore De Meo	EPP
Laurence Farreng	Renew Europe
Jonás Fernández	S&D
Lina Gálvez Muñoz	S&D
Raphaël Glucksmann	S&D
Nicolás González Casares	S&D
Giorgio Gori	S&D
Markéta Gregorová	Greens/EFA
Christophe Grudler	Renew Europe
Cristina Guarda	Greens/EFA
Elisabetta Gualmini	S&D
Bernard Guetta	Renew Europe
María Rosa Estaràs	EPP
Radan Kanev	EPP
Manolis Kefalogiannis	EPP
Moritz Körner	Renew Europe
Andrey Kovatchev	EPP
Andrius Kubilius	EPP
Murielle Laurent	S&D
Camilla Laureti	S&D
Javier López	S&D
Juan Fernando López Aguilar	S&D
César Luena	S&D
Cristina Maestre	S&D
Pierfrancesco Maran	S&D
Eva Maydell	EPP
Carolina Morace	The Left
Javier Moreno Sánchez	S&D
Alessandra Moretti	S&D
Jan-Christoph Oetjen	Renew Europe
Leoluca Orlando	Greens/EFA
Nikos Papandreou	S&D
Thomas Pellerin-Carlin	S&D
Pina Picierno	S&D
Sabrina Repp	S&D
Thijs Reuten	S&D
René Repasi	S&D
Matteo Ricci	S&D
Nela Riehl	Greens/EFA
Cecilia Strada	S&D
Sven Simon	EPP
Marco Tarquinio	S&D
Carla Tavares	S&D
Kai Tegethoff	Greens/EFA
Irene Tinagli	S&D
Jana Toom	Renew Europe
Flavio Tosi	EPP
Pasquale Tridico	The Left
Dimitris Tsiodras	EPP
Marie-Pierre Vedrenne	Renew Europe
Nicola Zingaretti	S&D

References

^ "Union of European Federalists: About UEF". Union of European Federalists. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
^ "Federalist Campaign grows - new Spinelli initiative" (Press release). Union of European Federalists. 15 September 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
^ "Manifesto". Spinelli Group. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
^ ^a ^b "Who we are". Spinelli Group. Archived from the original on 21 September 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
^ "MEPs to set up anti-intergovernmentalism group". euobserver.com.
^ "Board Members". Spinelli Group. Retrieved 28 September 2024.