lEADING EUROPEAN FEDERALIST CALLS FOR U.N. PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY

by Jo Leinen, Member, European Parliament

The United Nations is in urgent need of reform to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. The global governance system in the UN must be made more efficient and more democratic. Decisions on the global level influence the daily lives of people everywhere, whether it concerns the economy, the environment, security issues or health policy.
The current UN system is basically the structure of the founding year 1945. The world has changed dramatically in the last 60 years. It is unacceptable that the Allied powers of the Second World War and China can still veto every decision. It is also unacceptable that only governments and executive bodies have full representation at the UN level.
The UN needs the participation of civil society and the representation of the member states' parliaments. The democratic deficit in the UN must be overcome. Governments do not necessarily represent the people of their country, including the opposition and other forces of society. They must be accompanied and controlled democratically by a citizens' chamber in the United Nations.
The voice of the citizens is a qualitatively different power from governments, which very often embody the competition between states and act according to the raison d'etat. A People's Assembly would act more directly in accord with the people's interests and human development.
One important element of any UN reform must therefore be the establishment of a parliamentary assembly in the UN system. The world parliament could be constituted according to Article 22 of the UN Charter by a simple majority of the General Assembly. It would organize itself as a plenary, in committees and political groups.
The European Parliament could be a good example of how this process can start off and how it might continue. The early Coal and Steel Community of 1951 between six European states (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) and the European Community of 1957 started with a parliamentary assembly which had a purely consultative status. The national parliaments sent their delegations to this European assembly. Already in the Sixties, however, a broad public debate began, calling for legislative power for the parliamentary assembly and for direct elections of its members.
The Union of European Federalists (UEF) has been in the forefront of a broad coalition of forces promoting the transformation of the parliamentary assembly into a real European Parliament and the direct election of the European parliamentarians. This campaign is a success story that continues until the present day.
In June 1979, the first direct elections to European parliament were organized. On June 13, 2004, the Europeans elected the 6th European Parliament. 450 million people from 25 member states could vote for 736 deputies in this European people's assembly. The European Parliament has step by step acquired more powers. The first European Constitution, signed on June 18, 2004 by the heads of state and government of the 25 member states, will give the EP nearly the full range of powers of an elected parliament. The Constitution states the rule that European laws will be made by a two-chamber system: the citizens, represented by the European Parliament, and the states, by the Council of Ministers. The European Parliament will get full control over the EU budget and is entitled to elect the president of the European Commission, which is the government of the European Union. After the federal parliament of India, the European Parliament represents the second largest democracy in the world. It is the first supranational parliament on this globe.
The European Parliament could be a model for similar developments in other continents as well as on the UN level. The newly created African Union (AU) will set up its own parliamentary assembly very soon. Similarly, the Latin American association of Mercosur is debating a parliamentary assembly. The time has therefore come to push for a parliamentary body also in the United Nations system. For the democratic development of global governance, it would be best to have one single parliamentary assembly and not one for every UN organization (WTO, World Bank, etc.). The resources of parliamentarians are too limited for such a disaggregation. A single People's Assembly could also ensure the coherence of policies and decisions within the UN.
The number of parliamentarians in the People's Assembly should be below 1000 in order to facilitate debates and efficient decision-making. Every country should have a minimum of two parliamentarians, Additional representatives should be allotted based on population, thus allowing the largest countries to have as many as 18.
For a start, an amount of $100 to 120 million would be enough to provide for plenary sessions, committee meetings and a general secretariat. Compared with the one trillion dollars spent on weapons every year, the necessary financial resources to achieve global democracy should not be an argument against the world parliament. Of course, there are undemocratic countries in this world, and there are doubts regarding the character of their parliamentary envoys. Yet, Freedom House has calculated that among the 192 member states of the UN there are 117 democracies, a clear majority. It is hoped that parliamentary debates in the new assembly would help undemocratic countries politically and educationally to develop democratic cultures of their own. In my opinion, it is necessary to start with parliamentarians from all UN members to preserve the equality of the states and their population in this world.
A world parliament is an instrument for a world citizenship. The representation of the citizens in this assembly would increase their identification with global problems. The opening phrase of the UN Charter, "We the peoples," could finally fulfill its true meaning. The parliamentary assembly would also be an invaluable push for the development of a global civil society. NGOs are very important, but by definition, they do not have the same democratic legitimacy as parliamentarians emerging from direct and general elections. With the world parliament, NGOs and civil society would have a clear focus and a strong partner in the UN.
How is it possible to realize a parliamentary assembly in the UN?
A world-wide campaign of citizens, organizations, parliamentarians and governments will be necessary to achieve this goal. Civil society has a special role to promote this idea because those who have the power are reluctant to change and do not want to share power. We therefore cannot wait for governments and national parliaments to start this process. There is, of course, a famouse seuccess story in recent years of a global coalition to promote UN institutions. The World Federalist Movement (WFM) coordination about 4,000 activists from NGOs in Rome in 1998 in support of the International Criminal Court (ICC). I would like to see WFM or another coalition united world citizens for a world parliament.

The San Francisco People's Assemly in June 2004 was a starting point for such a global campaign. Let's get going to have our first results next year, when the world community will be meeting for the 60th anniversary of the Un. I will do my utmost so that the newly elected European Parliament will be a strong partner for this important idea and this innovative project. We are living in one world. The citizens of this globe need direct representation: a world parliament is a necessity for the 21st Century.

--Jo Leinen (MP from Germany) heads the Union of European Federalists, which also supports a democratic, federal system of world government. This presentation was made in San Francisco on 25 June 2004.