Saturday

9th Dec 2023

EU should be named United States of Europe

  • VALÉRY GISCARD d'ESTAING - President of the Convention on the Future of Europe said the name has a symbolic power that gives the individual citizen the possibility of identifying themselves with the European project’s uniqueness and ambitions (Photo: EU Commission)

The European Union is maybe in the future to be named the United States of Europe, suggested the president of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Valery Giscard d’Estaing on Wednesday, in a speech in the Belgium city of Brugge.

The Convention is at the moment working on a new European treaty that might lead to a European constitution, but now the former French president also wants to discuss the name of the Union.

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"This linguistic question is not irrelevant, since the name has a symbolic power that gives the individual citizen the possibility of identifying themselves with the European project's uniqueness and ambitions", said Mr Giscard d'Estaing in the College of Brugge.

The speech by Mr Giscard d'Estaing, which is bound to spark controversy, came on the eve of the Convention's planned meeting session to take place in Brussels over the next two days.

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