While the umbrella organisation JEF Europe was founded in 1972, its sections have been operating continuously since the end of the Second World War, making it the oldest pro-European and only federalist youth organisation.

In the 1950s the first groups of young federalists appeared as a youth section of the Union of European Federalists (UEF). The Young European Federalists organised themselves into so-called ‘JEF sections’, a term we still use nowadays for national, regional or local organisation structures. These sections established a European structure with a European office in Paris in 1949.

Perhaps most notably among the actions carried out in those early days of JEF was the dismantling – and in some cases burning – of border posts, a clear symbol that a united Europe had not yet (and has not yet) been achieved.

From the mid-1950s the Federalist movement became somewhat split between those who saw European integration as an essential precursor to world federation, and those who saw no distinction. This led to the European level of JEF essentially disappearing from the political landscape, but the work of its local, regional and national levels continued nevertheless.

In 1967, young people held mock negotiations in Brussels to work out a treaty of accession for the UK to the Community. In March 1969, they organised a demonstration on the spectators’ benches of the European Parliament, demanding its direct elections by universal suffrage. In many European countries protest demonstrations were organised against the dictatorship in Greece. These activities helped the first groups of young federalists to set up very close collaboration and to tighten their links again. This collaboration took concrete form in the creation of JEF’s liaison office in 1970. The founding Congress for the “Young European Federalists” was held in Luxembourg on 25 and 26 March 1972. Surprised about why our acronym is JEF and not YEF? Our original name was in French, Jeunes Européens Fédéralistes.

Even though JEF was still interested in the European Community, new topics became increasingly important for JEF in the 70s: direct election of the European Parliament, East-West reunification and enlargement, disarmament, women, the environment and international development issues. Our Political Platform was the first document to coin the term ‘democratic deficit’, as written by the then President Richard Corbett.

In 1985, when Jacques Delors became President of the European Commission and launched the idea of the Single Market, institutional questions became important in the discussion in JEF since it seemed that a real European Democracy can be established in a short time and JEF said of itself: Simply a Generation Ahead, which is still the JEF motto nowadays.

In the 90s three basic developments influenced the work and the discussions of JEF: 1) the return of nationalist wars in Europe; 2) the crisis of legitimacy of the European integration process, highlighted by the Danish referendum in 1992, the lost Norwegian referendum in 1994 and the negative attitude of a majority of EU citizens towards the Euro; 3) the open questions on the enlargement of the European Union. It was also a time of challenge for JEF and pro-European Movements as the completion of the Maastricht Treaty gave many citizens the feeling that European integration was somehow ‘complete’, and something to be taken for granted.

In the 2000s, JEF Europe worked a lot on institutional issues calling for a European federal constitution and a more democratic Europe. Another major area of interest for JEF is the defense of human rights and respect for the rule of law especially with our annual Belarus action taking place since 2006. In the 2010s this became a broader campaign, ‘Democracy under Pressure’, to face up to increasing challenges to democracy and rule of law across many European countries.

The period of 2010 onwards has seen Europe through successive threats to the integration process. The Eurocrisis has exposed the need for the fiscal union that JEF calls for. In-flows of refugees from the ‘Neighbourhood’ and the response to this in individual nations has necessitated a common European approach to the external borders, and a need to do more to protect the free movement we Europeans thought could be taken for granted. JEF responded to this with the ‘Don’t Touch my Schengen’ campaign.

The year 2016 witnessed the first instance of a member state voting to leave the European Union with the ‘Brexit referendum’, which showed all Europeans in stark terms that integration was a reversible process. In some senses it has served as a wake-up call, and JEF co-organised the March for Europe on the anniversary of the Rome Treaty March 2017 in Rome and joined over 1 million other pro-Europeans in March 2019 to protest against Brexit at its Federal Committee in London – the biggest pro-European demonstration, ever.

And as our organisation enters the 2020s, the coronavirus quickly and ruthlessly laid bare a continued lack of solidarity across European nations. JEF’s answer to these problems remains the same as it always has: a Federal Europe. Though as this is still the history of our times, it remains to be seen if we will finally bring about a federation, or if the forces of disintegration will succeed..

Join JEF and…

• Discuss European and international politics without being pinned down to party ideology;

• negotiate resolutions in our political commissions with fellow members to voice the opinion of the organisation;

• take part in developing JEF and our work by joining one of our task forces;

• influence EU decision-making and public opinion via lobbying and press coverage;

• build bridges between Europe and its citizens, and raise awareness for the need for a strong, democratic Europe by taking part in our campaigns;

• publish articles in our online webzine The New Federalist; and its sister editions;

• experience the reality of the Union by crossing the borders to do all these activities throughout Europe (with up to 70% travel reimbursement)