More Europe Manifesto for free travel

As I mentioned yesterday, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe, in order to overcome the impending catastrophe in the eurozone and the wider European Union.

You can join the appeal on the More Europe blog and you can participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope.

They act as EU citizens, so they want to build on European achievements important for ordinary people. Their appeal is now available in eight languages.

After stating the need for greater European integration, the first concrete accomplishment they want to safeguard is the right to free movement.

“More Europe” Statement

Given the dramatic social situation in many Member States caused by the economical crisis and the anti-European voices predicting the breakup of the Economic and Monetary Union, the undersigned ask for More Europe.

We consider it is necessary to move to a greater European integration in order to address the current situation of social and economic crisis affecting Europe and for this reason we will join our forces as European citizens. To achieve our goal we claim that:

1) The Schengen area of free movement is the result of the political and social work of a generation knowing the devastating consequences of World War II. The Schengen area guarantees equality, security, communication, cooperation and, to sum up, freedom between European citizens. This statement supports the defense of the EU area as a whole. Any exception on this means unequal rights among European citizens and residents.

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The Schengen Agreement was later incorporated into the EU Treaties. The Schengen Area of free travel now comprises 25 countries, with some 400 million people, and four more countries are heading towards membership in the area of free movement.

Sign the appeal on the More Europe blog and participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope.



Ralf Grahn