The Geneva meetings and the international federalist declaration of the European Resistance movements

In August 1943, just after the European Federalist Movement's foundation, the Manifesto of Ventotene authors decided to search political contacts for a strategy aimed at raising awareness among the pro-European and diplomatic circles present in Switzerland, but above all to spread the federalist idea among the representatives of the Resistance movements of the occupied countries. In a series of meetings held in Geneva in 1944 - in the home of Dutch pastor Visser't Hooft - representatives of the European Resistance drafted a document with the intent of re-launching the federalist idea at the international level. Main promoters of this Declaration were Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, as well as some members of the French Resistance operating in Switzerland in those days. The final version was approved on May 20, 1944, and presented for approval to the representatives of the European Resistance movements at their meeting on July 7, 1944. The text briefly outlined features of the “Federal Union” with a government accountable to the peoples of the member states, a federal army to the exclusion of any other national army, and a Supreme Court for any disputes between the member states or between the states and the Federation. On July 7 1944, another text was approved, called Message of solidarity, strongly supported by the French delegation. During the second meeting on April 29 1944, all delegates decided to organize the Comité provisoire pour la fédération européenne (CPFE), whose task was to organize activities and develop contacts with the various movements.