11 January 2017

The year 2017 will mark the sixty-year anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. On this occasion, the European project will receive a thorough check-up, and important decisions will be made that will decide whether and in what form it survives.

In this context, it is crucial to recognise the long-overlooked contest between two competing visions of European federalism, propounded by two great figures of Europe’s twentieth century: Altiero Spinelli and Friedrich Hayek.

The recent past tells the story of a revolt against European integration that is taking dangerously big dimensions and demands urgent countermeasures. Honest pro-Europeans should admit that some sort of Hayekian federalism is the only federalism with some chances of success in our continent.