Paneuropean Union

Paneuropean Union

The International Paneuropean Union, also referred to as the Paneuropean Movement and the Pan-Europa Movement, is the oldest European unification movement. It began with the publishing of Count Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi's manifesto Paneuropa (1923), which presented the idea of a unified European State. Coudenhove-Kalergi, a member of the Bohemian Coudenhove-Kalergi family and the son of an Austro-Hungarian diplomat and a Japanese mother, was the organisation's central figure and President until his 1972 death.

It is independent of all political parties, but has set principles by which it appraises politicians, parties and institutions. The International Paneuropean Union has four main basic principles: liberalism, Christianity, social responsibility and pro-Europeanism. At the same time, it openly welcomes and acknowledges the contributions of Judaism and Islam whose heritage they share.

The organisation was prohibited by Nazi Germany in 1933, and was founded again after the Second World War.

Otto von Habsburg, the head of the Habsburg dynasty and former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, became involved with the Paneuropean Union in the 1930s, was elected its Vice President in 1957 and became its International President in 1973, after Coudenhove's death. The President of the Union since 2004 is Alain Terrenoire, former Member of Parliament in France and MEP and Director of the French Paneuropa-Union. Otto became the International Honorary President of the International Paneuropean Union in 2004. Its Vice President is Walburga Habsburg Douglas, Member of Parliament in Sweden.

The Union has branches in many European countries, with the General Secretariat located in Munich. In France, the Pan-Europa Union was founded by later President Georges Pompidou and later cabinet minister Louis Terrenoire, with the support of Charles de Gaulle. The Union achieved high political influence in France, particularly within the gaullist segment of French politics.

Among its notable members were Albert Einstein, Fridtjof Nansen, Johan Ludwig Mowinckel, Thomas Mann, Franz Werfel, Bronisław Huberman, Aristide Briand, Konrad Adenauer, Sigmund Freud, Benedetto Croce, Bruno Kreisky, Léon Blum and Georges Pompidou. Winston Churchill lauded the movement's work for a unified Europe prior to the war in his famous Zurich speech in 1946.

Grounded in liberal democratic values, the Paneuropean Union was considered staunchly anti-communist from its inception and especially during the Cold War. For this reason, the organisation was much reviled by the communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc. The organisation became renowned for its role in organising the Pan-European Picnic, an important event during the Revolutions of 1989.