This is the inaugural lesson of the macro topic, “The Ventotene Manifesto,” within the inaugural module of EUPress Teacher Training.
The objective of this lesson, led by Prof. Fabio Masini, is to introduce the significance of the Ventotene Manifesto in the historical context of European integration.
The Ventotene Manifesto, drafted in 1941 under Fascist confinement, is often considered the most crucial document behind Europe’s post-war integration. Unlike other pre-war visions for European unity, this short and clandestine text ignited a real political process — one that led to the birth of the European project as we know it today.
A manifesto written in exile
The document was drafted by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, with philosophical input from Eugenio Colorni, while all three were imprisoned on the tiny Italian island of Ventotene. As anti-fascists, they were not legally allowed to write — the manifesto was handwritten on cigarette papers, smuggled off the island inside a roasted chicken by Colorni’s wife, Ursula Hirschmann, who later helped spread it through Rome and Milan.
Far more than an academic exercise, the manifesto was meant to serve as the political blueprint for a new Europe emerging from war and fascism.
The authors: from communism to liberalism — and beyond
The diversity of the manifesto’s authors shaped its intellectual power:
- Altiero Spinelli, a former communist turned critical thinker, deeply influenced by neoclassical economic ideas (not least through his uncle, the economist Umberto Ricci).
- Ernesto Rossi, a liberal economist tied to the anti-fascist thinker Luigi Einaudi, yet far from neoliberal orthodoxy.
- Eugenio Colorni, a socialist philosopher, whose life was tragically cut short in 1944 by fascist forces.
Together, they embodied a broad coalition of democratic ideologies — showing that the federalist idea was not tied to one political tradition, but aimed at overcoming nationalism itself.
A radical rethinking of sovereignty
The manifesto argued that the nation state — once an instrument of progress — had degenerated into a dangerous vessel for militarism, exploitation, and nationalist rivalry. Its solution: a federal Europe where sovereignty would be shared across multiple levels of governance.
In proposing a supranational political structure, the authors broke with socialist and liberal assumptions that peace would naturally follow from democracy within nations. Instead, they insisted that political architecture itself must be redesigned.
An intellectual and political legacy
The manifesto circulated among Italian and European resistance movements, later inspiring the foundation of the European Federalist Movement (MFE) and shaping debates leading up to the Congress of Europe in 1948. Spinelli himself went on to become a member of the European Parliament and a lifelong architect of more ambitious forms of European unity.
Though it remained illegal when written, the ventotene text went on to influence the birth of the European Coal and Steel Community and still informs today’s debates around sovereignty, federalism, and Europe’s democratic future.
The Ventotene Manifesto remains a lasting reminder of the belief that political unity — not just cooperation — is essential for lasting peace and democracy in Europe.
