Owing to the high degree of collaboration between the executive power of the federal government and that of each of the federated states (Länder), German federalism is often characterized as “executive federalism.”

For more than a decade now, a good number of people, in both political and academic circles, have been declaring that the ideas of the founding fathers of the European Union, especially the idea of a federal Europe, are outdated. Yet, the announcement of the establishment of the Spinelli Group, on September 15, by four Euro-MPs, including onetime May 68 leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, would seem to be proving them wrong.