Paneuropean Union

• 1. Introduction

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  The International Paneuropean Union is the oldest European unification movement, and it began with a book. In 1923, Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi published a manifesto called Paneuropa. It argued for a single, unified European State. The organisation is also known as the Pan-European Movement and the Pan-Europa Movement. Its story raises several questions. Who was the man behind that manifesto, and where did he come from? How did an idea from 1923 survive a ban by a dictatorship? Why did governments in the East regard it with such hostility? And why has its founder's name been pulled into a modern conspiracy theory?

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• 2. The Founder

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  Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi belonged to the Bohemian Coudenhove-Kalergi family. His father was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat, and his mother was Japanese. He became the central figure of the organisation he created. Three years after Paneuropa appeared, in 1926, he was elected its first international president. He held that office until his death in 1972, nearly half a century of leadership. His movement soon found a champion inside the French government, who carried its argument to an international stage.

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• 3. Geneva and the Ban

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  On the 5th of September 1929, Aristide Briand gave a speech at the League of Nations in Geneva. Briand was the French prime minister, and he was also a follower of the Paneuropean Union. He called for a federal Europe. His aim was to make the continent secure and to settle the long enmity between France and Germany. The speech is widely recognized today as a landmark of the idea. Four years later, in 1933, Nazi Germany prohibited the organisation. The ban did not end it, because the union was founded again once the Second World War was over.

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• 4. Revival and Rivals

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  In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous speech in Zurich and praised the movement's prewar work for a unified Europe. That endorsement came as the union rebuilt itself. The French branch was founded by Georges Pompidou and Louis Terrenoire, with the support of Charles de Gaulle. Pompidou later became French President, and Terrenoire became Minister for Information. Otto von Habsburg, head of the Habsburg dynasty and former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, had become involved in the 1930s. He was elected Vice President in 1957, then International President in 1973 after the founder died. Across the Iron Curtain, the communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc reviled the organisation. Yet it became renowned for organising the Pan-European Picnic, an important event during the Revolutions of 1989. Habsburg would go on to lead the union for more than three decades.

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• 5. What It Believes

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  The union's own abbreviation is EPU, and its stated goal is a Europe united both politically and militarily. It pairs that goal with humanist and Christian values. The EPU says it wants to bring together Europe's diverse peoples, and it promotes peace, liberty and the rule of law. It also campaigns for stronger democracy and human rights. On the European Union, it supports enlargement and urges every European country to seek full membership. It wants the EU to become an independent, self-sufficient and peaceful superpower. In defence, it backs a European Common Security and Defence Policy and a European army, working in strong cooperation with NATO. Beyond its programme, the union also keeps a roll of notable people it counts among its historical members.

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• 6. A Roll of Famous Names

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  The union lists 31 people as historical members, and the names range far beyond politics. Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud appear alongside the writers Thomas Mann and Heinrich Mann. Rainer Maria Rilke, Stefan Zweig, Franz Werfel and Arthur Schnitzler are on the roll, as are Gerhart Hauptmann, Paul Claudel and Paul Valéry. So is the composer Richard Strauss. Statesmen include Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, Léon Blum, Gustav Stresemann and Bruno Kreisky. Fridtjof Nansen, Kurt Schuschnigg and Benedetto Croce are listed too, along with Salvador de Madariaga and José Ortega y Gasset. The list also carries Raymond Barre, Alfons Goppel, Bronisław Huberman, Paul Löbe, Johan Ludwig Mowinckel and Franz Josef Strauß. Otto von Habsburg and Aristide Briand complete it. A founder with so many admirers also attracted a very different kind of attention.

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• 7. The Kalergi Plan

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  Coudenhove-Kalergi's name has been attached to the so-called Kalergi Plan, a far-right and antisemitic conspiracy theory. The theory claims that he concocted a plot to mix and replace White Europeans with other races through immigration. Its supposed targets are mainly Arab Muslims, Black Africans and South Asians. It is a conspiracy theory, and nothing in the union's stated aims resembles it. The idea is most often associated with European groups and parties. It has also spread into North American politics.

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• 8. Leadership and Reach Today

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  Since February 2025, Pavo Barišić has been President of the Paneuropean Union. He is a former Minister of Science and Education in Croatia. He succeeded Alain Terrenoire, who led the union from 2004 to 2025 and is a former French Member of Parliament and MEP. Terrenoire now serves as Honorary President. The current vice president is Walburga Habsburg Douglas, a former member of the Swedish Parliament. The General Secretariat is located in Munich, with branches across Europe. Member organisations are spread over the continent, in a roster running from Albania to Ukraine. As of 2023, the Paneuropean Union Parliamentary Group in the European Parliament had over 120 members from nearly all of the EU Member States. That group meets regularly in Strasbourg whenever the Parliament is in session.

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