r/YUROP • u/Luksius_DK • Feb 09 '26
What should be the capital of a European Federation?
For clarification: I’m not talking about EU, but a full European Federation including all of Europe
•
u/stichen97 Norge/Noreg Feb 09 '26
My hometown with a population of 16k.
•
•
u/lietuvislt1 Lietuva Feb 09 '26
Panevėžys
•
•
u/Araz99 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Geriau Balbieriškis, tada Europa turėtų sostinę gražiu skambiu pavadinimu.
Dar labai tiktų tas pavadinimas iš Š raidės, kaip ten... Ai prisiminiau. Rumšiškės!
•
•
u/Dazzling_Ad8519 [ SLAVA UKRAINI ] Feb 09 '26
Switzerland does not have a capital, I don't see why a European Federation would need one.
•
•
u/Parcours97 Deutschland Feb 09 '26
Luxembourg. Completely dependent on the EU and one of the most european countries/cities imo.
•
•
u/DieMensch-Maschine UNA IN DIVERSITATE Feb 09 '26
Lübeck, the old capital of the Hanseatic League, ie, the first draft of the European Union.
•
u/Filbsmo_Atlas Yuropean Feb 09 '26
Would be hilarious! But dont crush the nice "altstadt" with huge modern EU institution buildings, courts and parliamental complexes please.
•
u/DieMensch-Maschine UNA IN DIVERSITATE Feb 09 '26
That's why they should make a "neustadt" with all the "huge modern EU institution buildings, courts and parliamental complexes." Then have a shiny, modern transit system connecting the two.
•
u/Filbsmo_Atlas Yuropean Feb 09 '26
Okay, but please make the "huge modern EU institution buildings, courts and parliamental complexes" with a modern-neo-hanseatic-fachwerk-brick architectural style.
•
u/DieMensch-Maschine UNA IN DIVERSITATE Feb 09 '26
All about that. I grew up in an old Hansa town full of that characteristic red-brick, high medieval Gothic architecture (church, city walls, etc), which then witnessed a nineteenth century neogothic revival (post office, courthouse, railway station, etc).
This has been done before; there are many templates on how to proceed.
•
u/Filbsmo_Atlas Yuropean Feb 09 '26
I was actually about to write "neogothic" and decided for neo-hanseactic in the last second to double down. ^^ I just see one issue with the line of arguments there since as you know the hanseatic league was more about cities and traders than countries states and global affairs. Damn, I am all over that Idea anyways.
•
u/DieMensch-Maschine UNA IN DIVERSITATE Feb 09 '26
They never made it that far. The first draft was just slinging herring, amber and timber, and then making sure all that shit didn't get robbed.
•
•
•
•
u/CommanderGumball Canada Feb 09 '26
Ottawa!
Really I don't care if it's headquartered here, just let us in! It's cold out here!
•
•
u/AerospaceTechNerd Österreich Feb 09 '26
Hamburg: It's the largest city that is not a national capital or has previous associations (like St. Petersburg or Istanbul both of which were Imperial capitals).
•
u/mbrevitas Italia Feb 09 '26
Interesting criterion. By population within city limits it's Hamburg, but city limits are arbitrary. By metropolitan area population, the largest non-capital (ignoring Istanbul and St Petersburg) is the Rhine-Ruhr area if it counts as one, or one between the Ruhr urban area alone, Milan and Barcelona depending on which numbers one takes. Milan arguably was the capital of the western Roman empire, although I think de jure the capital was always Rome, and also the Roman empire hasn't been around for a while, unlike Russia and Turkey.
•
•
•
•
u/Grzechoooo Polska Feb 09 '26
Definitely something outside the former lands of Francia for once, preferably to the east to limit the domination of Western Europe. Prague seems nice.
•
u/Trandul Česko Feb 09 '26
It would be cool, but rent in Prague is already insane. Becoming a European capital would add hundreds of thousands of residents.
•
u/Paradehengst Feb 09 '26
Do we need one? Decentralize the institutions. We have high speed communications into almost every backwater in Europe. No need to centralize everything. And as for European culture... I mean, why change what we have. Just make travel between major cultural hotspots better and voila!
•
u/No_Demand9554 Sverige Feb 10 '26
came here to say this! Surprised I had to scroll so far down to find your comment.
•
•
•
•
•
u/Salpicona1 Portugal Feb 09 '26
Rome! Let's revive the Roman Empire!
•
u/EtteRavan País federal Occitan Feb 10 '26
Quite a few tried that, never ended well (nor began tbf)
•
•
u/_Un_Known__ Brejoiner to the very end Feb 09 '26
Brussels cause all the institutions are already there, however there could be a multi capital system ala South Africa
•
u/fnordius Bayern Feb 09 '26
We already have Strasbourg as the legislative capital, Brussels can house the executive, and perhaps The Hague can be the judicial capital, next to the ICC?
•
u/urbanmember Nordrhein-Westfalen Feb 09 '26
"Eastern" Europe deserves some time to shine, let Prague become the International Center of european culture, diplomacy and prosperity
•
u/Jaded-Asparagus-2260 Deutschland Feb 09 '26
Either Bratislava or Kraków. They're nearest to the center, including Ukraine (but not White Russia).
•
•
•
u/aixPenta Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Feb 09 '26
Basel. City is at the intersection of 3 countries to limit favoritism and more central than Brussel
•
u/Omochanoshi Feb 09 '26
Why a capital ?
Disperse everything everywhere, so nobody is far from the center and everybody is close to the center.
And this adds a pretty strong resilience in case of Russian problem.
•
•
•
•
u/hg070 Feb 09 '26
I mean if Switzerland is also a part of it, Geneva feels like a better Brussels. More central and more neutral. Seems nice
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 09 '26
F
E
D
E
R
A
L
I
Z
A
C
J
A
T
E
R
A
Z
❗
Do you like CvriaBOT? CvriaBOT loves you!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
•
•
•
u/Extreme-Radio-348 Feb 09 '26
Stockholm or Copenhagen – To establish a new course, we need to relocate existing institutions to new locations in order to break the status quo. The Nordic EU countries have demonstrated stronger capabilities for cooperation than many Western countries, which I would describe as comparatively slow and bureaucratic.
•
u/3vr1m Deutschland Feb 09 '26
inho it shouldnt be a city which is already a national capital. Also it should be somewhat central, Munich would come to my mind
•
u/Araz99 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Prague or Vienna, because of central position. Also Bratislava would be good choice because of the same reason.
•
u/hungarianretard666 O1G Feb 09 '26
What about building a completely new capital on the Austria-Slovakia-Hungary tri-border? Can't get more central than that
•
u/lifeOfColors Feb 09 '26
You don't want it to be Prague. Building code here is stupid and it would lead European Federation backwards
•
u/lemontolha Yuropean 🌹🗽 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
Brussels of course. But I found Léon Krier's idea of building a 50.000 people "Eupolis" as an EU capital city using human scale architecture in traditional forms on an island of the Rhine near Fessenheim between France and Germany quite interesting.
•
•
u/Neon_44 Helvetia Feb 09 '26
Geneva.
Switzerland is a perfect example of how to run a multilingual and multicultural country. Might as well keep that expertise close by.
•
•
•
u/Flying_Frenchy Feb 10 '26
Strasbourg-Koln would be a nice option. Sitting on each bank of the Rhine river, once symbol of tension, now symbol of unity.
•
•
u/OkNewspaper6271 "Great" Shitain Feb 10 '26
Brussels is easiest, Luxembourg is probably the epitome of a potential European capital, but we could probably just make a new capital
•
u/Thedanishnerd98 Feb 10 '26
Strandby in northern Denmark is the best town for being the capital of the euro union, any other place would simply be ridiculous. Strandby has the best culture accent and the 2500 people are awesome.
•
u/TheGoalkeeper Feb 10 '26
If it wasn't for the infrastructure already in place, I would definitely say Vienna. But, another idea would be, to not have the (former) capital of a single state as the capital of the European Federation. Something like Frankfurt could be a good option too. Very central, easy to travel to, etc
•
u/pr1ncezzBea Yuropean Feb 10 '26
My serious take.
Brussels
Pro: There are already a lot of institutions
Con: It is at the limit of capacity and does not meet security requirements. The Belgians would have to delegate a lot of the agenda to federal entities, which is not certain that they would like.
Vienna
Pros: Position in the middle, already hosts a lot of institutions.
Cons: Vienna is a complete security mess and a hotbed of Russian agents already.
Prague
Pros: Position in the middle. Historically served as the capital of the HRE, it would be a nice continuation.
Cons: There is not much space. A new district would have to be built for the institutions, which would be lengthy, because the Czechs hate change and are extremely NIMBY.
Geneva
Pros: There are already a lot of institutions there.
Cons: There is not enough space for the normal functioning of a capital city and everything is expensive. Plus, the Swiss probably wouldn't want it anyway.
Rome
Pros: Capital of the cradle of European civilization.
Cons: Location. I also have doubts about the Italian organization.
•
u/caledonivs Nouvelle-Aquitaine Feb 10 '26
Brussels should be an independent capital district.
•
•
u/Real-Feedback-6004 Feb 10 '26
I think Maastricht should be the capital of Europe, because is not a capital of a state like the cities of Luxemburg or Bruxelles, and has an important rapresetative images (treat of Maastricht - born of UE). I also know that is not a big city like Paris, Berlin or Rome, and dont have istutuzional structures (that can be constructed in little time) like a parliament, but the central position in the continent and the value as an european city, make Maastricht an ideal capital.
•
•
u/GinofromUkraine Feb 10 '26
Vienna of course, it's a city with lots of palaces/buildings made for EMPIRE that are too big for it. Famously, the parlament main hall is not used cause it's too big, it was built for parliamentarians of Austria-Hungary....
BUT what I wrote above is a purely rational thought. In fact now Austria is a bad place for any EU institutions cause most of Austrians vote either for a pro-Russian, corrupt, scummy extreme-right FPÖ or a milder version of it - ÖVP. Austrian Nazis were never punished like German ones but it's a separate story. A lot of pathetic and really sad little-country (less than 10 million people) political vibes there among the common folk. Although specifically the "it's all immigrants' fault" theme seems to be a sickness that reigns even in much bigger Western countries.
•
u/UnsureAndUnqualified Yuropean Federalist Feb 11 '26
I think we should have several capitals. One for the legislative, one for military command, one housing the highest court(s), one responsible for cooperation of police forces, one for foreign relations, etc.
Something like this:
Legislative: Copenhagen or Vienna
Military: Bern or Paris
Judicative: Athens or Oslo
Police: Madrid or London
Foreign Relations: Brussels or Rome
Just, as a German: Whatever we decide, don't put anything in Berlin. Give us the ministry for road sign regulations if you need to, but nothing more than that.
•
•
u/CorgiRepresentative2 Feb 11 '26
Roma because let’s honest it has been 2000 y since we want to restore the Roman Empire.
•
u/SixSevenEmpire Grand-Est Feb 14 '26
It should be Strasbourg, there's already a lot of EU institions here
•
u/No_Cardiologist_822 Feb 09 '26
prague, because it's the only one in the list that doesn't smell like piss.
•
u/Trandul Česko Feb 09 '26
Oh, buddy, you have no idea. Go for a walk around Žižkov sometimes. Saturday mornings are the best. :D
•
u/No_Cardiologist_822 Feb 09 '26
I take note for my czech buddies who constantly praise their country :D
•
•
•
Feb 09 '26
Why not change it every 4 years?
•
u/jojoga Feb 09 '26
because money.
•
Feb 09 '26
They could make it a big marketing event like the expo where the town/city that is the capital for the period is made into a big deal. I bet it would be profitable but probably very chaotic to impliment.
•
u/Wuz314159 Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch Feb 09 '26
All of the government buildings could be inflatable trailers like in Le Tour de France. Capital moves from town to town every day. It could work!!!
•
•
•
•
u/Delicious-Gap1744 Danmark Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 09 '26
So many institutions are already in Brussels, moving them would be costly, so that makes the most sense realistically.
But if we were starting all over, with new buildings and everything, then Prague or Vienna are better locations imo, because they're more central.
They're almost in the exact middle of the union, and close to the old East/West divide, that still exists to some extent. Good way to bridge the gap and make the east feel more included.