Federal Union is a Pro-European British group launched in November 1938, to advocate a Federal Union of Europe as a post-war aim. The founders of the organisation were Charles Kimber (1912-2008), Derek Rawnsley and Patrick Ransome. Other noted members of Federal Union included Harold Wilson, Barbara Wootton, C. E. M. Joad, Stephen King-Hall and Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian. In 1940 the group set up a Federal Union Research Institute (FURI), chaired by William Beveridge, to discuss the direction of post-war European integration. FURI attracted contributors from across the political spectrum, including F.A. Hayek, J. B. Priestley, H. N. Brailsford, Lionel Robbins and Arnold Toynbee.
In 1956 it argued for British participation in the European Economic Community. It continues to exist today, arguing for federalism for the whole of Europe and the world.
Its description of federalism is that it divides political power between levels of government to achieve the best combination of democracy and effectiveness. Federalism is not the bureaucratic centralisation of popular myth.
Federal Union believes that democracy and the rule of law should apply between states as well as within them. Federal Union is also the British section of the Union of European Federalists and of the World Federalist Movement.