Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-11-Speech-3-127"
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"en.20050511.16.3-127"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, honourable Members, dear friends, it is a great honour for me to represent the Commission in this ceremony in this Parliament that represents Europeans. Today we are looking back at the past and looking forward to the future. We are here to remember, to acknowledge and to build.
However, that, luckily, was not the end of the story. What European leaders of the 1940s and 1950s constructed was a light and a magnet: a light through dark years for those who had no prospect of the peace, prosperity and stability that other Europeans enjoyed, and an extraordinary, powerful force of attraction for those peoples and countries that were breaking free and saw the European Community – as it was called then – as a catalyst for the transformation of their countries.
For my generation, Europe was always synonymous with democracy. As an 18-year-old, I, with others, was determined to set my own country free from a deadening, authoritarian, backward regime. That is why I and many people of my generation especially admire the extraordinary efforts of the peoples of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania and Bulgaria to fight for democracy, and how they relate the very idea of Europe to that of democracy. It should be, and is, with enormous pride that the European Union and its institutions embrace those new Members and peoples, as well as those of Malta and Cyprus.
So this transformation is worthy of recognition and commemoration. Why? Because it appears at times to be almost forgotten. Today it is too easy to take for granted the firm foundations of the new Europe in which we live, a Europe of freedom and shared values.
That is why we must state: the European Union cannot be the victim of its own success. Integrating such a variety of Members, which are united by a common project, is a truly extraordinary achievement. The challenge that we are all facing is an extraordinary one. I am convinced that implementing this tremendous project, which will soon incorporate 27 countries and 500 million people, will take place in spite of the stormy periods that will inevitably occur from time to time.
This implementation sometimes takes place so peacefully, however, that we run the risk of forgetting what preceded it. From now on, the accounts of murderous conflicts ravaging Europe appear to be confined to the history books. They were making the headlines as recently as 10 years ago, however, when massacres were taking place in certain Balkan countries.
We can say ‘never again!’ on our continent. It is easy to say, but the history of Europe proves that we have to work towards peace and not take it for granted. This is without doubt hardly a cheerful outlook, as today in Europe, problems and fears exist. In Berlin, in the large building that once housed what the Democratic Republic of Germany called its Parliament, is inscribed the word
which means doubts. Doubts and fears exist, particularly amongst young people. Their fears are serious: the fear of finding or not finding a job, and the fear of a more competitive world that is sometimes perceived as a challenge. The fear, however, is that of finding or not finding a job, and not the fear of finding or not finding one’s own country.
At present, it is sensible to find an effective means of solving the difficulties linked to the integration of markets, whether the difficulties are real or only perceived as such. It is not a question of armed conflicts between competitors who become adversaries or enemies. That is why in confronting these fears, we have to follow the example of the generations before us; we have to show the same imagination and the same courage. Let us recall that the ambitious partnership that we concluded in Europe has been the source of peaceful revolutions, which have brought freedom and democracy to millions of Europeans!
The European example – the Europe of the Six, of the Ten, of the Twelve, of the Fifteen and now of the Twenty-five – has been the true driving force behind democratisation in Southern Europe, in Latin America and later in Central and Eastern Europe. Let us remember that liberty is the driving force which stimulates growth, employment and investment, and which offers a greater number of Europeans the chance of a better life.
The spirit of democracy and modernity in our societies is testament to our capacity to reinvent our continent. From its internal market to its external borders, from the promotion of internal cohesion to the protection of sustainable development and the environment, from the solidarity dimension to that of justice in all four corners of the globe – as we are not seeking a Europe that is closed in on itself – the European Union is constantly building Europe. It does so in concrete stages that improve the everyday lives of our people. Ratifying the Constitution will strengthen these undertakings and will lay the foundations for ever more significant advances in the future.
Let us therefore remember today that appalling war and its consequences. In our work focused on the future, let us take our inspiration from the visionary ambition and the determination of the leaders and the citizens who preceded us, from reconciliation to cooperation and from cooperation to the European Union!
Let us first look at the past. The greatest worldwide conflict was the source of mixed feelings among all those who survived it; a source of relief for many, a source of emptiness, for sure, and often a source of fear of the future, fear that the post-war world might not be better – and might in fact be worse – than what went before.
We therefore remember. We remember the scale of destruction that particularly ravaged Europe. Hardly any country emerged unscathed. What some have referred to as the ‘European civil war’ was witness to the inhumanity that man is capable of visiting on man. We Europeans often feel proud of the great achievements of our civilisation and our culture, of the great triumphs of the European spirit, yet we must humbly acknowledge that some of the worst horrors that the human race has ever perpetrated took place in Europe during the 20th century.
However, we should also remember the great stories of triumph over adversity, the personal journeys which so many Europeans made to find a better life, some crossing mountains and seas to reach their goal of a happy, peaceful existence. Some found it simply by returning home. We remember those who did not have that chance, those for whom the light of freedom went out almost as soon as they saw it; those for whom one nightmare was replaced by another.
Let us recognise that something remarkable came out of the ruins of Europe in 1945. Let me give you a quote from one of the visionaries of that time, speaking in Zurich in 1946. He said: ‘I am now going to say something that will astonish you. The first step in the recreation of the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany. In this way only can France recover the moral and cultural leadership of Europe. There can be no revival of Europe without [...] a spiritually great Germany’. Churchill was right. It is easy to forget now the courage it took to say those words at that time. What he said was astonishing.
Even more astonishing were the deeds that turned those words into reality. We should remember the extraordinary determination shown by Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi and others and what they achieved, reconstructing rather than retreating into retribution. We should also remember and recognise the vision of transatlantic leaders who helped shoulder the burden of reconstruction rather than turning their backs on it.
Before we get too carried away, let us pause, because what the founding fathers started was remarkable but incomplete. As the Commission said in its declaration of 9 May: for millions, true freedom was only to come with the fall of the Berlin Wall, not the end of the Second World War. After 1945 they lost their liberties and opportunities almost as soon as they had regained them. In some cases they lost political control of their countries; in others, they lost their independence. For many people in Europe the end of the war meant peace and freedom; but for some it meant only peace, not yet freedom.
We should not forget what Europe was. Sixty years ago here on this continent we experienced the Holocaust. About 30 years ago several countries in southern Europe, including my own, were still living under dictatorships. Until about 15 years ago half of Europe did not enjoy freedom and democracy. That is why I have difficulty in understanding how we can fail to be optimistic about the future of Europe when we see where Europe is now compared to where it was only a few years ago."@en1
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