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[…] In a certain way I think the European integration is a victim of its
own success.We have achieved what we wanted to achieve.We have
achieved political and economic stability. And in particular we have
achieved a political system in Europe that, even if it is
a complicated, not always very transparent and
sometimes even boring system, it guarantees peace.
We should not forget that the core of the European
integration project is peace. It is a political project. It is not an economic
project. But it is not only peace. I think the younger people today
need another explanation, another justification why we need
European integration. And I want to say that we have to make it very
clear that we cannot meet the challenges of the future on our own.
The European nation state is not strong enough and not big enough
to tackle that. So we have to stay together, we have to co-operate,
we have to co-ordinate our politics, we have to harmonise. And in
that sense the European integration project is also a welfare project
and a progress project. The constitutional crisis that we have seen
– in my view – is only the tip of the iceberg. And it should be used
to address the real issues, to ask the right questions and to find
convincing answers. […]
[…] And that, of course, is finally the role of the media. I think it
makes no sense to preach in the church that you should go to the
church. So I resist the temptation to tell you – the media people
– what you have to do. But I have to say that in our modern society
the media has a very, very particular responsibility, also for the
European idea. And I hope that the event today – and the events
which will follow – will help us to communicate better, to explain
better and to convince people that Europe – and acknowledging
all the problems, the mistakes and the deficits – […] that at the end
of the day the idea of European integration is the best idea that
we have ever developed in our history. […] |
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