Here are some morsels from it:
The movement came from the people, grass roots up -- beginning with stirrings of freedom in
Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia.
What started as a flight from tyranny, evolved into the freedom of movement. Salesmen and
students, traders and tourists, men and women from East and West: all started to seize opportunities
across borders, as soon as the Wall came down. Today, after the entry of ten Central and Eastern
European states into the EU these flows of freedom have been secured. It is more than an element
of an economic Union. A space of freedom and rule of law, for restless travellers and sedentary
citizens alike: it is a sign of civilization.
In every enlargement, the Union has absorbed the shocks.
As an anchor of stability.
As a haven of prosperity and freedom.
As a guarantee of peace.
5
EN
All our countries have to deal with a new diversity. The time of the homogenous nation-state is
over. Each European country has to be open for different cultures. However, we only have one
civilization: of democracy, of individual rights, of the rule of law.
Alongside diversity -- and diversity is certainly a strength of our societies --, we still need, in each
of our societies, a sense of unity, of belonging together. This sense of unity can lie in shared values;
or in a language, a shared history, a will to live together (as Ernest Renan said). And this will
springs above all from the stories which we tell each other.
Think of the ancient Greeks: the stories of Homer created bonds throughout the centuries. They
have us spell-bound tonight. It can be stories of war and peace, of Olympic exploits or saint-like
sacrifice, of a Prison stormed or a Wall which came down.
Such stories do what a treatise on ‘values’ cannot achieve: they embody ‘virtues’ in an
understandable way, virtues shown by men and women in real situations. Courage, respect,
responsibility, tolerance, a sense of the common good.
To keep such European virtues alive, to transmit their age-old qualities to our children and
grandchildren, that will be one of the great challenges for the future.
We have to be a Union of values but also a Union of civic virtues, 'eine Wertegemeinschaft genauso
That's only in the first half - he also extols the Euro, and how good it is that if one country is struggling everybody struggles
More decisions will be 'automatic' too and that is wonderful. we will establish ‘a permanent crisis mechanism to safeguard the financial stability of
the euro area as a whole’. As President of the European Council, I will undertake consultations with
the Heads of State and Government and the Commission President on the limited treaty change
required to achieve this goal. We all want a robust and credible system to be in place in 2013.
It is our duty.
Taken together, these proposals are the biggest reform of the Economic and Monetary Union since
Lovely
