Brussels, 13/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Unity and solidarity are the best EU response to the various crises we are going through. Such was the message delivered by Polish President Bronis³aw Komorowski in a speech before the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday 13 September. His two-part address - one part on the historical background and the other on modern times - thus highlighted the challenges facing the EU today, engendered by the various current economic difficulties, for example the situation in Greece. The EU must confront these challenges and find answers. Komorowski spoke of the path that his own political career had taken - from conspiracy against a regime that denied him the right of freedom of expression to the present day when, as the president of Poland now a member of the EU, he addresses a Parliament that is de facto and de jure fully European. He recalled the vast amount of work that has had to be done to build the common house of Europe - an edifice built despite the many difficulties, differences and conflicts. He added: “We understood that diversity is a chance and an asset”. The road covered by Europe, marked by enormous breakthroughs as well as major sacrifices, must be a guide to show that they are all inexorably linked in a common destiny, he said. Today, Komorowski finds that three fundamental projects are part of that destiny: (1) a common policy for foreign affairs, security and defence; (2) the Schengen area; and (3) economic and monetary union. The Polish president's historical account of the construction of Europe allowed him to highlight not only the gravity of the current situation but also to indicate the road that must be followed to overcome it. Thus, although history does not provide a ready-made answer for everything, it nonetheless serves as an indicator of what is right, he said. And, in this case, one of the essential values on which the EU is built is solidarity, which in turn implies the community's strengthened unity. “We are at a turning point today, the most difficult time since the beginning of European integration”, Komorowski said in order to underline the importance of the stakes surrounding the single currency. If the euro were to be abandoned, then it might be the beginning of the EU's decline, he warned. The euro crisis does not bring integration into question, he said, but rather reveals a certain dysfunction. He asked whether, in future, one should perhaps demand that deeper integration be possible only with those states with a sound and strong national economy, thus clearly stressing the possibility of multi-speed integration. In order to safeguard the fundamental achievement that is the euro, the Polish president, while designating the Parliament as the “guarantor of European solidarity”, directly called on MEPs to adopt as rapidly as possible the legislative proposals relating to economic governance and the so-called “six pack” proposals. Far from being just a rescue solution, the package in question is a real opportunity, Komorowski said, to allow the EU to be strengthened, pushing political integration further through better economic and financial coordination, and thus avoid disastrous social consequences. “More Europe - that is our answer to the crisis”, the Polish president concluded. (J.K./transl.jl)