On Wednesday 10 April, King Philippe of Belgium spoke at a formal sitting to open the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels. In front of a full hemicycle, he pleaded for a Europe that is “the driving force behind the geopolitics of humanity” and called for lessons to be drawn from past crises.
“At every crisis, at every moment of transition, we testify to our unity and resoluteness. But the European Union is more than just crisis management. It must be driven forward by a long-term vision”, he told MEPs.
The sovereign called on Europeans to work together “decisively” to reindustrialise Europe, focusing on the ‘green’ and digital revolutions.
“If the European budget does not allow us to bring this about, we need to dare to consider other avenues of financing. Investing requires a long-term vision and a robust and benign regulatory framework”, he added, describing the single market as insufficiently harmonised in terms of economic governance, capital markets, research and innovation.
“We do not want to be sleepwalkers”, he stressed, quoting the founding fathers Jean Monnet and Jacques Delors, at a time when the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council and the Eurogroup have for several weeks been stressing the “urgency” of completing the capital markets union in order to boost European competitiveness in the current geopolitical context (see EUROPE 13377/3).
The King of the Belgians called for European unity in the fight against climate change: “The more we make our energy consumption renewable, the less dependent we are on imported energy”.
The sovereign spoke of the security of Europeans, “particularly in these uncertain times, when even long-standing alliances are coming under pressure” as well as social issues, stressing the importance of the European pillar of social rights proclaimed in 2017 and its “robust social justice mechanisms” specific to the EU.
Finally, the King called for the defence of democracy in the face of autocratic tendencies. “Democracy is not only a guarantee of freedom and justice, but also of human values, including our capacity to feel indignation in the face of the suffering of people caught up in inhumane wars”, he declared before receiving a standing ovation from the European hemicycle.
See the speech by King Philippe of Belgium: https://aeur.eu/f/bp1 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)