Strasbourg, 14/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a resolutely determined speech on Tuesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler, urged Europe to dip into the pool of characteristic ”creative restlessness” (a term running through his speech) and idealism of its youth to overcome the current gloom and to spring back to life again. “Why, so soon after reunification”, is Europe showing itself to be so “disunited”?, the German president asked. Considering that “Europe will always be full of creative impatience”, he was confident that it will be able to face up to future challenges “yet again”. Thus, he recalled, thirty years ago, the Dutch foreign minister, Van der Stoel, had said that, in a Europe in full institutional and economic crisis, it would be more appropriate to replace the three key words - “completion, deepening and enlargement” - by “breakdown, hitch and flight”. Twenty years ago, the European Single Act opened the road to the internal market, and ten years ago, the internal market objectives had for the most part been attained. In the meantime, single currency has been a success, added Mr Köhler (Ed: who, like the then Secretary of State Chancellor Kohl, had very energetically urged for single currency at a time when, in Germany, it was scarcely popular).
Europe has therefore demonstrated that it is “able to transform challenges into opportunities”, the German president said, warning however that conditions have to be met. First of all he said to applause “he who weakens the internal market through protectionism harms himself (…), he does not know the dimension of global competition and gives his citizens a false glimpse of security” as, in the long term, this limits Europe's capacity to assert its place in the world, to create jobs with a view to the future and to obtain social balance. Another condition is that of respecting subsidiarity, and Mr Köhler welcomes the work of legislative simplification launched by Commissioner Barroso, mainly because the European decision-making processes remain obscure to citizens. At the same time, he sounds a note of caution, saying: “but citizens do not only want to be spectators that understand (…), they want to be heard, and want to be able to take the initiative”. “Subsidiarity, transparency, democratic participation, the citizens' right to initiative: all that is in the constitutional treaty (…) and the Treaty contains far more besides that is good and just. And we should not give this up lightly, all the more as over fourteen member States have already ratified the treaty”. Applauded by most MEPs and booed by the eurosceptics, Mr Köhler went on to say that Europe is now in a reflection phase, but that we should also “speak seriously and in concrete terms among ourselves, in the European institutions and in the parties, as well as in the public (…). Diversity and creativity can but help the European debate, and one thing should count above all: the strength of just arguments”. According to Horst Köhler, “citizens are also pleased when the Union sets itself new objectives and takes measures that make the life of Europeans easier and safer. The most recent and striking example is that of energy policy (…). In this question, we need good decisions rapidly”.
President Köhler cited an example of a successful debate with citizens, with young citizens this time, during the meeting that he hosted in Dresden, in order to pursue the dialogue opened by the former Portuguese president, Sampaio, precisely with Mr Sampaio and the presidents of Austria, Finland, Italy, Hungary and Latvia, with a hundred students from seven countries of Europe. These young people were ”well prepared”. They had drawn up their “Dresden demands for the cohesion of Europe”, Mr Köhler said, adding: they have in mind a single electoral law, they want a House of European History, they want the EU to devote 5% of its GDP (instead of 3% according to policy makers) to research and development, they call for a European army and for a European civil service. This idealism and enthusiasm have “much of the enthusiasm shown by those who rebuilt Europe after the war (…) and it is typical of the creative restlessness” of Europe, Mr Köhler said. He went on to conclude that some of these students had seized the opportunity provided by the Erasmus programme. Jacques Delors had suggested creating “a European cheque for education, and I found the idea is excellent. Let us follow this example set by youth”.
President Borrell had welcomed President Köhler as the “European paradigm”, telling him that he had told him of his experience as a refugee child who returned to a destroyed country, then of his experience abroad (Ed.: mainly at the head of the International Monetary Fund), so that he has seen Europe from both the inside and the outside and has always combined word with deed.