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La Gisconda and Blair-child, by EU Greco. With a little help from Francesco Raibolini (15th Century)
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Rootless cosmopolitans like me should be the first to buy into the great dream of European integration. I am such a through-and-through European, so how come I am so unconvinced by the grand dreams of the European superstate?
Here's the deal. I absolutely buy the dream of a dynamic, highly-integrated Europe, in which Europe's citizens can enjoy the benefits of social and economic scale on a continental level. But only if it can be built without coercing them into giving up core elements of their self-governance, culture and democratic representation.
Rather than bore on about subsidiarity, however, and no-taxation-without-representation, here is my collection of Euroquotes.
"[Signatory States are] determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe."
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Preamble to the Treaty of Rome which established the EEC on 25 March 1957. My italics.
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"This treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe…"
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Treaty of Maastricht, 12 February 1992. It's signature is regarded by hardcore Eurosceptics as a monumental lapse of judgement by Margaret Thatcher. The old Treaty of Rome formula 'ever closer union' replaced the words 'Union with a Federal goal', which were present in draft versions of the treaty put forward by the Luxembourg presidency in June 2001 (sssssss!). My italics.
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"A signal must be sent ... that a single market and a single currency is not the end of the EU journey."
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Viktor Klima, Social Democrat Chancellor of Austria 1997-2000. 24 October 1998
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"The process of Union is like the Rhine flowing to the sea. Anyone who stands in its way is crushed against the river bank".
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Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor 1982-1988, who presided over reunification of Germany but whose legacy was tarnished by a massive party financing scandal. Speech in 1994.
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"The enlargement we are talking about [from 15 to 25 EU member states] is not just any enlargement, but rather a decisive step towards the unification of the continent, a change in nature and in scale"
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Pierre Moscovici, French Minister Delegate for European Affairs. Address to the students of the Ecole Polytechmique, Palaiseau, 31st January 2000.
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"There are thsoe today who want to scrap the supranational idea. They want the European Union to go back to the old purely intergovernmental way of doing things. I say those people should come to Teresin and see where that old road leads."
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Margot Wallström arguing that the EU is the only thing standing between Europe and the concentration camps in a speech at the 60th anniversary of VE day at the site of the Teresin (Theresienstadt) ghetto. Her staff claim the last sentence was drafted but not delivered.
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TB: "How can you defend the common agricultural policy and then claim to be a supporter of aid to Africa? Failing to reform the CAP means being responsible for the starvation of the world's poor."
JC: "You have been very rude and I have never been spoken to like this before. You have been very badly brought up. You are calling me a demagogue and a hypocrite".
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Exchange between Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair after a disagreement on the need for agricultural reform, October 2002.
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If you have an authenticated quotation on Europe, the EEC or the EU that you think should be listed here, then email me .
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