Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Those who are saying that Mario Draghi is in the camp of those trying to push Greece outside the Euroarea, are wrong.
I'm always quite amazed that people in Europe become unnerved when two institutions or two people have different views.
I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious ... I am for secret, dark debates.
Anyone who believes that the eternal question of war and peace in Europe is no longer there risks being deeply mistaken.
We shouldn't persuade people that we can simply conjure up the sun and the moon: at the most, we can deliver a telescope.
The good thing about the European Union is that the joint project ultimately benefits all Member States and not just a few.
However painful or regrettable Brexit may be, it will not stop the E.U. as it moves to the future; we need to move forward.
I completely agree with Helmut Kohl. I am not an advocate of the "United States of Europe," nor am I an integration fanatic.
In the highest government office, you have to be ready to bow out at any time, otherwise you are not a free individual anymore.
Forgetting the importance of national landscapes, cultures, national behaviours, reactions, and reflexes is a big, big mistake.
In politics, there are different categories of friendship. My friendship with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, for example .
We must also take this opportunity to learn from the situation [of Brexit], just as we learned from the refugee and debt crises.
I'm convinced that, in the long term, a monetary union includes a joint debt policy under strict, mutually agreed upon conditions.
I am in favor of the European institutions being led for the next two-and-a-half years as they have been thus far. We need stability.
I assumed office to bring the EU to a point from which there is no going back. Instead, I am having to unwind the EU to a certain extent.
I like Macron a lot and I very much welcome him - particularly the fact that he made Europe one of the main topics of the election debate.
We can't completely rely on the aberrations of history to explain today's European necessities. Future-related issues are no less pressing.
With their charm and legendary sense of humor, the British directly or indirectly paved the way for a large number of European compromises.
I would have thought that they [Boris Johnson and Nigel Farag] would have had a plan,instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat.
The populists themselves are dangerous, but they are far more dangerous when the traditional, classic parties adopt their harmful proposals.
If someone complains about Europe from Monday to Saturday then nobody is going to believe him on Sunday when he says he is a convinced European.
If someone complains about Europe from Monday to Saturday, then nobody is going to believe him on Sunday when he says he is a convinced European.
After 30 years in Brussels, I can tell you: The relationship between the Commission and the Parliament has probably never been as good as it is now.
[Boris]Johnson, [Nigel] Farage, they are retro-nationalists, not patriots. Patriots don't abandon ship when the going gets tough. They stay on board.
We no longer have the pact from 1997; it was radically amended in 2005 and the Commission is applying this Stability Pact with wisdom and rationality.
I urge everyone to be patient and reasonable and I warn against shooting from the hip in the truest sense of the term. Pressure and dialogue are needed.
Stories are invented: Juncker wants to introduce the euro everywhere or immediately deepen the EU - although I publicly stated the opposite that same day.
In the end, the British didn't vote to leave because of the euro. They're not even members of the currency union. Even the refugee crisis hardly affected the country.
I have another explanation [of Brexit]: In its 43 years of EU membership, Britain has never been able to decide whether it wants to fully or only partially belong to the EU.
Greece is not a country that can be humiliated. It is a matter of finding an intersection between the reasonable elements of both sides [EU and Greece] which has to be done.
I prefer to concentrate on my task of leading Europe to the success that our citizens expect. We have to look forwards now because what is at stake is what makes Europe Europe.
I said in my inaugural address that I am not the Council's secretary, nor am I the Parliament's lackey. That can sometimes lead to conflicts, which are defused through dialogue.
The will of the British people must now be put into effect as quickly as possible. Under Article 50 of the EU Treaty the UK must leave the European Union within two years at the latest.
The Luxembourg financial centre is based on several pillars, we are characterised by the breadth of our product range, we are an active participant in the international credit business.
In Europe, even more so than in national politics, we have to follow the principle laid down by Martin Luther: Use language that the people will understand, but don't just tell them what they want to hear.
I have met in my life two big destroyers: Gorbachev, who destroyed the Soviet Union, and Cameron, who destroyed the United Kingdom to some extent, even if there is no wave of Scotland to become independent.
This was a continent of divisions, of wars, of conflicts, of divergences, differences... When I am in Asia, in Africa, people admire what we have managed to do. Europe is beautiful seen from other continents.
My father was a steel worker and Martin's [Schulz] grandfather was a miner in Saarland. In these occupations, there is a particular awareness of solidarity. That creates links that aren't present in other relationships.
We decide on something, leave it lying around, and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back.
There is a distorted perception of what goes on in Brussels. No one reports on the Commission taking a hundred initiatives from its predecessor off the table in order to shift competencies back to member state governments.
In a union of equals, there can be no second-class consumers. I will not accept that in some parts of Europe, people are sold food of lower quality than in other countries, despite the packaging and branding being identical.
One can't allow blind loyalty to a friendship to lead one away from acting in the public interest. If Martin [Schulz] were to propose something that was totally absurd, our friendship would not prevent me from doing the opposite.
The Turks know that if they want to join the EU, then they must respect our rules. We are a union of beliefs, not a bunch of squawking chickens. But if we continue talks with Erdogan, that doesn't mean we have to bow down to him.
Germany will continue to play a central - perhaps even a more important - role in the European Union. I think that we will all miss the pragmatic approach of the British, however, particularly in those long nights of negotiation.
I have always considered it to be a minor miracle that after the war, people in Europe's border regions were able to forget everything and, in accordance with the slogan "Never Again War," develop a program that still works today.
The way some German politicians have lashed out at Greece when the country fell into the crisis has left deep wounds there. I was just as shocked by the banners of protesters in Athens that showed the German chancellor in a Nazi uniform.
I am a champion of trans-Atlantic relations and I do not believe there is any other option available to us than working closely together with America - including Canada. There is no other alliance option, but the same is true for the U.S.
In 1913 many believed that there would never again be a war in Europe. The great powers of the continent were so closely intertwined economically that the view was widespread that they could no longer afford to have military confrontations.
The European family may well be anything but perfect. But it is the best thing that we have for bringing the countries of Europe around the same table and for forging compromises so that people here can live in peace, freedom, and prosperity.
Many in Germany are saying that Macron should be helped. That's also how I see it. But Germany cannot solve France's problems. The French president and his government will have to seriously knuckle down in order to pull France out of its slump.