Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-18-Speech-3-071"
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"en.20090218.20.3-071"2
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"− Mr President, 70 years ago, Mr Chamberlain came back from Munich waving a piece of paper and saying ‘peace for our time’. Well, we know how wrong he was, and we also know that wishful thinking is a deadly substitute for realism. Today, on this issue, we have to be brutally honest. The EU has been incredibly successful in peacemaking. The events of the Second World War gave birth to the EU.
I am very happy that Mr Solana is here today because finally we have this phone number for the EU. Mr Solana has this number, which Mr Kissinger asked for years ago.
But what kinds of means are we – Member States and politicians – giving to Mr Solana? That is the question.
We have a financial crisis now, which did not fall on us from the sky. It was very much self-inflicted. We are talking about the toxic assets of banks and how we have to clear them. Perhaps this is also the time to ask: what are the toxic assets and what are the obstacles to our peacemaking, our
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We have to move on – the EU has to move on in its peacebuilding. The world is changing so fast around us. The biggest obstacle is that we simply do not have a vision. We are day-to-day politicians who are short-sighted. Immobility is our big problem. The world is changing around us, faster than we can react. What is the result of inefficient and failing security policies? Human suffering, dead bodies, mutilated people and atrocities. Even if those people do not vote for us, we have to care for them because they are our brothers and sisters in the human family.
On 2 April 1917, President Wilson said, ‘a steadfast concert of peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations’. President Wilson was awarded a Nobel Prize – which he deserved much more than Al Gore.
We in the EU do not realise what kinds of tools we have in our mosaic composition of 27 countries. That gives us a unique tool in peacemaking. Perhaps some people do not like the French, others do not like the Germans, and perhaps some people do not like the Finns, even – but I think everybody likes the Finns! – but, when we are together, 27 countries, nobody can say that they hate the EU. Therefore, the unique ability we have enables us to go to any crisis spot and be a doctor or a referee. But without the military capacity, without military credibility, we are like a dog whose bark is worse than its bite. We have idealism but we do not equip ourselves with the means to reach those targets.
Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot:
as the French say. Now, Mr Obama is the new President of the United States and he values Europe – he says that we are important allies. What do we have to do? We have to get our act together.
Already, 94% of the European population is in NATO, and only 6% are outside. Why do we not use it more efficiently? We owe that to the people, because it is our duty to alleviate human suffering; it is our ethical duty and it is in our long-term interest. Only by following in the footsteps of our forefathers can we be faithful to the EU’s inheritance and make the inevitable inconceivable – and that is what peacemaking means."@en1
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"Il faut battre le fer tant qu’il est chaud"1
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