Contrary to what people say, my wife never turned me away from the presidency. She told me to reflect on it and do what I wanted.

The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way.

We have to struggle against the conservatives from all sides, not only the right-wingers, but also the left-wing conservatives who don't want to change anything.

Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished.

My objective is that before the end of the millennium Europe should have a true federation. The Commission should become a political executive which can define essential common interests... responsible before the European Parliament and before the nation-states represented how you will, by the European Council or by a second chamber of national parliaments.

This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments.

The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility.