Without the Turkey agreement, tens of thousands of refugees would still be stuck in Greece. The Commission presented proposals for securing Europe's external borders early on, but they languished in the Council for months. As you can see, the Commission isn't asleep. Oftentimes it has to wake up the others.

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.

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 always quite amazed that people in Europe become unnerved when two institutions or two people have different views.

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.

The outcome of the referendum does not affect those of my officials who have British nationality, since they work for Europe and not for the UK. They have made a major contribution to our common European project, and I will continue to count on their talent and commitment.

During our religious instruction in school, we always asked: How can one prove the existence of God? And I have learned that the Catholic Church, which is never at a loss for an answer when it comes to existential questions, responds as follows: This question simply does not arise.