We must stress that the euro has been beneficial to the European Union because, otherwise, in this context of international turmoil, every country would have to devalue their currencies.

I think that we must come together progressively, with the British, the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians and with the new members of the European Union, we must make an effort to forge closer links.

When I see the cultural diversity that exists today, I feel that we must defend it, and we need Europe, because otherwise we are going to live in a society with a single model, the Anglo-American model.

Obviously, there is diversity, but Europe is a union of diversity.

The Europe we are in the process of building is the Europe of the 21st century; it's not the Europe of the 20th century.

Europe started out with six countries; three small countries and three large countries.

We shall say clearly that any symbol conspicuously displaying religious affiliation in school is prohibited.