In all of my encounters with voters, I have repeatedly been confronted with two points of critique. First: You politicians are all the same! Second: You politicians may be speaking German, but we still don't understand you!

If cooperation among governments were the superior concept for progress in Europe, I'd be onboard immediately. But the problem is that cooperation isn't working.

I try to speak in a manner that allows people to tell me apart from my political adversaries. And I speak in a manner that the people can understand. For me, that isn't populism.

In the days before the vote, I bet that the British would stay in the EU.

European policy is always an interplay of rationality and emotion.

I'm not a populist. But I try to present complicated issues in such a way that people know where I stand.

For many people, politics in Brussels and Strasbourg might as well be happening on another planet.