Turkey is doing an enormous amount in the refugee question, but it can't continue to pay for everything by itself. That is why we have to talk to Turkey about money.

Before we talk about further accessions, we have to consolidate the European Union internally. People are increasingly losing faith in the EU's effectiveness.

In 2003, Helmut Schmidt said: Predatory capitalism exists, we have to civilize it and we can do that via Europe. He was right. We haven't tried hard enough.

You have to let the people vote when it comes to a new constitution.

Solidarity is the fundamental idea of European cooperation. If a country feels itself to be militarily threatened and calls for soldiers, weapons and sanctions, then that's what it gets. When governments say they need money from the structural funds to stabilize their economy, that's what they get. But you can't cherry pick solidarity.

There are surely people in London who would love to play us off against each other. That would be disastrous for the EU.

The problem with us EU politicians is that we approach everything with cool rationality, and then wonder why we don't win people over emotionally.